Amanda - I enjoyed your piece but I disagree.  Obama kept you at a distance, did no outreach, and said, as Armando points out in his piece, that he doesn’t read blogs.  But Obama-endorsing blogs gave him their money and their space anyway!  Should Obama have been so thoroughly rewarded for this - by a large portion of the blogosphere?  Pretty much all the objectionable stuff Obama has been doing in terms of civil rights and choice was objectionable stuff he said he wanted to do on the campaign trail.

IOW, it’s possible the blogs missed out on a chance to be part of Obama’s inner circle through leveraging their support, and that’s a bad thing.

Well, I supported him for what I think he could do for the country, not the blogs.  There’s a real danger in bloggers seeing themselves as an entity who needs that sort of catering response, because we sacrifice independence for it.

What’s wrong with being catered to?

I think during the primaries, when blogs split off into Clinton or Obama camps, they lost their independence anyway.  People read who/what they wanted to believe.  Were criticisms of Obama scathing enough that people publicly said “we won’t vote for you if you don’t do X…”?  I don’t recall the blogs being that tough on Obama.

I think it is important to note who is spreading the meme that bloggers are in their mothers basement in pajamas. The reason that Obama did not get into bloggers is because he knows that we are a force that he cannot control.  A MSM journalist has to answer to editors and advertisers whereas a blogger need only answer to themselves and it is this independence that scares a centrist politician like Obama.  He knows he needs to control the message in order to continue to be successful.  Until they can find a way to put a leash on bloggers and punish those who stray from the status quo you can be certain that bloggers will always be on the outside.

I wouldn’t have a problem with being catered to necessarily, though in retrospect, our independence should matter more.  But whether I personally am fed or pampered has very little relationship to where I think my vote should go.  Would that everyone felt that way.

Blogging about metablogging is metametablogging.

When will this insanity end?

I didn’t know about his new book, it sounds really interesting.  I ordered it.