Blogs

Bush and the Bloggers

By Matthew Felling

September 17, 2007 / 12:16 PM EDT / CBS News

(AP)

In his continuous quest to avoid the mainstream media filter, President Bush sat down last week with 10 influential military bloggers last Friday to discuss the war in Iraq and his decision to implement General Petraeus' suggestions. According to the Washington Post's report of the session:

[T]he hour-long meeting in the Roosevelt Room offered Bush another opportunity to break through what he sees as the filter of the traditional news media, while also reaching out to the providers of a new source of information for soldiers, their families and others who follow the conflict in Iraq closely.
"More and more we are engaging in the new-media world, and these are influential people who have a big following," said Kevin F. Sullivan, the White House communications chief.
Bush told the group that, to his knowledge, it was the first time a president had met with bloggers for a chat at the White House, one of the participants wrote.

(Note to readers scoring at home: Bush was the first president to meet with bloggers. So if you had James K. Polk in the president/blogger pool, bad news.)

And according to one of the savvy bloggers who participated in the chat – named, as far as I can tell, "Argghhh!" (also a presidential interview first, according to my research):

Make no mistake - he knew we were going to generally be a receptive audience, and we were. The staff knew our blogs, and they knew that while some of us have not always been fans or happy with things as they are, they knew we were not going to storm the Bastille, either.

All things being equal, it's a step in the right direction when the Commander-in-Chief engages with the military community in such a way, especially during wartime. But then again, it would also be nice to have him field questions from a less sympathetic audience.

I suppose my feelings are like that of Military.com's Ward Carroll – another participant in the interview — who seemed pleased but not awed:

When it was all over, the bloggers seemed wowed. "All in all, it was an amazing day for Military.com and one I'll never forget," Carroll wrote. "In fact, I'd rank the event a close second to the time I sat in with Cheap Trick. It was that good."

Perhaps if President Bush would open such discussions to a wider circle, it would have surpassed the lofty heights of a jam session with Cheap Trick.

One can hope.