Indeed, the bloggers had scored big. They had helped vault a local politician to national prominence and cemented the Iraq war as Issue No. 1 in the congressional elections. Not a bad day.I'd go read the whole thing...as a blogger, I'm a big believer that blogs and bloggers are having an impact.But their victory was short-lived. Even before the primary, Lieberman announced that, should he lose, he'd still run in November as an independent. This electoral chutzpah effectively rope-a-doped the bloggers and recharged the senator's fabled Joe-mentum. Lieberman's still the man to beat in the general election.
If this wasn't enough to drain the effervescence from the blogger bubbly, America's noisy Web wags were dealt an even more sobering blow 10 days later when Snakes on a Plane opened nationwide to a decidedly flat $15.3 million box office.
Before its premiere, Snakes had been the latest blogger darling, as swarms of online film geeks prematurely crowned it the summer's big sleeper. This hyperventilating fan base even convinced Snakes' distributor, New Line Cinema, to up the movie's rating to R, to ensure a gorier, more venomous snake fest.
But all that clapping and yapping couldn't put enough fannies in the seats. Ticket sales for Snakes' debut barely topped those of Talladega Nights, which was already in its third week.
Lieberman's boomerang reminds us that voters represent a meager percentage of the total populace and that bloggers are an even tinier subset of that group. Consequently, what appears to be a coast-to-coast juggernaut on a 17-inch monitor is, in the real world, simply an elaborate PC-to-PC chain letter enthusiastic, but not necessarily the national mindset.Blogs are useful as an indicator and as a tool - but don't mistake the world inside blogs for anything but a narrow slice of the world outside them. We may be big fish in our little ponds...but there are much bigger ponds out there....
And yet, as the scrambling suits at Lamont headquarters and New Line Cinema now know, it's easy to be seduced by one's own hype, especially when that hype is preceded by a www. Now it's time to play catch-up ball. Lamont's handlers will have to face a candidate who will surely try to have it both ways on the campaign trail; New Line will have to sell a boatload of popcorn. That's the way the blog bounces.
And some of them probably have snakes in them...
I thought the strong side of blogs was shown when (Australian foreign minister) Alexander Downer called the mainstream media for lying about the war in Lebanon.
So at least I know now that Australia will not be making foreign policy about Israel and this war based on unchallenged lies, with the mainstream media working hand in glove with the terrorists to propagate atrocity propaganda, and allowing no space for any dissent.
This was accomplished by blogging heroes such as
Zombie
Charles Johnson
"EU Referendum" (blog spot, look up corruption-of-media)
and oh, did I mention
Zombie
?
(There were plenty of other good ones including Riehl World View (link) and Michelle Malikin (link), just getting the truth out there, day by day.)
It had little to do with "netroots" and intimidating numbers. Zombie doesn't rate with Instapundit let alone Kos, and even if he did, why should the Australian government care? But Zombie put prodigious work in, and struck a mighty blow for truth, and that is what mattered.
In the wars of the Ancient Greeks, the phalanx took over from the hero; Hector and Achilles had their day in myth, and then the discipline and cohesion of the mass became decisive. A different kind of heroism was called for, one that required that you stick to your place in the line.
The blogs have had no such transition, and I don't see one coming. It's not about toeing the party line. Here is Riehl World view, wisely not toeing the line, but doing what a blogger should do and exercising his own judgment: (link).
Good. Let it remain so.
Hey,
Love the site. I posted yours to mine. Would you mind perhaps doing the same thing for me? Keep up the great work.
Take care,
Mark
I believe this is the first blog post I've read about "Snakes." Maybe they were chasing the wrong geeks.
I still think Left-wing blogs can take a lot of credit for Lamont's primary victory. Strategically foolish, but not something to sneeze at.