Adam Curry and John Welch ask the hard questions of me

I’m listening to Adam Curry’s podcast today and he just asked “why the secrecy before I went with Edwards?” He also asked whether bloggers would be able to ask the tough questions? Also over on John Welch’s blog he attacked me for not reporting anything substantive.
They asked me to not write about the campaign’s announcement before I got on the bus. Why not? They wanted a big bang, just like Steve Jobs wants when he keeps everything secret until he’ll announce stuff at MacWorld.

Regarding asking the tough questions. I don’t think that’s a problem with the campaigns. I watched Edwards — over the span of three days — get asked hundreds of questions, including on what he’d do in Iraq, what he’d do regarding gay marriage, how he’d get Americans to conserve energy, and all that.

I realized within a few minutes of arriving at that house in New Orleans that I was simply not going to add any additional value over the mainstream press in reporting what he said. Come on, on that front lawn was more than a million dollars of equipment. Bloggers are supposed to compete with that? No way, no how.

So, what did I do? I just started listening. I got to know his staff instead of trying to ask a question that’d get Edwards angry or give me an answer that he wouldn’t give Matt Lauer on the Today Show.

The other thing, John, is you totally miss what I’m there to do. I’m not there to be a news source. I was there to study how campaigns are using technology. I will go to Newt Gingrich’s campaign stops, if he asks me along to study that.

Was I used by the campaign? Absolutely. I was there to give a different look at the campaign than the Washington Post or CNN could give. They wanted to be the first campaign to reach out to the social media industry. They are using more social media than any other campaign so far. Go ahead and visit Hillary’s site. Or Barack’s. Or Newt’s. Or any of the others. No one else has a Facebook site, a MySpace page, a blog, a video blog team. I haven’t seen the others do live blogging like was done over on Daily Kos this week.

Over the next week I’ll get up my own interviews and you’ll see the video I captured. I’m not that fast, but then, I don’t see my job to compete with CNN in speed. There’s no way bloggers are going to be able to do that.

There’s no way I was going to be able to give you more depth than Dan Balz, reporter for the Washington Post. He’s been covering politics since when I was in middle school. I needed a few days just to get up to speed on the political system.

Let’s go at this another way. What do you wish I would have reported? What do you want to know from me now about my experiences, and what I heard?

Keep in mind, I have lots of stuff to get up for you to watch/listen to, including recordings of two blogger meetings where groups of z-list bloggers asked him pretty good questions, I thought, and my own interview with him.

One thing about access: Just because you get access doesn’t mean you get anything unique that other people aren’t already reporting on. When he’s on the plane he discussed mundane things with his staff. His staff would give him feedback about what was being discussed on blogs and forums. They talked about questions he could have answered a little better, or impressions of the day. Pretty boring stuff. Do you really want me to get boring? I could tell you he likes Diet Sunkist. Does that really help the dialog here?

Or, does it matter that some of his campaign staff has worked on eight Presidential campaigns and they think he’s the nicest guy they’ve worked for so far? If I reported stuff like that, you’d all call me a shill anyway. Or, how about does it matter that he knows how to use a Blackberry? I mean, how mundane do you want me to get?

Anyway, just some thoughts from your favorite shill blogger. 😉

UPDATE: Shel Israel wrote a nice post about what I was there to do.

I notice that Ryan Montoya, the Edwards’ staffer who invited me on the bus, is watching the blogs too.

Michael Markman has the best comment: “It won’t matter whether Scoble is for or against Edwards—or if Scoble’s readers can figure that out. Edwards success or failure is not in Scoble’s hands. It’s totally up to John Edwards.”

69 thoughts on “Adam Curry and John Welch ask the hard questions of me

  1. We *are* spoiled by mainstream media. Once you gave us the buildup by saying “next week sounds like it’s going to be an interesting one in my life, to say the least”, yeah, we junkies are dying for a fix of information from the inside that you usually capture on the technical stories.

    My favorite post from that week so far? When you told us how to taunt a journalist.

    Like

  2. We *are* spoiled by mainstream media. Once you gave us the buildup by saying “next week sounds like it’s going to be an interesting one in my life, to say the least”, yeah, we junkies are dying for a fix of information from the inside that you usually capture on the technical stories.

    My favorite post from that week so far? When you told us how to taunt a journalist.

    Like

  3. Deannie: my favorite video won’t be of Edwards at all. I took a walk down a street in New Orleans and met a guy working on rebuilding his home. That’ll be the image that sticks with me.

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  4. Deannie: my favorite video won’t be of Edwards at all. I took a walk down a street in New Orleans and met a guy working on rebuilding his home. That’ll be the image that sticks with me.

    Like

  5. THE LONE RANGER CREED.

    “I believe that to have a friend,
    a man must be one.

    That all men are created equal
    and that everyone has within himself
    the power to make this a better world.

    That God put the firewood there
    but that every man
    must gather and light it himself.

    In being prepared
    physically, mentally, and morally
    to fight when necessary
    for that which is right.

    That a man should make the most
    of what equipment he has.

    That ‘This government,
    of the people, by the people
    and for the people’
    shall live always.

    That men should live by
    the rule of what is best
    for the greatest number.

    That sooner or later…
    somewhere…somehow…
    we must settle with the world
    and make payment for what we have taken.

    That all things change but truth,
    and that truth alone, lives on forever.

    In my Creator, my country, my fellow man.”

