Blogging the MDP Convention

We're not quite there after all; blogging has not yet arrived as the political force it is elsewhere in the rest of the country.

The first clue should have been the locked door to the caucus room upon arrival this morning. (Photo taken at 9:53 am, with caucus scheduled for 10:00 am; staff at Cobo Hall said we weren't scheduled until 4:00 pm, yet Granholm's advance team is in the hall awaiting her arrival at any moment.)

Their hearts are in the right place, though; the party did realize they should have a caucus for bloggers. The event was a late addition to the agenda; the mailed hardcopies of the agenda didn't reflect the caucus, although the online copy did show a Bloggers' Caucus.

It was a rather intimate affair (once the doors were unlocked and folks and panelists could get in); I commented that I felt more like I was at a 12-Step Meeting for Blogoholics. There were between two and three dozen people in attendance. Quite a few were names I recognize from across the liberal blogosphere.

But what really cinched the arrival of blogs in political process was the repeated pleas from candidates dropping into the caucus to ask for help with promoting their stories and campaigns. We are all of us being enlisted to create the media that is otherwise unavailable to these candidates.

For this we can thank Ned Lamont's campaign in Connecticut; these candidates are aware of the benefits that bloggers brought to the table independently. While they weren't the end-all-be-all of Lamont's success, they did energize voters and make a difference in the outcome worth at least as much as typical swing vote volume.

But will we bloggers be able to pull that off in Michigan for Goverrnor Granholm and Senator Stabenow?

Whew. We have so much work to do.