Peter Kinder’s campaign learned a hard lesson today. They learned what can happen when you hire out of town “whiz kid” consultants who don’t have a lay of the political landscape of their clients. David All, Kinder’s “new media” consultant, has been very aggressive at courting the Missouri blog-o-sphere – so aggressive in fact – that one of the campaign’s recent overtures to Missouri’s bloggers came back to bite them. A little research would have revealed that one of the participants in a recent blogger conference call was a very partisan Democrat. That same blogger wrote a post today embarrassing the Kinder Campaign. (post below)
A word of advice to Mr. All. Trying to create exclusivity by providing inside correspondence and information to the bloggers who participated in the Kinder conference call seems like a great idea. Unfortunately, what you’ve actually accomplished is to alienate supportive bloggers who may not have been able to attend the conference call due to scheduling conflicts. Utilizing the blog-o-sphere is smart and definitely 21st century – just make sure you remember who your true friends are!
0 responses so far ↓
1 Jim Durbin // Jul 17, 2007 at 3:05 pm
I’d have to disagree with you pretty strongly – David knew Missouri Politics was a liberal blogger – but Peter Kinder is the Lt Governor of all Missourians, not just those who register as Republicans.
Yes, the editor at Missouri Politics has been less gracious than she should have been, but that doesn’t mean it was a mistake to invite her.
Kinder still got the links and the information out – and they are learning as they go along – 18 months before the election.
If bloggers jump on every mistake with vitriolic scorn, they shouldn’t be surprised when they aren’t invited to the table. And it’s spelled blogosphere.
2 Scooter // Jul 17, 2007 at 3:13 pm
Jim…take it easy on the Kinder Kool-Aid buddy and take a breath! Should we be looking for a Kinder ad on your site soon?
I was under the assumption that anyone who wanted to be involved with the call was invited. If MOPNs is not invited to the next conference call……oh well. This was a CAMPAIGN event Jim, not an official Lt. Governor’s event, so it’s more than ok to exclude partisan democrats that probably aren’t going to be fair or vote for you anyway. Do you play a political consultant on TV?
Yeah…he got information out. Information that can be construed as using state property for political advantage!
3 David All // Jul 17, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Hey Scooter – thanks for the shout.
I more than realized that Missouri Politics sees the political landscape through a left-of-center lens. And that’s OK. In fact, we’re hopeful that we’ll have more discussions with her as we move forward.
What Peter is trying to do is engage an honest, open discussion about the state of Missouri and the steps that need to be taken to move the ball down the field.
Right or Left – ideas, thought, and interest can come from all corners of the state.
And that’s what it’s all about.
4 Jim Durbin // Jul 17, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Scooter – I may be the only blogger out there not a paid political campaign consultant. But if Peter Kinder wants to put an ad on my site – he’s welcome to – if he pays for the space. Of course, Sam Page is welcome to also – for the same price.
In fact – anyone I don’t violently disagree with is a welcome advertiser, but my opinion pages are my own.
I am, however, a social media and blogging expert – and if I were on someone’s campaign, I’d be telling them to jump in right now, to work out the kinks in their campaign before the voters start paying attention.
And finally – I wasn’t talking about MOPNS. Bloggers in general have a tendency to jump on new entrants into the blogosphere. This is true for corporations, the media, and politicians. If we treat blogging like a club and snub companies that are honestly trying, we’ll turn off the people who are trying to meet us halfway.
I was thinking about Dell Computer and their blog attempts when I wrote that, not any specific political blog. But then, as I said – I’m a social media guy, not a politician.
5 Scooter // Jul 17, 2007 at 7:35 pm
David,
I understand where you’re going with the new media campaign. It’s smart and I like it. I wish you all the best. I just question how much “honest and open debate” do you expect from Dem bloggers? The most partisan venue in politics right now is the blogs. It’s like George Bush expecting “honest and open debate” on DailyKos or the Huffington Post. Ain’t going to happen
6 David All // Jul 18, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Well, we can try Scooter 😉
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