    The Lone Ranger for President!

    Transparency ROBERT.

    Like

  6. THE LONE RANGER CREED.

    “I believe that to have a friend,
    a man must be one.

    That all men are created equal
    and that everyone has within himself
    the power to make this a better world.

    That God put the firewood there
    but that every man
    must gather and light it himself.

    In being prepared
    physically, mentally, and morally
    to fight when necessary
    for that which is right.

    That a man should make the most
    of what equipment he has.

    That ‘This government,
    of the people, by the people
    and for the people’
    shall live always.

    That men should live by
    the rule of what is best
    for the greatest number.

    That sooner or later…
    somewhere…somehow…
    we must settle with the world
    and make payment for what we have taken.

    That all things change but truth,
    and that truth alone, lives on forever.

    In my Creator, my country, my fellow man.”

    The Lone Ranger for President!

    Transparency ROBERT.

    Like

  7. It should be pointed out that Tom Vilsack, the former Gov. of Iowa and a Dem who announced before Edwards uses social media at the same level. He doesn’t have a blog, only a vlog, which is quite a statement. He’s on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn and PartyBuilder (the DNC online social network). He also blogs on DailyKos and MyDD.

    My point is that Edwards is making much use of social media (and doing well with it), but I’d be surprised if we don’t see many of the other candidates doing the same. The question will be who uses it most effectively. That will depend quite a bit on how much the entire campaign (including the candidate, the staff, the consultants) understands the new modes of interaction these technologies afford and utilizes it appropriately.

    Of course all of this really started w/ Dean in 2003-2004. So, how campaigns continue that process of integrating social media and how that fundamentally changes the way candidates run should be a fascinating narrative for the ’08 prez races. Having just worked on the internet team for a possible ’08er (Mark Warner), I can tell you that few traditional media reporters have the background to report the realities and challenges of that tranformation. At the same time there are also few campaigns savvy enough to invite tech bloggers inside the curtain. Hopefully your opportunity w/ Edwards is just the first of many to blog about political social media from the inside.

    Like

  8. It should be pointed out that Tom Vilsack, the former Gov. of Iowa and a Dem who announced before Edwards uses social media at the same level. He doesn’t have a blog, only a vlog, which is quite a statement. He’s on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn and PartyBuilder (the DNC online social network). He also blogs on DailyKos and MyDD.

    My point is that Edwards is making much use of social media (and doing well with it), but I’d be surprised if we don’t see many of the other candidates doing the same. The question will be who uses it most effectively. That will depend quite a bit on how much the entire campaign (including the candidate, the staff, the consultants) understands the new modes of interaction these technologies afford and utilizes it appropriately.

    Of course all of this really started w/ Dean in 2003-2004. So, how campaigns continue that process of integrating social media and how that fundamentally changes the way candidates run should be a fascinating narrative for the ’08 prez races. Having just worked on the internet team for a possible ’08er (Mark Warner), I can tell you that few traditional media reporters have the background to report the realities and challenges of that tranformation. At the same time there are also few campaigns savvy enough to invite tech bloggers inside the curtain. Hopefully your opportunity w/ Edwards is just the first of many to blog about political social media from the inside.

    Like

  9. I’d just like to add that although Vilsack may have same breadth of social media, I don’t think it’s nearly as deep as Edwards. He’s made a deep investment by cultivating an active online community through a group blog. Same goes for the level of live-blogging he does on DailyKos.

    Like

  10. I’d just like to add that although Vilsack may have same breadth of social media, I don’t think it’s nearly as deep as Edwards. He’s made a deep investment by cultivating an active online community through a group blog. Same goes for the level of live-blogging he does on DailyKos.

    Like

  11. Everyone knows Adam Curry is *the* authority on everything. No one could do the job that he would do. I, for one, look forward to your videos and it sounds like you did the job you were there to do.

    Like

  12. Everyone knows Adam Curry is *the* authority on everything. No one could do the job that he would do. I, for one, look forward to your videos and it sounds like you did the job you were there to do.

    Like

  13. “Come on, on that front lawn was more than a million dollars of equipment. Bloggers are supposed to compete with that? No way, no how.”

    What’s the point, then. I that that’s exactly what blogging was about. The ability to agilely (sp?) compete with the MSM?

    I didn’t see much depth of observation from your posts, just a bunch of navel gazing. You had a huge opportunity to provide some insight as to his candidacy and his ability to distinguish himself. At the end of the day what your readers walk away with is the fact that you got to tag along on a campaign announcement from a re-run 2004 candidate offering nothing new other than a nifty neato web site with a bunch of blog links. yawn.

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  14. “Come on, on that front lawn was more than a million dollars of equipment. Bloggers are supposed to compete with that? No way, no how.”

    What’s the point, then. I that that’s exactly what blogging was about. The ability to agilely (sp?) compete with the MSM?

    I didn’t see much depth of observation from your posts, just a bunch of navel gazing. You had a huge opportunity to provide some insight as to his candidacy and his ability to distinguish himself. At the end of the day what your readers walk away with is the fact that you got to tag along on a campaign announcement from a re-run 2004 candidate offering nothing new other than a nifty neato web site with a bunch of blog links. yawn.

