Lunch with Bayh

I note below that last week, I deigned to dip below 96th Street for a lunch with Evan Bayh. As the Senator himself remarked, it's no secret that he's making all the right moves for a Presidential run. It's flattering and interesting that Bayh and his staff consider a small meeting with bloggers to be one of those moves.

No doubt, Bayh is interested in also reaching out to bloggers in key states like New Hampshire and Iowa, and it behooved Bayh to meet first with his homestate crowd. This meeting was, like his proto-campaign, an exploration: are bloggers a force to be courted, defanged, or safely ignored?

The answer is probably all three, as individual bloggers vary considerably. It's also unclear how powerful new media are. The blogosphere, Hoosier or otherwise, cannot claim to have propelled any major candidate to office, nor have blogs been as effective as special interest groups at pushing legislation. There are some encouraging signs, though: the Dean campaign pioneered online activism and, most importantly, fundraising. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) is finding persistent support from the quixotic Porkbusters. Astute staffers might already be reading the Kossack manifesto Crashing the Gate:Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics. And blogs quickly corrected Dan Rather when he tried to peddle forged documents as news in the last presidential election.

Ironically, it may be on this last point that Bayh expressed his initial impression of blogs. Bayh styles himself as a dynamic moderate, rising above destructive partisan warfare. He stressed that in order for the national dialogue (and his prospective campaign) to move forward, Republican attacks will need to be blunted. The implied message at the lunch: "And that's where you guys come in."

Whether the (Hoosier) blogosphere is willing and able to come in also remains to be seen, which is, of course, why meeting with them is so important. Like any bloc of supporters, bloggers will need to be wooed. Likewise, in order to continue to have access to power, bloggers will have to demonstrate their value. I didn't really see either of these things going on at the lunch. Perhaps I'm biased because I'm a meta-blogger, but I expected the discussion to focus much more on new media. If it doesn't in the future, I won't really see the point in continuing such meetings. Bayh's staff might not either.

(cross-posted In The Agora)

Comments

[Rob]

I think most of your points are spot-on... I don't think bloggers can make or break a campaign, but I do think they have a significant role to play. Does anyone really think Sen Feingold would be on ANYONE's radar without the support he gets from Blogs like DailyKos?

I'm not sure why you think that you weren't being wooed at the luncheon. The mere fact that Sen Bayh took time out of his day to meet with you is a clear indication that not you have value to him, but that he wants you on his side as part of his home team. Sen Bayh wanted to hear what you had to say, what questions were on your mind. He took those questions and answered them. Some of the answers people liked, some answers people didn't like. But the fact that he took the time to go to you, to seek you out... That in my mind tells a tremendous amount about how the Senator feels about the value of the new media.

If the discussion wasn't about the new media, then most likely it's because that's not what the bloggers invited wanted to talk about. Which is fine, this day was about feeling out the bloggers and what was on their minds and indirectly about the Senator letting the blogosphere know that he thinks they're a valued resource.

I think the blogger luncheon was a success from the Senator's viewpoint. Sure, there have been some less than positive comments about things he said, but for the most part I heard comments about how they were appreciative that the Senator made the time and wanted to hear from the bloggers themselves.

If you don't see more of these type meetings in the future... I'd be quite surprised.