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August 10, 2003
Edwards shows some weblog potential
From EdCone.com out of Greensboro, North Carolina:
Lawrence Lessig on John Edward’s toe-dip into blogging: “With one more step, he’d be in blog land. I’m not quite sure what’s holding him back. For a man who has defended affirmative action across North Carolina, this would be easy.”He’s right. Edwards has convictions, and he knows how to express himself. He could be a great blogger . But does he have the staff to pull it off?
That’s a question, not an allegation. But the staff question is critical to Edwards’ weblog prospects, and those of other candidates.
The successful Howard Dean weblog is largely written and signed by his staff. “The staffers are fantastic,” David Weinberger told me on the phone recently. “Fast and passionate. They have their own voices and aren’t over-edited.”
The Dean weblog also fits into, and helps define, the larger campaign’s culture. “The staff fundamentally thinks that way,” says Weinberger.
“Why does Dean have the only interesting, and in some ways genuine, weblog among the Democratic candidates?” he muses. “My guess: there are the 20-year-olds, saying, let me write a campaign weblog, and someone keeps saying ‘No.’ It means giving up control of their message.”
So Edwards might prove to be a better blogger than Dean, who Weinberger admits “is not a great blogger. What he writes is not usually very interesting, or very bloggy.” But if the Edwards campaign doesn’t get blog culture, he still won’t have much of a blog, and all that Dean magic he and the other candidates are chasing will continue to elude him.
Posted by Mike at August 10, 2003 11:12 PM
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Comments
I'm actually in Greensboro, but thanks for the link.
Posted by: Ed Cone at August 11, 2003 06:38 PM
My bad
Posted by: Mike at August 11, 2003 10:50 PM
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