    Like

  15. @9. No, it will actually depend on how much the electorate cares about candidates using social mediums to engage. We saw how effective it was for Dean (how far did he make it, again? How was his blogging able to overcome his scream?) So, they can engage in all the blogging and social media circle jerking they want, but if the people that will actually VOTE don’t care, then it wont’ matter one iota

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  16. @9. No, it will actually depend on how much the electorate cares about candidates using social mediums to engage. We saw how effective it was for Dean (how far did he make it, again? How was his blogging able to overcome his scream?) So, they can engage in all the blogging and social media circle jerking they want, but if the people that will actually VOTE don’t care, then it wont’ matter one iota

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  17. LayZ: Dean never blogged. That’s quite unlike Edwards.

    The scream was caused by mainstream media who overmiked him and didn’t supply context. His campaign was in chaos cause he had just lost in Iowa. Truth is if you don’t win Iowa and New Hampshire you might as well just quit.

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  18. LayZ: Dean never blogged. That’s quite unlike Edwards.

    The scream was caused by mainstream media who overmiked him and didn’t supply context. His campaign was in chaos cause he had just lost in Iowa. Truth is if you don’t win Iowa and New Hampshire you might as well just quit.

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  19. The other thing, John, is you totally miss what I’m there to do. I’m not there to be a news source. I was there to study how campaigns are using technology. I will go to Newt Gingrich’s campaign stops, if he asks me along to study that.

    Robert, what you think you’re there to do is immaterial. Everyone who’s read three of your blog posts ever know that the only thing you write or care about is how people use tech. You’re helpless in any area that doesn’t involve tech. What you were INVITED for was to give Edwards more credibility in the tech audience. “OOOhhh, SCOBLE likes him, he must be cool”. He could have been eating a baby for breakfast, but he dangled the right shinies, and MynaScoble jumped on cue. Good doggie, here’s a biscuit.

    Go ahead and visit Hillary’s site. Or Barack’s. Or Newt’s. Or any of the others. No one else has a Facebook site, a MySpace page, a blog, a video blog team. I haven’t seen the others do live blogging like was done over on Daily Kos this week.

    Robert, before you say things that don’t take a day to be proven wrong, get PodTech to hire an intern to do research for you. “Bad” doesn’t even begin to describe your complete inability to look up a fact, or run a search on anything that isn’t “Blogs” or “Scoble”.

    Over the next week I’ll get up my own interviews and you’ll see the video I captured. I’m not that fast, but then, I don’t see my job to compete with CNN in speed. There’s no way bloggers are going to be able to do that.

    No, there’s no way YOU can do it. But someone with some skills, and the discipline to sit down and do it? Oh yeah, sure they can.

    There’s no way I was going to be able to give you more depth than Dan Balz, reporter for the Washington Post. He’s been covering politics since when I was in middle school. I needed a few days just to get up to speed on the political system.

    That’s the most pathetic thing you could have possibly written, and somehow, I bet you were proud of it. Listen to yourself. You get invited to something that is a part of the most important thing this country does politically, and yet, you have no real clue as to how the process works, or what is involved. That’s inexcusable. Utterly. You want to know how some of the idiots in office get elected? Some of the scummy yahoos like Foley? Go look in the mirror Robert, you’re not only part of the problem, you’re now its public face. You have ALWAYS had the ability, as much as anyone else in this country to educate yourself on HOW YOUR COUNTRY WORKS, yet you were so busy servicing your technostiffy that you couldn’t be bothered to even re-watch Schoolhouse Rock.

    Let’s go at this another way. What do you wish I would have reported? What do you want to know from me now about my experiences, and what I heard?

    I sincerely wish you would have asked around PodTech, and brought someone with you who wasn’t an idiot about the American political system and government, and would have had a better idea of what the hell was going on than “Whal GOLLLL-EE, this here politikin’s reeel complikated-like”.

    When he’s on the plane he discussed mundane things with his staff. His staff would give him feedback about what was being discussed on blogs and forums. They talked about questions he could have answered a little better, or impressions of the day. Pretty boring stuff. Do you really want me to get boring? I could tell you he likes Diet Sunkist. Does that really help the dialog here?

    The depths of your ignorance surpass even the ability of the Trieste to properly explore. He’s a presidential candidate, NOTHING is “mundane”. WHAT does his staff tell him? To what level do they filter? Does he occasionally go look at stuff they already told him about if it sounds interesting? Jesus man, this isn’t Miss Finch’s Fifth Grade class election. It’s history, and you sat there counting RSS feeds.

    Dude…get PodTech to hire someone with a clue. Anyone. The person who will fix your car will probably have more of a clue than you.

    Or, does it matter that some of his campaign staff has worked on eight Presidential campaigns and they think he’s the nicest guy they’ve worked for so far? If I reported stuff like that, you’d all call me a shill anyway. Or, how about does it matter that he knows how to use a Blackberry? I mean, how mundane do you want me to get?

    If I were talking to someone with a fifth-grade level political science education, I’d have some points that could be made here. In your case?

    Just tell us what color the Blackberry is, and what blogger he reads the most. Maybe something nice about his hair, it’s about what you’re able to competently cover.

    Christ…what a waste of opportunity.

    Like

  20. The other thing, John, is you totally miss what I’m there to do. I’m not there to be a news source. I was there to study how campaigns are using technology. I will go to Newt Gingrich’s campaign stops, if he asks me along to study that.

