The downside of a nutroots campaign

Froma Harrop:

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To run a netroots campaign is to slog into a politically dangerous place. Many online communities are sealed worlds in which everyone uses the same expletives and shares the same radical thoughts. Some blogmasters may think that their large number of hits represents like-minded followers, when it's just tourists gawking at an outrageous show.

Like members of any self-contained group, the Website activists may start thinking they're the norm. In the past, their crazy talk would have stayed in the drunken confines of late-night partying. Now it can be examined by anyone with an Internet connection.

(There's also a lot of double-agentry going on. Bloggers intending harm sometimes pose as allies. They say awful things that sound supportive but actually make enemies in the outside world. So-called journalists find this stuff and quote it as representative of a politician's followers.)

Ned Lamont was very much a political moderate, but his message couldn't break free of the lefty bloggers who helped launch his campaign. Shortly after his stunning Connecticut primary victory over the Democratic incumbent, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Lamont ran ads that prominently showcased Markos Moulitsas, founder of DailyKos.

I asked Lamont whether he would put distance between himself and the leftist blogs, and he responded: "I think they're a great neighborhood to be in. It's like an enormous bulletin board." He also conceded that he was new to the blogosphere culture.

Lamont wasn't even paying Moulitsas, yet the Lieberman campaign managed to link him to the profane language and radical politics of DailyKos. That may partly account for Lamont's failure to pick up enough independent votes to win.

Once a campaign starts stroking checks to bloggers, they're sharing a bed. So while the blogs remain great hunting grounds for Democratic voters, candidates must choose their online partners with great care.

The column begins with Edwards blogress's problems. One has since resigned after not being able to contain her hostility toward certain faiths. I am not one who wanted them fired because I thought they lifted the veil on who Edwards really was. The left wing blogs are more profane and insulting than most of those on the right and probably present more of a culture clash with the rest of the voters when they are associated directly with a campaign.