Netroots Rising

Another day, another successful draft movement? It would certainly appear so, as the “Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President” blog is joyfully declaring “WE DID IT!!!!!”. A bit of background on “Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President.”

*The founder is Adam Brickley, aka “Elephantman,” a recent graduate of the University of Colorado at Colorado-Springs who now interns for the conservative site TownHall.com.

*Brickley created his Draft Palin site (and a Facebook site as well) in February 2007, following what he describes as “about a month worth of research on potential Republican Vice-Presidential candidates for the 2008 election.”

*In true grassroots fashion, Brickley says he was “considerably less than thrilled” about various VP prospects, so he “decided to see if there was anyone better suited for the job that I hadn’t been hearing about.”

*The woman who fit his conservative credentials - “pro-life,” “pro-gun,” “not connected to the current administration,” “a woman or minority to counter Hillary Clinton,” an “energetic, young, fresh face” - was (then) recently-elected Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

*During 2007, Brickley posted 75 diaries on his blog, followed by 151 diaries in 2008. Whether or not you think that Sarah Palin is a good choice for VP - and I most certainly do not! - you’ve got to admire Brickley’s tenacity, especially when almost nobody else was really talking about Palin as VP material.

Did the Draft Palin blog have any impact in Palin’s ultimate selection by John McCain? For starters, Sarah Palin called Brickley Friday evening to thank him for his efforts. In addition, as Slate Magazine’s Timothy Noah writes:

According to both the Aug. 29 Anchorage Daily News and the June 13 Colorado Springs Gazette, Sarah Palin became John McCain’s vice presidential candidate largely through the machinations of someone even younger and less experienced than herself.

In short, whatever the merits of the Palin selection - and I think she’s an atrocious choice on the merits, completely unqualified to be VP and also a right-wing social extremist (opposes birth control for married couples, opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest, favors teaching creationism in the public schools, etc., etc.) - it looks like, once again, the blogosphere has demonstrated that it can wield and outsized influence, whether it’s the progressive netroots or the conservative “rightosphere.” Congratulations to Adam Brickley for taking the initiative and getting involved in his nation’s politics. Also, compliments to the Republicans, who unlike the Democrats actually nurture and support their rising grassroots/netroots stars. In this case, according to Slate, Brickley “receives a $7,500 Ronald Reagan College Leaders scholarship annually from the conservative Phillips Foundation.” It’s not often you read about progressive bloggers, grassroots and netroots activists being supported like that, and as Markos Moulitsas and Jerome Armstrong write in “Crashing the Gate,” that’s a huge mistake.

P.S. One more point I just thought of. Maybe it’s a sign that the corporate media’s finally paying attention to the netroots, but I’m really struck by how much publicity Brickley is getting - tons! - compared to how much publicity Josh Chernila, Lee Diamond, Corey Hernandez and I received - none! - after the “Draft James Webb” movement succeeded and Webb threw his hat in the ring in February 2006. What’s THAT all about?

P.P.S. Of course, the Draft Webb movement was “only” for a U.S. Senate race, while the “Draft Sarah Palin” movement is for the highest office(s) in the land. Maybe that’s part of it, but I tend to think there’s more going on here than that. The dying corporate media may not like the netroots and the blogs, but it’s no longer ignoring them - with exceptions like the Washington Post, which pretty much never links to the political blogs while using their material left and right.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 31st, 2008 at 5:44 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.