    Robert, what you think you’re there to do is immaterial. Everyone who’s read three of your blog posts ever know that the only thing you write or care about is how people use tech. You’re helpless in any area that doesn’t involve tech. What you were INVITED for was to give Edwards more credibility in the tech audience. “OOOhhh, SCOBLE likes him, he must be cool”. He could have been eating a baby for breakfast, but he dangled the right shinies, and MynaScoble jumped on cue. Good doggie, here’s a biscuit.

    Go ahead and visit Hillary’s site. Or Barack’s. Or Newt’s. Or any of the others. No one else has a Facebook site, a MySpace page, a blog, a video blog team. I haven’t seen the others do live blogging like was done over on Daily Kos this week.

    Robert, before you say things that don’t take a day to be proven wrong, get PodTech to hire an intern to do research for you. “Bad” doesn’t even begin to describe your complete inability to look up a fact, or run a search on anything that isn’t “Blogs” or “Scoble”.

    Over the next week I’ll get up my own interviews and you’ll see the video I captured. I’m not that fast, but then, I don’t see my job to compete with CNN in speed. There’s no way bloggers are going to be able to do that.

    No, there’s no way YOU can do it. But someone with some skills, and the discipline to sit down and do it? Oh yeah, sure they can.

    There’s no way I was going to be able to give you more depth than Dan Balz, reporter for the Washington Post. He’s been covering politics since when I was in middle school. I needed a few days just to get up to speed on the political system.

    That’s the most pathetic thing you could have possibly written, and somehow, I bet you were proud of it. Listen to yourself. You get invited to something that is a part of the most important thing this country does politically, and yet, you have no real clue as to how the process works, or what is involved. That’s inexcusable. Utterly. You want to know how some of the idiots in office get elected? Some of the scummy yahoos like Foley? Go look in the mirror Robert, you’re not only part of the problem, you’re now its public face. You have ALWAYS had the ability, as much as anyone else in this country to educate yourself on HOW YOUR COUNTRY WORKS, yet you were so busy servicing your technostiffy that you couldn’t be bothered to even re-watch Schoolhouse Rock.

    Let’s go at this another way. What do you wish I would have reported? What do you want to know from me now about my experiences, and what I heard?

    I sincerely wish you would have asked around PodTech, and brought someone with you who wasn’t an idiot about the American political system and government, and would have had a better idea of what the hell was going on than “Whal GOLLLL-EE, this here politikin’s reeel complikated-like”.

    When he’s on the plane he discussed mundane things with his staff. His staff would give him feedback about what was being discussed on blogs and forums. They talked about questions he could have answered a little better, or impressions of the day. Pretty boring stuff. Do you really want me to get boring? I could tell you he likes Diet Sunkist. Does that really help the dialog here?

    The depths of your ignorance surpass even the ability of the Trieste to properly explore. He’s a presidential candidate, NOTHING is “mundane”. WHAT does his staff tell him? To what level do they filter? Does he occasionally go look at stuff they already told him about if it sounds interesting? Jesus man, this isn’t Miss Finch’s Fifth Grade class election. It’s history, and you sat there counting RSS feeds.

    Dude…get PodTech to hire someone with a clue. Anyone. The person who will fix your car will probably have more of a clue than you.

    Or, does it matter that some of his campaign staff has worked on eight Presidential campaigns and they think he’s the nicest guy they’ve worked for so far? If I reported stuff like that, you’d all call me a shill anyway. Or, how about does it matter that he knows how to use a Blackberry? I mean, how mundane do you want me to get?

    If I were talking to someone with a fifth-grade level political science education, I’d have some points that could be made here. In your case?

    Just tell us what color the Blackberry is, and what blogger he reads the most. Maybe something nice about his hair, it’s about what you’re able to competently cover.

    Christ…what a waste of opportunity.

    Like

  21. @18. Well, talk about being pedantic. True, Dean himself never blogged (and once the campaign gets in full swing, I’ll be shocked if Edwards ever touches a keyboard, but Mr. DailyKos himself was hired by Dean as his “technical advisor”, IOW designated blogger. You think if anyone could have saved Dean, it would have been Moulitsas. As John Welch says…even an elementary attempt at research would have revealed that. Some advice: tell Edwards thanks but no thanks, cuz I gotta tell ya, you are in WAY over your head.

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  22. @18. Well, talk about being pedantic. True, Dean himself never blogged (and once the campaign gets in full swing, I’ll be shocked if Edwards ever touches a keyboard, but Mr. DailyKos himself was hired by Dean as his “technical advisor”, IOW designated blogger. You think if anyone could have saved Dean, it would have been Moulitsas. As John Welch says…even an elementary attempt at research would have revealed that. Some advice: tell Edwards thanks but no thanks, cuz I gotta tell ya, you are in WAY over your head.

    Like

  23. LayZ: I talked with several voters in Iowa about why they thought Dean didn’t win there. They told me they simply didn’t like him. No amount of blogging is gonna change that.

    John: OK, I’m ignorant and an idiot. I don’t know how this gets any further discussion going, but I’m game.

    >>WHAT does his staff tell him? To what level do they filter? Does he occasionally go look at stuff they already told him about if it sounds interesting? Jesus man, this isn’t Miss Finch’s Fifth Grade class election. It’s history, and you sat there counting RSS feeds.

    What does his staff tell him? They sit next to him with computers and Blackberries and show him the latest stuff from press reports around the world, as well as blogs, forums, and other emails sent in from people. He also reads his own stuff. He types slowly, he says, so it’s frustrating for him to really blog, but he absorbs a lot of information.

