The benefits of blogging, The Hill.

Discussions and debates about public policy issues are taking place all the time within the blogosphere — with or without your organization’s involvement. While the concept of blogging continues to be met with skepticism and reluctance at the C-Suite level, the D.C.-based offices of corporations and associations should nonetheless consider creating a blog as part of their overall communications and lobbying strategies.

Google Launches "In Quotes" Project To Compare US Presidential Candidates, Search Engine Land.

Google has launched a new labs project named In Quotes. In Quotes allows you to compare quotes between the two US Presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama.

The House adjourned this morning without considering energy legislation. Nancy Pelosi and company were quick to make an exit, turning off the lights and the microphones in their wake. But some House Republicans stayed on the floor. At 3:30pm, they're still on the floor staging what's being called an "uprising" and a "revolt."

The lights are off. The microphones are off. CSpan isn't taping it. Nancy Pelosi "sent Capitol Police to clear the press gallery [and] lock the doors" according to news on RedState, but "Reps. Bunt, Shadegg, and Hoekstra have been taking turns remaining with media in the gallery in order to keep it open."

This revolution is not being televised. But thanks to online communication we know about it. It's on blogs like RedState, it's on the Twitter feeds of Reps. Culberson, Boehner, and Hoekstra. And now it's spreading as one person brings it up to another. I just mentioned it to a non-political friend in Texas. Her response? "Wow. This is like old school politics. This is amazing!"

This revolution is not being televised, but who the hell cares? To borrow from Rep. Culberson's tweet this morning: "Here is a powerful use of social media - when they turn off the mike we can still communicate."

Earlier this month, Kathryn Stetz of Qorvis Communications e-mailed TechCrunch, the world's second most popular blog, asking to "order[] a reprint on an article" that appeared there.

The response, a couple weeks later, came from the blog's founder and co-editor, Michael Arrington: "We're a blog. We don't do prints, let alone reprints."

Oops. Or as former Qorvis staffer Jesse Thomas comments, "Selling digital PR and not knowing that TechCrunch is a blog is definitely an embarrassment."

Yet before we scapegoat Qorvis, it's instructive to consider the context in which this snafu might have taken place.

First, I'd bet that Kathryn isn't an account executive. People who exclude a title from their e-mail signature tend to be interns. Indeed, the task of requesting a reprint is one usually delegated to interns.

Second, the request to reprint is probably prudent. After all, reprints take place offline, and in the absence of a hyperlink, which is the conventional form of credit online, it's worth asking if the blogger wishes to be cited in a particular way, or if he wants it noted that the material is copyrighted. (Indeed, one benefit of such a seemingly trivial request is that it establishes goodwill and opens the door for future pitching.)

Still, the fact remains that Qorvis screwed up: Bloggers should be treated with the same respect accorded to their old-media counterparts.

Of course, if such blunders can happen at a powerhouse firm like Qorivs, can't they happen at your firm, too? In fact, it's likely they already have.

This morning, I jumped on a bloggers conference call with Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (MI-11). McCotter is the chair of the Republican Policy Committee, and a few months ago he spoke to the weekly bloggers briefing hosted by Rob Bluey at Heritage.

I was a few minutes late, so I missed the Congressman’s introductory remarks. But they’ll be hosting more of these calls to reach out to bloggers in the future, and you can contact Bettina Inclan at - bettina (dot) inclan (at) mail (dot) house (dot) gov to get the details.

Standard disclaimer - I’m a blogger, not a reporter, so some of these remarks are paraphrased.

2008 Initiatives
McCotter was asked what policy initiatives were on tap for 2008?

We have to bury the past. Our policies became about numbers, not about helping people. We have to bring back the centrality of people to policy making.

On the Democrats

Big government doesn’t stop chaos, it is chaos.
They [Democrats] are intent on taking more peoples’ money.

On Michigan

McCotter stated that Michigan, his home state (and mine) is tracking just like the National Democrats.
The Democrat Governor Granholm has been pushing through tax hikes to “protect government”. And this will backfire against the Democrats politically.

Roll of Political Blogs

They offer the ability to get your message out.

Representative Kingston, among others have paved the way for Republicans in the House to reach out the bloggers.
It’ll be the younger members who really embrace the medium though.

McCotter also said that at the Republican Policy Committee, “We’ve learned from our failure to communicate from every medium we can find.”

Communist China

We need fair trade with free nations.

We should not be trading with Communist China. Trade with that country is imperiling trade with Latin America and other countries. According to recent polls, a majority of Republicans think free trade is bad for the U.S. not because of trade with other countries. It’s because of trade with Communist China.

On a similar note, here’s McCotter speaking on the house floor about China’s decision to ban Bibles at the upcoming Olympic games in Beijing.

Special thanks to Congressman McCotter and his staff for continuing to reach out to bloggers and working to make an impact in the modern world.

A few months ago, Morra Aarons at techPresident and Blogher started a discussion about women and political blogging. At first I rolled my eyes and cited a few statistics from Pew and IPDI about men and women using the web for the same activities at equal rates. Then the NYT Caucus Blog delved into the topic a bit more. Earlier this week, I took a more irreverent stab at it, but some of the comments at the NYT have a point.

Men and women are using the Internet at the same rate for gathering news, sharing videos, checking e-mail and blogging. We know what people are doing online, but do we know why?

There's a perception problem that far more men are engaged in online politics. Sairy at Blogher does a rundown of leading women, but note that most are grouped together at sites like Blogher or specific policy issues. Women are engaged online, but in different places than political blogs. They're hanging out at mommyblogs, feminist websites, cancer support groups and craft forums. While the focus of these blogs and forums may not be political, their insights and topics reflect what women encounter in their daily lives, and politics play a major role. They care less about the horserace and more about the big-picture issues.

What does this mean for campaigns? We've understood this in the media for a long time. There's a reason why candidates and their spouses share cookie recipes, tour the country talking about education and fight for the covers of women's magazines. Female voters respond to these efforts, yet web communication is still one-size-fits-all.

Elizabeth Edwards gained the favor of Democratic women a long time ago with her involvement on the web. She and Hillary took in rave reviews for stopping by the Blogher conference while everyone else failed to have a presence. What about Republicans? Yesterday, the Romney campaign launched AnnRomney.com and is on the right track. There's also Jerigirls.com, started by female Thompson supporters and devoted to all things Jeri Thompson. Does it take a female web director, like Mindy Finn at the Romney campaign, or a dedicated female supporters to reach women on the web?

Blogger outreach and community building are more important than ever. Women aren't going to pick up on the blow-by-blow updates that political blogs cover, yet they will discuss them when it relates to the issues that they care about. They enjoy policy discussions when there's a human interest angle. They don't want soft news, but more interesting packages of news that are deserve our valuable time. If you're still confused, realize that Madison Avenue has spent the past 100 years and billions of dollars trying to grasp how women think.

I can't emphasize the impact of community enough. Mommyblogging started when moms connected with each other through their blogs. Free Republic has recipe threads, and iVillage hosts thousands of message boards. We think about the web in flat, equal terms with every blog or web site connected through a series of social networks or blogrolls. In reality, especially with women, the web is a group of clusters ranging from Blogher to neighborhood listserves like Capitol Hill Mommies. Finding these clusters and understanding how your candidate and his or her issues fit into them can make the difference.

We do this with outreach. Why did Hillary speak at a hairdresser convention? She went where her supporters where. It's time to mimic this on the web.

With the most basic software, it's possible to target the female vote, but it takes time, staff resources, a bit of creativity and the willingness to try to understand women.