Dems Talk Dominates Blogosphere

This year's campaign speeches and tag lines are, at the very least, supersaturated with this mystical idea of "change." Everything is changing. Language is changing, music, the color of your hair, political stances are altered in minutes, and powers are shifting. All of these changes are of course made possible by the actions and will of the people. More recently, the common man and woman of America is transforming into an incredible power in media via blogging.

The Internet, it is said, really changed everything. So naturally, when reporting on this democratized state of change, we, as a media outlet, cannot ignore the Internet and the millions of users—bloggers—who utilize its full potential to stimulate this wonderful thing called "change."

Monday and Tuesday morning bloggers relayed the following:

Featured on Slate's Campaign 2008 blogroll, the Kausfiles' "Waiting for Obama's Pivot" divulges further into Sen. Barack Obama's recent speech about race, but in terms of "A Kinsley Gaffe."(A "gaffe" is the term used to define a politician telling the truth, and Michael Kinsley is usually attributed for the meaning, making it a Kinsley Gaffe.) According to Mickey's Kraus' interpretation of an "official definition," a Kinsley Gaffe, for Sen. Obama's case, is "when a politician says what he or she actually thinks (whether or not it's the truth)." This motiff of a Kinsley Gaffe is used to explain what Sen. Obama, according to Kaus, meant in his speech concerning the problem of race, and its consequences in the campaign. The blog, however, also briefly grazes on an incredibly new issue: robo polling.

Robo polling, a product of Rasmussen Reports, can potentially and dramatically affect the outcome of national polling. Instead of the traditional telephone interview process, voters are asked simply to press a button in response to the automated voice's question, typically, acquiring a "yes/no" or "this/that" answer. Robo polls aspire to create a more open and honest public by eliminating the intimidation felt by the public from sharing their views with another human being, while also limiting the actual output made by the public. Although this technique may not be new, its swagger, in this case, seems to be building.

The Grand Old Party's nameless blog over the past week has focused the endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama by former aspiring Democratic presidential nominee and New Mexico Governor, Bill Richardson. Particularly, the post explores potential reasons why Gov. Richardson would endorse Sen. Obama instead of Sen. Hillary Clinton. Their answer: An "eagerness to negotiate with foreign leaders who aren't exactly U.S.-friendly."

Currently on The Daily Conservative--a conservative values blog written by a relatively young, everyday man named Patrick Britton--a post deliberates about many of the stigmas and tendencies, as the author has seen them play out, within the Republican party. Britton says, "[the Republican Party] can't expect Ronald Reagan to reincarnate into a candidate for us all to vote for. It's obvious that this is what the party expects." Britton's site is a true blog, providing all commentary from Britton's point-of-view.

On the Democratic forefront, 2008 Democratic Convention Watch, an unofficial Democratic blog dedicated entirely to the Democratic race for the nomination, the topic of the day is scandal. Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, also a superdelegate, is being charged with twelve counts of crime including perjury and conspiracy to obstruct justice, among others.