So conservative political blogs and netroots had a "success," with the CBS memos this month? Well, we on the left haven't done too badly either. In fact, because lefty political blogs and netroots have a tendency to focus on more than one issue at a time, we have had many more successes. Here is a partial list:
- Raising, literally, hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of dollars for Democratic candidates and causes, led by Dailykos, Eschaton, online 527's and campaign websites.
- Continuing investigation into the Niger forged documents affair, led by Josh Marshall, and with a tremendous assist from Salon in distribution.
- Bringing attention to the troubles of Lynne Gobbel, the woman who was fired for having a Kerry bumper sticker on her car. After a Dailykos diarist picked up the story, and the story shot to the top of the recommended diaries, her boss was forced to retreat and the Kerry campaign gave her a job.
- Outing openly homophobic Republicans, including two members of Congress and a high ranking GOP staffer. Blog Active led this charge, and was assisted by The Raw Sotry, formerly the Blue Lemur.
- Helping to force Kenneth Blackwell into a retreat over paper stock requirements for new voter registration in Ohio. This was led by everyone really, but started by Dailykos diarist Thistime.
- Forcing Gallup into a public defense of its methodology, led by Donkey Rising, The Left Coaster, MyDD and MoveOn. (link)
- A successful call for MSNBC to dump Frank Luntz, led by Media Matters and Tapped. (link)
There are probably many more victories that I either do not know about or have simply forgotten, but lefty political blogs have had a good month. Even apart from these well-publicized successes, who knows how many letters we have written and volunteers we have organized. Still, with the third quarter fundraising deadline looming and especially with the first debate, tonight we face our biggest challenges of all. We can, or rather must, be a part of Kerry's rapid response team and assist in the all-important post-debate spin. Here is
a list of people and newspapers to email after the debate. Here are suggestions for
what to write in those emails. Here is a way to
coordinate with the Kerry campaign.
Take action. We are seeing a victory almost every day now, and we are clearly making a significant difference in this campaign. Also, we passed out goal of raising $3,000 for Ginny Schrader, who is perhaps the greatest blogosphere success of this election cycle. I honestly didn't think we could do it before the end of the quarter. You guys are unbelievable. I can't possibly ask you for anymore after already beating both goals. I can just let you know that you can still donate before the end of the third quarter, which is tonight at midnight. Thank you and congratulations!
