e.politics: online advocacy tools & tactics

Trampled by the Horserace

February 2nd, 2008

Huddled in the e.politics bunker this week with a cold and a big pile of (very welcome) work, I took a little time off from the site to focus on the logistics of living. At the same time, I also wasn’t happy with anything I thought of to write about — every idea that came up seemed derivative. Looking back at the last month or so of posts, I realized that the usual mix of pieces on advocacy, elections and (occasionally) digital political culture had swung almost entirely over to election coverage, and that too often I was basically chasing the story rather than trying to write something original. It’s no coincidence that the handful of stories that covered electronic advocacy more broadly were the ones most picked up by other blogs — they didn’t just follow what was being written elsewhere.

Next time I should listen to my own advice and not get caught up in the horserace. There’s a lot more to the world of electronic political advocacy than the U.S. presidential elections, fascinating as they are. That being said, some election-related pieces are in the pipe, though I hope they’ll be part of a more varied stew in the weeks to come.

– cpd