The Right Boots Up To Gain Strength Online

Washington Post: Conservative Bloggers Host Inaugural Conference In Texas

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Jose Antonio Vargas.

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On Friday, a Who's Who of online conservatives will gather at the Renaissance Hotel in the picturesque Texas Hill Country here for an inaugural two-day conference called RightOnline. At the same time, less than 12 miles south in the city's downtown sprawl, the heart of the online liberal community is on its second of four days at the Austin Convention Center for Netroots Nation.

Coincidence? Of course not. RightOnline, sponsored by the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, planned it this way.

"We knew that Netroots Nation was holding its conference in Austin this weekend, so we looked at it more as an opportunity to meet them head-on," says Erik Telford, the 24-year-old who is helping organize the conservative gathering.

The speakers include David All, co-founder of SlateCard, the conservative answer to ActBlue, the Dems' online PAC; Robert Bluey, the Heritage Foundation staffer who hosts a weekly meeting of conservative bloggers; and David Almacy, the Bush White House's former Internet director (yes, there is such a job).

Telford knows the right is at a disadvantage online. At the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Committee in February, for example, he remembers how confused many middle-aged and older Republicans were by the job title on his business card: "New Media Manager."

"They thought I was the new hire, you know, the new manager coming in," Telford says. He subsequently changed his title to "Manager of New Media." "It still takes some explaining," he adds.

If the political blogosphere is a boxing ring -- noisy, boisterous, full of punches -- then, for this week at least, Austin is Vegas. ("I think it's really of kind of funny. It's like they have to justify their existence by comparing themselves to us," Gina Cooper, a former high school teacher and the chief organizer behind Netroots Nation, says of RightOnline.)

And this weekend's dueling blogapaloozas glaringly expose the fact that, as many conservatives concede, Netroots and the right-roots don't belong in the same ring, at least right now. Consider the numbers. About 500 people -- including 30 credentialed press -- are scheduled to fill a hotel ballroom for RightOnline. Across town, at least 2,500 people -- including 200 credentialed press -- are strolling through the convention center for the third annual Netroots Nation, formerly called YearlyKos.

Also consider the casts: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, all party bigwigs, are among the speakers at Netroots Nation. At RightOnline, the speakers include Michelle Malkin, Robert Novak and Grover Norquist, icons in the conservative wing of the party but not exactly the GOP's leadership.

But the blogosphere is more than just a boxing ring. On the right and more so on the left, the majority of bloggers, after all, are average citizens activated by the Internet. They're talking back to politics and pols, to Washington, because . . . well, who's going stop them?

Some in the right-roots say that when it comes to online organizing and mobilizing the grass roots, the GOP is where the Democrats were in 2001. Back then, many liberals were disappointed by their party's leaders and felt they gave only lip service to their liberal base. These days, Republicans say they're in the same position. They're upset at the establishment -- because of members of Congress embroiled in corruption and expanded government spending, for instance -- and feel the party has lost its way.

To Micah Sifry, co-founder of TechPresident, a bipartisan group blog that chronicles the Web's impact on politics, the bloggers on the left are "maturing from rambunctious teenagers to young adulthood," while the right-roots is "still in its infancy."

To be fair, the right-roots has had some successes, among them derailing Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court and battling immigration reform. And, as with the left, a loose structure of sorts has emerged. At Heritage's blogger lunches on Tuesdays, Bluey serves as a bridge of sorts between official Washington (say, House Minority Leader John Boehner) and noted bloggers (such as Soren Dayton of TheNextRight.com). Popular blogs such as RedState.com are giving more prominence to local and state blogs, a way to further involve the grass roots. Yesterday, RedState also featured a blog post by Donald Rumsfeld on its front page.

"The point of RightOnline is to get the conservatives focused and engaged and all sitting in the same room together," says RedState co-founder Erick Erickson, who's one of the speakers at the conference. "Up until now, we didn't really have an answer to something like Netroots Nation. We were all doing our own thing, not really working together."

Adds Telford, who until late Thursday afternoon was working the phones and shuttling between Americans for Prosperity's Austin offices and the hotel to make sure everything goes according to plan: "I think this is the perfect time and the perfect place to tell the Netroots: 'Yes, we're here, too. Yes, we've arrived.' "

[lordmi]

Hi, activists, maybe some of you, would be so brave to teach Mcbush how to use computer?

Maybe he still can learn.