    His staff tells him both the good and the bad. What you’re seeing on his blog reflects him and his interests and not just his staff.

    I didn’t see any filtering, other than they usually only have limited time. So, they cover the biggest issues. It’s pretty easy while on the road to see what the biggest issues are. The same questions about health care and education and Iraq and gay marriage came up in almost every city and every audience cheered loudly his answers on those.

    Yes, he goes and looks at his own information. It’s pretty clear he’s a voracious reader and also talks with tons of people.

    So, you got any other questions, or you just gonna keep calling me names? I guess you learned that from Rush Limbaugh. Make you feel better?

    Like

  24. LayZ: I talked with several voters in Iowa about why they thought Dean didn’t win there. They told me they simply didn’t like him. No amount of blogging is gonna change that.

    John: OK, I’m ignorant and an idiot. I don’t know how this gets any further discussion going, but I’m game.

    >>WHAT does his staff tell him? To what level do they filter? Does he occasionally go look at stuff they already told him about if it sounds interesting? Jesus man, this isn’t Miss Finch’s Fifth Grade class election. It’s history, and you sat there counting RSS feeds.

    What does his staff tell him? They sit next to him with computers and Blackberries and show him the latest stuff from press reports around the world, as well as blogs, forums, and other emails sent in from people. He also reads his own stuff. He types slowly, he says, so it’s frustrating for him to really blog, but he absorbs a lot of information.

    His staff tells him both the good and the bad. What you’re seeing on his blog reflects him and his interests and not just his staff.

    I didn’t see any filtering, other than they usually only have limited time. So, they cover the biggest issues. It’s pretty easy while on the road to see what the biggest issues are. The same questions about health care and education and Iraq and gay marriage came up in almost every city and every audience cheered loudly his answers on those.

    Yes, he goes and looks at his own information. It’s pretty clear he’s a voracious reader and also talks with tons of people.

    So, you got any other questions, or you just gonna keep calling me names? I guess you learned that from Rush Limbaugh. Make you feel better?

    Like

  25. Well, speaking of “an elementary attempt at research”:

    – A number of examples of Dean blogging can be found at http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/2003_07.shtml , from when he was guest-blogging for Larry Lessig in 2003.

    – As far as Kos being Dean’s “designated blogger,” got a citation for that? I’ve never heard that description before, and I follow this stuff fairly closely. My recollection is that each of the posts on DFA said who they were written by, and I don’t believe that Kos contributed.

    Personally, I think that the US primary system is currently set up as to give us lousy candidates. Not to mention that Californians don’t get to vote in the primaries until most of the candidates have dropped out, so it’s all pretty much moot.

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  26. Well, speaking of “an elementary attempt at research”:

    – A number of examples of Dean blogging can be found at http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/2003_07.shtml , from when he was guest-blogging for Larry Lessig in 2003.

    – As far as Kos being Dean’s “designated blogger,” got a citation for that? I’ve never heard that description before, and I follow this stuff fairly closely. My recollection is that each of the posts on DFA said who they were written by, and I don’t believe that Kos contributed.

    Personally, I think that the US primary system is currently set up as to give us lousy candidates. Not to mention that Californians don’t get to vote in the primaries until most of the candidates have dropped out, so it’s all pretty much moot.

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  27. Dori: true, only a few states matter.

    Joe Trippi told me that other people wrote most of Dean’s blogs. Not sure about Kos, though. It also might be that Dean couldn’t type fast, so he’d dictate (Edwards admitted to me that’s how he interacts with people on Daily Kos during live blogging), but it sounded like in Dean’s case that wasn’t even done.

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  28. Dori: true, only a few states matter.

    Joe Trippi told me that other people wrote most of Dean’s blogs. Not sure about Kos, though. It also might be that Dean couldn’t type fast, so he’d dictate (Edwards admitted to me that’s how he interacts with people on Daily Kos during live blogging), but it sounded like in Dean’s case that wasn’t even done.

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  29. What I wanted to find out with my question is if the Edwards campaign gave ‘exclusives’ to more than one person (blogger), seeing as you were asked to keep quiet, while Andrew Baron was shooting the pre-announcement video.

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  30. What I wanted to find out with my question is if the Edwards campaign gave ‘exclusives’ to more than one person (blogger), seeing as you were asked to keep quiet, while Andrew Baron was shooting the pre-announcement video.

    Like

  31. @21.. “I talked with several voters in Iowa about why they thought Dean didn’t win there. They told me they simply didn’t like him. No amount of blogging is gonna change that.”

    Thanks for finally agreeing that blogging will have no impact on a candidates’ ability to influence voters.

    Like

  32. @21.. “I talked with several voters in Iowa about why they thought Dean didn’t win there. They told me they simply didn’t like him. No amount of blogging is gonna change that.”

    Thanks for finally agreeing that blogging will have no impact on a candidates’ ability to influence voters.

    Like

  33. @22. At the end of the day Moulitsas was responsible for Dean’s presence on the web. Whatever the case, again this reinforces the point that no amount of blogging will help a candidate win an election.

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  34. @22. At the end of the day Moulitsas was responsible for Dean’s presence on the web. Whatever the case, again this reinforces the point that no amount of blogging will help a candidate win an election.

