A quick question about the Social Security debate last year that CT readers may be able to help me with. I remember some newspaper somewhere publishing an article in which un-named Democrats thanked bloggers like Josh Marshall for helping corral the mavericks during the Social Security debate. Does anyone remember where that article is? More generally, actual evidence on whether bloggers did or didn’t influence this debate would be helpful (I’m pretty sure that they did, but hard evidence on this is difficult to come by).
{ 4 comments }
greensmile 12.05.06 at 11:38 pm
MoveOn headed up a strong grassroots campaign that helped turn the red tide of bestowing public money on private businesses…bloggers helped no doubt and Josh was among the keenest critics but people lined up with placards in front of their congressman’s district offices probably did more than bloggers.
someone has to give the mavericks a little of their own credit
Simon 12.06.06 at 9:51 am
I think the importance of bloggers, especially Josh, were to track down the stated positions of all congressmen/senators on the issue. They made sure that no one could say something to a national reporter or on a panel in Washington that differed from the letters they wrote to someone in their district. I don’t know how you quantify the effectiveness of this effort but it did provide a fair amount of the information necessary to keep Democrats in line and to target those people who wavered. For Republicans, it helped generate ‘flip flop’ stories that plagued people into this recent election.
spencer 12.06.06 at 1:09 pm
go to some of the economic blogs like the angrybear, Brad Delong and economist’s view and you willl find a wealth of info on the battle over SS.
Derek 12.07.06 at 4:46 pm
why not simply write to josh marshall at his talkingpointsmemo blog – I suspect he might be able to answer your question and very quickly, too
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