Paid Bloggers

I see the official Allen blog (Jon Henke-Paid Allen Blogger) is taking on Lowell Feld (Paid Webb Blogger) for his comments about George Allen recently.

I think this experiment of "paid bloggers" is turning out to be a disaster.  It's not fair to Jim Webb to have to spend time on national television defending what Lowell or Josh  says.  I'm not attacking any one incident, and I enjoy reading Raising Kaine everyday, but Lowell and Josh are supposed to be commenting on what Jim says- not the other way around!!!

What bothers me the most about this is how obvious the attack is.  Before blogs, if any campaign staffer said something controversial about the opponent in public, it would be used against the other campaign.  This is one reason why field staffers have been banned from talking the media in almost every campaign at every level. Why did the Webb campaign think blogs would be any different?  They are actually worse, because the words are recorded and cached forever.

The Washington Post also covered this topic on the front page last Sunday.  Someone needs to show Jim Webb the latest post on the Allen blog ASAP. I have a feeling he is going to be asked about every one of these quotes in the next few weeks.  If the Allen campaign succeeds in making him address these comments instead of getting his message out in the limited air time he receives, it could cost him the election.

Comments

[brimur]

Yawn. The paid blogger crap gets no one excited. Both sides are distributing their TPs on the sly. No one really cares. Poor Wadhams is just whining b/c his game has been quite effectively used against him.

They can dish it out, but they can't take it.

[Doug]

So, why isn't allens B team blog included in this post? They have linked again to that video that shows people about to die on 9/11.

[brimur]

And another thing. No matter how hoodwinked Ben is by Henke and Co., the Webb campaign should remain on the offensive, never explain, never apologize for highlighting Allen's hypocrisy.

This is nothing new, it's always been a general rule for a candidate to be less negative than his/her staff. Just because it's bloggers instead of people like Dick Wad spouting off stuff doesn't make it some grand conspiracy worthy of note.

[phriendlyjaime]

Boring. Plus the commercial has only been whined about by the right, it has been approved and proven true by everyone else.

I agree Ben, I don't care about this. it is clear the the Republicans are just trying to bait Webb and supporters to stray from the issues again, bc Allen doesn't have a leg to stand on in regards to issues. He loves the drama bc he can cry with Wolf Blitzer. Boring.

[furrycat]

Mountain out of a molehill. The whole paid blog thing is way overblown. They serve a purpose as oppo research and to highlight their candidates. They aren't any different from regular staffers on a campaign who sometimes talk to the media.

One more thing- taking comments off of a particular blog that anyone can comment on and saying this is representative of that blog is just dirty politics.

Allen throws three interceptions and Webb scores 21 straight points and now "Webb is cheating" and "Webb's fans are mean". what ever

phriendlyjaime - Are you talking about the VoteVets commercial? I assume not because it's being destroyed by MSM and fact checking orgs all of the country where it's run.

[brimur]

Anon. 12:09-- Hahahaha, exactly! It repeatedly strikes me that Virginia Republicans are as whiney and one-step-behind in campaign strategy as Dems are everywhere else.

[brimur]

Yeah right, destroyed by MSM like NRO and the Washington Times, hahahaha.

Allen outside groups rip up an American flag to smear Democratic War Veterans and then moan about "unfairness".

[JPTERP]

This story is about as close to a concession speech as you get. Allen's internal polls must really show bad news.

Btw, I can't believe the A-Team is running it's anti-veteran propaganda again. Why does the A-Team hate America?

[William Jackson]

Doug- Allens B Team isn't paid staff.

[Not Dick Wadhams]

Pot, I may be a kettle, but you are very black.

[Doug]

William- neither is Raising Kaine. Riiiiiiiiiight.

brimur - You need to expand your view beyond VA. This ad has run in other states and has been destroyed by the local MSM in each instance. It's too bad because, with some slight tweaking, it could have been a powerful ad.

Rather than lie and say the vest was from Vietnam, just say it was from Desert Storm I. That's powerful enough. Rather than lie and say Allen voted against body armor, just way Allen voted against fully funding troop needs. That would have been powerful enough.

[Lowell]

I'm VERY disappointed in this post. The right wingers are totally lying about Raising Kaine, about me, about the Webb campaign, and this in PART buys into their crazed efforts to spin themselves away from disaster. The Webb campaign, meanwhile, is kicking butt, pulling in money off the netroots like crazy, and kicking Allen's and Wadham's butts. All I can say is, see you all at the victory party on November 7. We can talk about what a "disaster" this blogger experiment has been. Just like we were "killing the Kaine campaign" last year. Hahahahahahahaha.

Doug - Neither the "A-team" or recently formed "B-team" bloggers are paid. RK bloggers (Lowell and Josh) are, without question paid. Allen's only "paid blogger" is Henke on the Allen blog.

[Not Larry Sabato]

Lowell, I can't believe you aren't embarassed by the fact that our candidate is talking about you instead of his issues on national television.

[furrycat]

Disappointed in this post as well. Very weak points in my opinion.

Don't tell me you fold that easily, Ben.

[brimur]

It's freakin' Hardball Ben! Get over it.

Repeat after me: "Whiners aren't winners!"

Keep up the great work Lowell.

People are missing Ben's point. Webb went on national television and the first question he was asked was about the conduct of him paid bloggers. This cannot happen. Any staffer who becomes an issue in a campaign must go (officially or unofficially), whether they did anything wrong or not.

Jon Henke's the last one who should talk. He sold out for cash and became an Allen shill. He's in it for the money and that's it. He'll say what Wadhams tells him to say. Period.

Jon and the cowards who run AllenHQ don't even allow comments - wouldn't want the truth to come out, would they? How obvious can you get? At least the ATeam (supposedly outside of the Allen command and control) allows a few left leaning comments through.

Of course Jon is going to attack Lowell and try to change the subject - Allen's destroying himself this week and that's what Jon's PAID to do. Unlike Lowell and Josh who do this because they BELIEVE in it.

Lowell and Josh helped recruit Webb. Allen recruited Jon. That's about as clear as it gets.

[JPTERP]

I note that Henke's site isn't registered with Alexa.

Thanks to you Ben, Henke's web traffic more than doubled today. Normally he has two visitors (you and his Mom). Now he has at least 12--including 10 Webb supporters. I'm no expert, but that doesn't seem like any way to win an election.

[brimur]

It's standard operating procedure to attack effective staff to neutralize the damage they're doing to you.

Thank god anon. 12:37 isn't running Dem campaigns.

By his logic Bush would have gotten rid of Rove.

KEEP TAKING IT TO EM LOWELL.