    Like

  35. Adam: I got an exclusive interview on the plane between New Hampshire and Reno.

    I don’t think the Rocketboom thing was planned. If I had gotten into New Orleans earlier I probably would have gotten something too. They were forced to announce a day early, though, because a vendor turned on their Web site accidentally early.

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  36. Adam: I got an exclusive interview on the plane between New Hampshire and Reno.

    I don’t think the Rocketboom thing was planned. If I had gotten into New Orleans earlier I probably would have gotten something too. They were forced to announce a day early, though, because a vendor turned on their Web site accidentally early.

    Like

  37. #25: a lot of the people who showed up at the rallies say they read blogs, particularly political ones like Daily Kos. It’s not the blogs that will affect the election, but they are part of a much more efficient word-of-mouth network that WILL affect what’s going on.

    I found it really interesting that when I talked with the taxi driver in New Orleans — a guy you wouldn’t expect to be very astute about tech or politics — he told me he hangs out on political blogs and knew the major stances of all the major Democratic candidates (Hillary, Barack, John). Will that matter in the general election this time around? I think so. Could he have gotten that info from any other source? Maybe, if he watches the Sunday political shows, but doubtful.

    Like

  38. #25: a lot of the people who showed up at the rallies say they read blogs, particularly political ones like Daily Kos. It’s not the blogs that will affect the election, but they are part of a much more efficient word-of-mouth network that WILL affect what’s going on.

    I found it really interesting that when I talked with the taxi driver in New Orleans — a guy you wouldn’t expect to be very astute about tech or politics — he told me he hangs out on political blogs and knew the major stances of all the major Democratic candidates (Hillary, Barack, John). Will that matter in the general election this time around? I think so. Could he have gotten that info from any other source? Maybe, if he watches the Sunday political shows, but doubtful.

    Like

  39. It is amazing how many jealous people, who would have love to see the campaign from your perspective, are willing to call you a shill. Especially when you are attempting to show it to them through your eyes.

    Good for you Robert! I look forward to the video.

    Like

  40. It is amazing how many jealous people, who would have love to see the campaign from your perspective, are willing to call you a shill. Especially when you are attempting to show it to them through your eyes.

    Good for you Robert! I look forward to the video.

    Like

  41. Rocketboom was there because we were interested in enabling John Edwards to have control over the media himself, just like all of us. See more about this here: http://www.dembot.com/010661.html

    Given the opportunity to turn the camera on himself, able to say anything at all, what does he want to say?

    This will be the first election where it will be possible to use the powerful medium of video (and all other mediums for that matter) in full.

    So that’s one way.

    I also thought Robert’s coverage was ideal because you knew going into it that he was there to give his own perspective, not John Edwards and it was what it was; Scobleized.

    It sounds like we both came to the same conclusion: it’s cool John Edwards has opened the doors for all to see himself however they like, his way and theirs.

    Like

  42. Rocketboom was there because we were interested in enabling John Edwards to have control over the media himself, just like all of us. See more about this here: http://www.dembot.com/010661.html

    Given the opportunity to turn the camera on himself, able to say anything at all, what does he want to say?

    This will be the first election where it will be possible to use the powerful medium of video (and all other mediums for that matter) in full.

    So that’s one way.

    I also thought Robert’s coverage was ideal because you knew going into it that he was there to give his own perspective, not John Edwards and it was what it was; Scobleized.

    It sounds like we both came to the same conclusion: it’s cool John Edwards has opened the doors for all to see himself however they like, his way and theirs.

    Like

  43. @28. There’s no denying that there are a considerable number of political junkies that hang out in all the well know political blogs and get a lot of their information about candidates there. And to be anecdotal examples are to be found everywhere. But I’m of the opinion that percentage is quite small when compared to the majority of the electorate. Is the information landscape changing? Obviously the answer is yes. But, I don’t think its changing enough to impact the larger electorate.

    In 2004 less than 20% of the registered voters got their info from the internet. And only 27% of the people that went online to get their political information said it made them decide to vote for or against a particular candidate. Only 11% of people the even use the internet engaged directly with candidates on line in 2004.

    But, here’s the bad news for many of you: more on line political news consumers voted for Bush than for Kerry in 2004. D’oh!

    @29. I’m surprised it took this long to accuse Scoble’s critics of jealousy. It’s not jealousy. It’s merely point out to Scoble the HUGE opportunity he sqaundered. And I’m also amazed (though not surprised) he seemed incapable of processing and documenting what he was seeing as he was seeing it. By his own admission his pea-brain is going to be taking some time to spit out what it saw.

    Will that climb in 2008? Likely. Will it be a tipping point? Unlikely. This is why I say we are still 2-3 elections away from blogging having a significant impact

    Like

  44. @28. There’s no denying that there are a considerable number of political junkies that hang out in all the well know political blogs and get a lot of their information about candidates there. And to be anecdotal examples are to be found everywhere. But I’m of the opinion that percentage is quite small when compared to the majority of the electorate. Is the information landscape changing? Obviously the answer is yes. But, I don’t think its changing enough to impact the larger electorate.

    In 2004 less than 20% of the registered voters got their info from the internet. And only 27% of the people that went online to get their political information said it made them decide to vote for or against a particular candidate. Only 11% of people the even use the internet engaged directly with candidates on line in 2004.

    But, here’s the bad news for many of you: more on line political news consumers voted for Bush than for Kerry in 2004. D’oh!

