Mr. & Mrs. Edwards court bloggers

"It’s just a great medium and I’m really glad to have the opportunity to speak without having somebody say what I meant to say, you know, which happens whenever there’s a reporter between you — or even, honestly, your own press people — between you and the people you’re trying to get to listen to what you have to say." — Elizabeth Edwards, interview with Radio Iowa on 1/19/07. 

On December 28, 2006, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards arrived in Des Moines to hold a "town hall" meeting with a crowd of people gathered in the atrium of the State Historical Building, but before he walked into that venue — where the t.v. cameras and reporters were assembled to record his words and movements — Edwards talked with a small group of Iowa bloggers.  (Not me — I was one of the reporters standing by the camera riser, waiting for him to emerge.)

On Saturday, January 20, 2007 (that’s tomorrow), Elizabeth Edwards will meet with a group of bloggers when she and her husband are in Iowa City.  Former Senator Edwards is holding another "town hall meeting" in the U-of-I Memorial Union at 2 p.m. to talk about "President Bush’s plan to escalate the war in Iraq" according to the Edwards campaign release. 

During a telephone conversation this afternoon, I asked Mrs. Edwards about blogs which provide a new means for politicians to connect with activists.

"The ability, using the Internet to communication with people contemporaneously, is terrific.  This medium is not something that’s new to me.  Blogs are a refinement, certainly, and a lot more personal than the old newsgroups that used to exist and actually still do exist.  People who were interested in the same topic gathered on those newsgroups to talk…There weren’t webmasters but there were people who might do the FAQs.  There were sort of leaders on a lot of newsgroups and I’ve been participating on a lot of those probably for a dozen years.

"Here’s what the Internet has to offer.  It is a direct medium between people.  There is no filter.  There is no intervention and that is unparalelled.  If you think back about the way we used to communicate in a democracy centuries ago where people stood in the town square, handing out pamphlets with their opinions on them — isn’t this the closest we’ve really come to that again?  We’ve returned to that which is what we were based on, where people can stand on their little corner of the Internet, handing out their opinions to people who are willing to listen to them.

"…It has the additional advantage of letting people comment on them, so when the next person gets handed that ‘pamphlet’ they not only get the pamphlet, they get somebody else’s opinion about what the pamphlet says.  It is an incredible opportunity for people to communicate.  I am envious of anyone like you who has a blog themselves because although I participate in a blog I find if you’re going to have a blog it requires a lot of attention."

She laughed, and I interjected: "Lots of care and feeding."

"It does," Mrs. Edwards continued, laughing.  "And so I am impressed with anybody who manages to have a regular life and to blog."

"I’m not promising that’s happening," I replied. 

"So it’s the regular life that’s taking the hit," she added.  We are both laughing.

"I do participate in blogs all the time," Mrs. Edwards continued. "I get on other people’s blogs and it doesn’t have to be political. I participate in blogs that might have to do with cooking, you know it’s just a great medium and I’m really glad to have the opportunity to speak without having somebody say what I meant to say, you know, which happens whenever there’s a reporter between you — or even, honestly, your own press people — between you and the people you’re trying to get to listen to what you have to say.

"It’s a two way street, which is really important.  The rest of the medium it’s all you going out but nothing coming in.  Certainly, the going out is important but the coming in is important, too."