Thursday, Jul 24, 2008
Political advertising on weblogs is booming, and some local candidates are raising big national money. Is the Web finally delivering on its revolutionary rhetoric?
Jun 9, 2004 | Most Americans probably don't know who Roy Blunt is, and they probably don't much care. Yes, Blunt, a Republican congressman from Missouri, is an important figure in Washington. As the House majority whip, he is the man responsible for getting Republican representatives to toe the party line -- so, in theory, he might be some kind of hero to folks in the GOP, and a villain to many Democrats. But seriously, Roy Blunt: Not really a name that inspires much passion either way, right? Even the most partisan Democrats would probably fail to pick him out of a lineup.
Yet if you've visited the lefty political blogosphere recently -- sites like Daily Kos, Atrios, Talking Points Memo, Wonkette, and a host of others -- it's possible you have been getting all worked up about Roy Blunt. That's not because the bloggers themselves are ranting and raving about him (they haven't been). Instead, it's because Jim Newberry, a Democrat who's trying to unseat Blunt in November, has flooded the blogs with a slew of anti-Blunt ads. In Newberry's ads, Blunt is no semi-anonymous cog in the Republican machine -- he is the epitome of conservative iniquity.
"Between massive tax breaks, and slipping tobacco company favors into the Homeland Security Bill, Roy Blunt has proven he's the best man that money can rent," reads the copy on one of Newberry's ads. It ends with a tagline that has become a Newberry rallying cry: "Boot Blunt."
Life in the blogs these days is fraught with pitches like Newberry's. Everywhere you look, aspiring politicians are hawking their platforms, or more likely, they're urging you to stick it to their opponents, who are often portrayed as the cause of all our nation's ills. Almost without exception, the blog-based ads for local candidates pursue Newberry's strategy, demonizing under-the-radar opponents by tying their actions to national problems.
"Now, anyone can be Jesse Helms," notes Glenn Reynolds, who runs the popular conservative blog Instapundit, which has published ads for Republicans and Democrats. "In the old days, you could take somebody like Jesse Helms or maybe Ted Kennedy and you could demonize them in order to raise money. With the Internet, you can hit any candidate and raise money by turning him into Jesse Helms for a small demographic."
It's easy to see why so many candidates are hoisting their billboards on blogs: Blog ads seem to offer office-seekers an easy tap into the vein of partisan discontent that (at least at first) worked so well for Howard Dean. The ads hold the promise of donations and, even more important, a community ready to support the candidate on Election Day.
But are they working? Reports from the candidates are mixed. Some campaigns have used ads on blogs to bring money and national attention to their candidates, though many of these people are running in races that were likely to attract attention anyway. Other campaigns report barely breaking even with blog ads.
Part of the problem, observers say, is that candidates are using ads as a substitute for actual communication with the readers of blogs. This is a shame; it wasn't too long ago that people were (perhaps naively) talking about the Web as the thing that would save us from the muck of everyday politics. Blogs were supposed to foster communities of informed citizens -- but the ads on blogs seem to elide this spirit of interactivity. Indeed, most candidates' blog ads have the look and feel of the pitches we're used to in the medium that the Web was supposed to replace -- television.
"I kind of cringe when I see a candidate I like advertise on my site," says Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, the proprietor of Daily Kos. "When they ask me if they should buy an ad, I always tell them to adjust their expectations." Moulitsas feels that instead of buying ads, candidates should just start engaging with the people who hang around in blogs. "I don't want candidates to think of blogs as an ATM machine."
Get Salon in your mailbox!