    @29. I’m surprised it took this long to accuse Scoble’s critics of jealousy. It’s not jealousy. It’s merely point out to Scoble the HUGE opportunity he sqaundered. And I’m also amazed (though not surprised) he seemed incapable of processing and documenting what he was seeing as he was seeing it. By his own admission his pea-brain is going to be taking some time to spit out what it saw.

    Will that climb in 2008? Likely. Will it be a tipping point? Unlikely. This is why I say we are still 2-3 elections away from blogging having a significant impact

    Like

  45. What does his staff tell him? They sit next to him with computers and Blackberries and show him the latest stuff from press reports around the world, as well as blogs, forums, and other emails sent in from people. He also reads his own stuff. He types slowly, he says, so it’s frustrating for him to really blog, but he absorbs a lot of information.

    His staff tells him both the good and the bad. What you’re seeing on his blog reflects him and his interests and not just his staff.

    I didn’t see any filtering, other than they usually only have limited time. So, they cover the biggest issues. It’s pretty easy while on the road to see what the biggest issues are. The same questions about health care and education and Iraq and gay marriage came up in almost every city and every audience cheered loudly his answers on those.

    Yes, he goes and looks at his own information. It’s pretty clear he’s a voracious reader and also talks with tons of people.

    So, you got any other questions, or you just gonna keep calling me names? I guess you learned that from Rush Limbaugh. Make you feel better?

    Oh lord, now you’re degenerating into WhinyScoble mode. Suck it up princess, you like being the face of blogging, deal, or go back to selling cameras.

    Those few paragraphs you typed in whiny “I’LL SHOW YOU MODE” have more substance and real value than every post you did from the road. I learned more about how Edwards interacts with his staff, his management and leadership style than in all the other crap you posted combined. So who did you see as being his “Karl”? Not who’s who on the org chart, but who instantly gets Edwards’ attention no matter what they have to say. Was his wife there. If so, what kind of role is she playing, Nancy, Rosalyn, Hilary, or Laura?

    You have this blindness wherein you think that only hard-hitting questions matter. If this man becomes president, EVERYTHING about him matters, and by NOT being in his face all the time, you had a chance to quietly observe him as part of the woodwork. Write about THAT. Screw taping him, as soon as the record light comes on, he’s on. It’s when he’s off that shows us who he is. Dude, so what if they wanted you to play a role? Does that mean you’re incapable of doing anything but what you’re told? I know you were raised that way, but just stop for a minute, you might learn something new.

    I talked with several voters in Iowa about why they thought Dean didn’t win there. They told me they simply didn’t like him. No amount of blogging is gonna change that.

    I’ll agree with LayZ here…blogging is not nearly as important as you think it is other than the message it conveys. If blogging does nothing more than circle-jerk about how important blogging is, then it’s noise, and should be left alone to die out.

    When Bloggers stop mentioning how important blogging is in every post, then they’ll be ready to communicate something worth listening to. For now, it’s just insecure ego-stroking.

    Like

  46. What does his staff tell him? They sit next to him with computers and Blackberries and show him the latest stuff from press reports around the world, as well as blogs, forums, and other emails sent in from people. He also reads his own stuff. He types slowly, he says, so it’s frustrating for him to really blog, but he absorbs a lot of information.

    His staff tells him both the good and the bad. What you’re seeing on his blog reflects him and his interests and not just his staff.

    I didn’t see any filtering, other than they usually only have limited time. So, they cover the biggest issues. It’s pretty easy while on the road to see what the biggest issues are. The same questions about health care and education and Iraq and gay marriage came up in almost every city and every audience cheered loudly his answers on those.

    Yes, he goes and looks at his own information. It’s pretty clear he’s a voracious reader and also talks with tons of people.

    So, you got any other questions, or you just gonna keep calling me names? I guess you learned that from Rush Limbaugh. Make you feel better?

    Oh lord, now you’re degenerating into WhinyScoble mode. Suck it up princess, you like being the face of blogging, deal, or go back to selling cameras.

    Those few paragraphs you typed in whiny “I’LL SHOW YOU MODE” have more substance and real value than every post you did from the road. I learned more about how Edwards interacts with his staff, his management and leadership style than in all the other crap you posted combined. So who did you see as being his “Karl”? Not who’s who on the org chart, but who instantly gets Edwards’ attention no matter what they have to say. Was his wife there. If so, what kind of role is she playing, Nancy, Rosalyn, Hilary, or Laura?

    You have this blindness wherein you think that only hard-hitting questions matter. If this man becomes president, EVERYTHING about him matters, and by NOT being in his face all the time, you had a chance to quietly observe him as part of the woodwork. Write about THAT. Screw taping him, as soon as the record light comes on, he’s on. It’s when he’s off that shows us who he is. Dude, so what if they wanted you to play a role? Does that mean you’re incapable of doing anything but what you’re told? I know you were raised that way, but just stop for a minute, you might learn something new.

    I talked with several voters in Iowa about why they thought Dean didn’t win there. They told me they simply didn’t like him. No amount of blogging is gonna change that.

    I’ll agree with LayZ here…blogging is not nearly as important as you think it is other than the message it conveys. If blogging does nothing more than circle-jerk about how important blogging is, then it’s noise, and should be left alone to die out.

    When Bloggers stop mentioning how important blogging is in every post, then they’ll be ready to communicate something worth listening to. For now, it’s just insecure ego-stroking.