I am not sure

[dnsallday]

OK, so should we sit back while the "politically correct" type sell us out and brainwash the kids in public schools? Can you say Arab Palestinian Americans who support OBAMANIAC? You left wing types have displaced the Dem nominee by this secret nutcase and his racist wife. So, we shouldn''''t fight back? After all; we should take your bashing McCain and making him old? Do you suppose you all want to follow up with euthanizing anyone over age 55? Who do you think you are? ABC,NBC CBS drooling around like dogs circling a bone following OBAMANIAC all over a global tour while Americans tighten up belts at the gas pumps, grocery stores and worry for next month''''s budget. (let alone those of us who have a son and a husband who have deployed honorable to the Mid-
East) Give us a break....publish the youth hostels you all are staying in over there on the "grand tour"! yeah right....you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. GO MCCAIN 08 OORAH

Posted by chplraj at 04:16 PM : Jul 19, 2008
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Yikes! As you all can see from Chplraj''s post the dumbing down of America has been an outstanding success.
Better pull those covers back over your head Chplraj before the boogey man gets you. BOO!

[fuzzybear9]

Hello America

Fuzzy have you found the root of all this Political animosity ?

yes I have, I thought about it and then thought about it some more.

and the way I figure the Devil is responsible for all this hate and malice in Washington D.C.

look at the facts,
People running around airplanes with no clothes on,
restroom tapping Senators,
plans for Nuclear Strikes,
greed for high oil prices,
cheaters in the home loans,
famous people going into rehab every other day,
political parties crumbling, greed, malice, pure evil running rampant.

it simply shows that the Devil, is ascerting his full power before the final confrontation, of good and evil, when the Devil will be conquered and all those that listen to him.

sincerely really glad to have a front row seat Bear
Fuzzy

[chplraj]

OK, so should we sit back while the "politically correct" type sell us out and brainwash the kids in public schools? Can you say Arab Palestinian Americans who support OBAMANIAC? You left wing types have displaced the Dem nominee by this secret nutcase and his racist wife. So, we shouldn''t fight back? After all; we should take your bashing McCain and making him old? Do you suppose you all want to follow up with euthanizing anyone over age 55? Who do you think you are? ABC,NBC CBS drooling around like dogs circling a bone following OBAMANIAC all over a global tour while Americans tighten up belts at the gas pumps, grocery stores and worry for next month''s budget. (let alone those of us who have a son and a husband who have deployed honorable to the Mid-
East) Give us a break....publish the youth hostels you all are staying in over there on the "grand tour"! yeah right....you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time. GO MCCAIN 08 OORAH

[ariel133]

The next few years will be an age of government activism. You may think, therefore, that this situation is ripe for Democratic dominance... Yet, historically, periods of great governmental change have often been periods of conservative rule. It%u2019s as if voters understand that they need big changes, but they want those changes planned and enacted by leaders who will restrain the pace of change and prevent radical excess... John McCain%u2019s challenge is to recreate this model. He will never get as many cheers in Germany as Barack Obama, but for a century his family has embodied American heroism. He will never seem as young and forward-leaning as his opponent, but he did have his values formed in an age that people now look back to with respect... If McCain is going to win this election, it will because he can communicate an essential truth %u2014 that people in a great and successful nation do not want change for its own sake. But they do realize that it%u2019s only through careful reform that they can preserve what they and their ancestors have so laboriously built.

[cfin5]

Posted by jtyler271 at 12:17 AM : Jul 19, 2008----HA! Good point! :)

[jtyler271]

Posted by cfin5 at 10:41 PM : Jul 18, 2008

The most self-ignorant kids I knew in school were kids.

Just sayin.

[aj4321-2009]

McCain should learn how to use e-mail.

[cfin5]

Posted by kansas1946 at 10:13 PM : Jul 18, 2008---- That''s so huh? Heh, The most self-ignorant kids I knew in school were liberals. Not much has changed since in their life.

[kansas1946]

The Right Boots Up To Gain Strength Online
Washington Post: Conservative Bloggers Host Inaugural Conference In Texas
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Well, the red-necks will have to learn how to type and spell somethin'' besides "ditto" first.

[libsluv2spi1]

McCain adviser Gramm leaves
hey looks like mccain will be the next total failure!!

[libsluv2spi1]

white is right
vote for mccain!
the south will rise!!

[mr2258]

Ariel-Find out who owns the media and you will have your answer.

[ariel133]

Why is it when the RIGHT has a say they are considered "non-relevant" but when the "left" has a say they are the topic of interest in the MEDIA. Biased reporting should be a law. Once the 300 reporters come back with only "good" things to say, --if there is a bad thing to say about Obama''s trip to Europe, this law will become an issue . One can only hope.

[rowdywicca2]

The Right Boots Up To Gain Strength Online
by spreading there hate on the blogs...