A Book about Bloggers & the 2008 Presidential Election

I recently read "Bloggers on the Bus (How the Internet Changed Politics and the Press)" by Eric Boehlert and I think a lot of people who are interested in presidential campaigns and/or political blogs will find it a good read. It covers the impact of the blogs on the 2008 presidential election with the bulk of the emphasis on the primary battle between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.



Writers from blogs that get national attention like Huffington Post & Daily Kos are interviewed ,along with some blogs that get less media atttention . Boehlert also has comments from various campaigns about the impact of blogs and the tone that some of the blogs injected into the campaign,sometimes ramping up passion beyond the point of civil discourse --according to some of the commenters.



This book discussed the reality that politics is about issues, but also about relationships and how commentary that is too incendiary may disrupt relationships to the point that the level of discourse overshadows the issues that people claim they wish to discuss. I am not sure every reader will come away with that observation,but that is what I found.



My goal here is just to bring attention to a book I found to be a worthwhile read.

I am not a book reviewer ,so I have provided some links to people who are.





Here is a book review by the American Journalism Review:

http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4762





Here is a link to an interview with Boehlert done by Mother Jones:

http://motherjones.com/media/2009/07/mojo-interview-media-guru-eric-boehlert



Here is a link to a interview with Boehlert done Salon.Com:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/radio/2009/05/19/boehlert/



It is available in the New Castle County Public Library system.