Romney Foes Say Blogging Effort Is Working

One major change in the presidential sweepstakes this year is the use of campaign staffers to feed bloggers negative information about their foes, and it appears to be hitting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney the hardest.



Aides to three different GOP candidates said that research they've provided to bloggers about Romney's changes on key issues like gay marriage and abortion have made it into the mainstream media, impacting the rollout the former governor had hoped for.



"You saw the stuff in every story when he announced last week," said an associate with another candidate, who spoke on the condition that he not be identified. "Every story said that he's changed his positions on the very issues that matter to the conservative base."



A worker for another candidate today noted that the information that's been put out on Romney has become a story on its own, as seen in the op-ed column by Ruth Marcus in today's Washington Post.




Of course, this works both ways. Foes of Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain are conducting the same underground campaign, with McCain being described as an unreliable conservative and Giuliani as an erratic Republican.



"The bloggers right now are where it's at and you [mainstream media] guys seem to be buying into it," said one GOP strategist.



By Paul Bedard