RSC Partners, Inc.

What a difference a month makes. A few weeks ago, the New York Times sounded alarm bells over Wal-Mart’s effective use of the blogosphere to repair its image, claiming the strategy “raises questions”. This weekend, the Times hailed blogs as a transforming force in American politics.

The Times appears to have awakened to the fact that, unlike television advertising– the longtime backbone of political campaign outreach– blogs allow candidates to target segmented voter blocs directly and to reach geometrically larger audiences via peer-to-peer email distribution.

This is more than just an academic observation– candidates are, in fact, blogging. Specifically, the Times points out that John Kerry, John Edwards, and Mark Warner are scoring early points in the 2008 election through the blogosphere (the New York Times probably doesn’t know any Republicans, but rest assured, they are blogging too).

But this “new” medium is not for the faint of heart. One issue that candidates will have to get comfortable with is the interactive nature of blogging. Unlike a television commercial where a tightly scripted sound bite is delivered with no opportunity for rebuttal, blog readers give as good as they get. So candidates better be prepared to take a few punches in defending their platforms.

Blogs also could deal a potentially serious blow to the time-honored advantage of incumbency. With the efficiencies of the Internet, blogging is a cost-effective way for the cash-strapped challenger to reach voters on a scale similar to that of the deep-pocketed incumbent.

So, ultimately this is a win-wn. Campaigns have a new avenue by which to reach the electorate, and voters have a medum that will allow them to get beyond the spin and the sound bites into a serious discussion of the issues.

Let the games begin!

Politics Faces Sweeping Change Via the Web [New York Times]