    Like

  47. John:

    >>So who did you see as being his “Karl”?

    Hmmm, someone who tells him he’s full of it? I didn’t spend enough time with him to figure out if there’s one person in that role. I’m sure his wife would call him on things, but she wasn’t along. She holds no punches and he obviously respects her a lot.

    There are dozens of people who he’ll stop to have conversations with. One, though, that brings both good and bad to him is Matt Gross, who is the guy charged with online interactions — I saw him bringing both the good and bad to Edwards. He is the one with the back to the camera in this picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35034363287@N01/ — he follows tons of blogs and forums and was constantly feeding info to Edwards. Actually, there’s a network of “Matt’s” around the country, I learned, that send him stuff and give him feedback. He also has many trusted advisors, including David Bonior, who was along on one of the campaign stops http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E._Bonior

    Not who’s who on the org chart, but who instantly gets Edwards’ attention no matter what they have to say.

    There are dozens of people in that role. Sr. Advisor Jonathan Prince is probably top at that list. Trip Director Sam Myers and press liasion Jennifer Palmieri also get instant attention if they want it.

    >Was his wife there. If so, what kind of role is she playing, Nancy, Rosalyn, Hilary, or Laura?

    Nope, but she appeared with him on TV this morning. I missed that, though, so don’t have enough data to answer this well.

    Like

  48. John:

    >>So who did you see as being his “Karl”?

    Hmmm, someone who tells him he’s full of it? I didn’t spend enough time with him to figure out if there’s one person in that role. I’m sure his wife would call him on things, but she wasn’t along. She holds no punches and he obviously respects her a lot.

    There are dozens of people who he’ll stop to have conversations with. One, though, that brings both good and bad to him is Matt Gross, who is the guy charged with online interactions — I saw him bringing both the good and bad to Edwards. He is the one with the back to the camera in this picture: http://www.flickr.com/photos/35034363287@N01/ — he follows tons of blogs and forums and was constantly feeding info to Edwards. Actually, there’s a network of “Matt’s” around the country, I learned, that send him stuff and give him feedback. He also has many trusted advisors, including David Bonior, who was along on one of the campaign stops http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E._Bonior

    Not who’s who on the org chart, but who instantly gets Edwards’ attention no matter what they have to say.

    There are dozens of people in that role. Sr. Advisor Jonathan Prince is probably top at that list. Trip Director Sam Myers and press liasion Jennifer Palmieri also get instant attention if they want it.

    >Was his wife there. If so, what kind of role is she playing, Nancy, Rosalyn, Hilary, or Laura?

    Nope, but she appeared with him on TV this morning. I missed that, though, so don’t have enough data to answer this well.

    Like

  49. >In 2004 less than 20% of the registered voters got their info from the internet.

    Yup. That number will probably be double that this time around. But that still means 60% will get their info somewhere else.

    The thing you aren’t considering is that “somewhere else” is watching the Internet. Ideas and language discussed on the blogs are not only leaking back into talks the candidate himself or herself will do, but are being incorporated into news reports too. All the journalists I met on the trail said they read blogs at least once in a while.

    Like

  50. >In 2004 less than 20% of the registered voters got their info from the internet.

    Yup. That number will probably be double that this time around. But that still means 60% will get their info somewhere else.

    The thing you aren’t considering is that “somewhere else” is watching the Internet. Ideas and language discussed on the blogs are not only leaking back into talks the candidate himself or herself will do, but are being incorporated into news reports too. All the journalists I met on the trail said they read blogs at least once in a while.

    Like

  51. See Robert? THAT is what I was talking about. You don’t have to be a “hard – hitting” reporter to provide useful information. You just have to talk about what you see. You’re decent at human interaction observations, so talk about that. You’d be amazed at how much useful information you pick up just by watching someone like Edwards in their daily interaction with their staff.

    By “Karl” i meant less of a sanity checker, and more of the person who directly handles the strategy/tactical details for Edwards.

    Edwards’ “comfort level” with social media is much less important than how it is used by his campaign and his people, and things like how he interacts with his people are important details. They give insight into his thought processes in ways that even direct answers to questions won’t.

    When you watch him take “hard” questions, does he seem to have a pat answer ready, or does he risk giving it some thought and coming up with an answer that may be less planned/more ‘honest’, but possibly shove his foot in his mouth?

    Political campaigns are, like the original use of ‘campaign’, battles. Insight into the minds of the leaders of a campaign tells you more about their chances of winning than anything else.

    Like

  52. See Robert? THAT is what I was talking about. You don’t have to be a “hard – hitting” reporter to provide useful information. You just have to talk about what you see. You’re decent at human interaction observations, so talk about that. You’d be amazed at how much useful information you pick up just by watching someone like Edwards in their daily interaction with their staff.

    By “Karl” i meant less of a sanity checker, and more of the person who directly handles the strategy/tactical details for Edwards.

    Edwards’ “comfort level” with social media is much less important than how it is used by his campaign and his people, and things like how he interacts with his people are important details. They give insight into his thought processes in ways that even direct answers to questions won’t.

    When you watch him take “hard” questions, does he seem to have a pat answer ready, or does he risk giving it some thought and coming up with an answer that may be less planned/more ‘honest’, but possibly shove his foot in his mouth?

    Political campaigns are, like the original use of ‘campaign’, battles. Insight into the minds of the leaders of a campaign tells you more about their chances of winning than anything else.

    Like

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