Las Vegas -- Two years ago, the first bloggers credentialed to cover the Democratic National Convention in Boston were treated as a novelty, guests at the restricted club where mainstream media reporters and politicians hobnob.
This weekend, in a sign of how new media is reshaping politics, some of the nation's top Democratic politicians are flocking to the first major offline convention inspired by a political blog, the Berkeley-based Daily Kos.
At the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, politicians, labor leaders and liberal interest groups are swooning before more than 1,000 "netroots" activists, mindful of the groups' ability to spread political buzz and raise quick cash.
One political consultant mused that blogs are creating a pre-presidential primary primary, forcing candidates to stump for online support before they get donations and votes.
Since they hit the mainstream during Howard Dean's presidential run three years ago, political blogs have multiplied. Among ad-generating sites, there are 104 conservative political blogs, according to online advertiser Blogads. But the top 88 liberal blogs generate an estimated 17 million page views a week, five times as many as their conservative counterparts. |