At the Tipping Point
OK, a quick caveat first of all. This post is entirely apolitical. I have no opinion, for or against, former U.S. Senator Gary Hart. I don't live or vote in the U.S.; I don't know anything about Hart's record beyond the little I've read on his blog.
Did you catch that?
I said: "'his BLOG"
A potential democratic presidential candidate in the 2004 U.S. election has a blog.
No way of knowing whether Hart is actually posting the blog entries himself. Candidly, I doubt it - I imagine one of his staffers is probably doing the posting for him (perhaps Kevin Thurman, the blog contact listed as "kevin at garyhartnews dot com").
But whether he's using a ghost-blogger or not is just so not the point anyway. Who cares? The point is - indirectly or by proxy, here's a potential presidential candidate acknowledging the importance of blogging and bravely dipping a toe into this new kind of conversation made possible by the Net. Emergent Democracy, indeed.
Clock this:
Now that America is at war and our economy continues to deteriorate, it's even more important that alternative voices and views are heard. I intend to be one of those voices, and I welcome your responses. To further this undertaking, I am starting a blog here on www.garyhartnews.com. The Internet is clearly the most important new medium to help increase people's involvement in a "primary of ideas." ... I'm committed to using the Internet as a vital tool to engage people on critical policy matters and the future of our country.
Of critical importance, the blog has commenting enabled. Moderated commenting, of course, but with a fairly open editorial approach:
In order to maintain an open online community environment, it is our wish to provide a means for allowing thoughtful comments on the Gary Hart News Blog. This includes both comments in support of the ideas presented in the blog postings, and comments in contradiction to those ideas.
Pause for a moment to extrapolate from this. Ponder a future America in which a democrat President sits actively blogging from the Oval Office.
I tell you, if that ever happens, brothers and sisters, the Cluetrain will surely have arrived at Pennsylvania Avenue.
Gary Hart's blog ANDs the world of political debate in America, and that's why I'm so godalmighty pumped about this.
I couldn't give a stuff about his politics - the fact of his participation is enough for me.
So congratulations, Mr. Hart - and welcome indeed to the blogosphere.
Presidential hopefuls and the guy in the convenience shop. w00t!
