Charlie Crist, a candidate in the 2006 Florida Governor's race has launched a Campaign Blog. The first and only post so far is dated October 4, 2005. The inital post is standard announcement stuff and doesn't really provide any exciting 'conversation' from Charlie. His blog does allow comments and the first one posted noted that the blog lacks a RSS feed.
With a low post volume and no RSS, it will be tough to keep-up with Charlie's blog.
Update: Jeremy has posted some good comments.
I think one of the big things people will be watching is if Charlie is actually writing the posts. Remember all of Katherine Harris' blog posts are written by the 'Harris Press Office'.
Visitor Comments
At least he's trying to embrace the technology. Others should learn from him.
Posted by: Jen | October 18, 2005 11:31 AM
The best political blog I've seen is the Champaign County (Illinois) Clerk blog. This is an elected position and the blog is reasonably open and transparent and allows for comments. The county clerk even reads and responds to comments and questions. The blog is at:
http://www.champaigncountyclerk.com/blogger/index.html
Posted by: Fritz | October 18, 2005 11:31 AM
I think it's vital that politicians truly "embrace" the technologies that work best for them. They obviously need to use the tools that allow them to effectively communicate their message. Blogs seem to be the perfect tool for that, but if the candidate fails to participate, post regularly, be transparent, etc. then what? You lose credibility and need to fall back on more traditional and more costly vehicles to communicate.
The reality is that simply having a blog out there doesn't equal fully embracing the technology, the candidate (staff included) has to hold up their end of the bargain and deliver what has come to be expected of any high-profile blog. That is yet to be determined for this blog, but we'll see.
Posted by: jharr | October 18, 2005 3:28 PM
I would hate to see Charlie Crist elected as Governor. He is an ambitious, self-serving man and does not care who gets hurt as long as it makes himself look good.
Charlie Crist would dishonor the office of Governor. It’s too bad Jed Bush could not run again. Please do not support Charlie Crist.
Posted by: Sandra | August 31, 2006 5:29 PM