In a presidential campaign where the benefits and drawbacks of online outreach were a continuing storyline, political bloggers have found themselves with a unique vantage point. NationalJournal.com asked a variety of top bloggers what role bloggers in general and they in particular played in this election cycle. Their answers described a familiar dual role of activist and watchdog, with a few surprises in addition.

Here are their picks for what to expect on Election Night, and keep reading below for their views on opening up the political process and monitoring the media.

Getting Involved

This cycle I think the walls between blogs and traditional media really broke down, as most traditional campaign reporters now have a blog or blog-like outlet. Under the circumstances, the influence of blogs became all-pervasive, but also hard to isolate. In the primaries, I think you can see broad influence. John Edwards' message was hugely popular online, and though this didn't translate into success for his campaign, it did encourage both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to substantially move in his direction on a lot of policy fronts. Similarly, support on progressive blogs for things like Obama's commitment to high-level diplomacy with rogue states helped turn what could have been a gaffe into a small political win for a position that's gained more and more support over time.

-- Matthew Yglesias, Think Progress

The most important impact of blogs in the 2008 election is not fundraising or voter mobilization -- the impact there is relatively trivial -- but their ability to influence the awareness and conventional wisdom of political operatives, the media and high information voters. Blogs are the echo chamber of the elites.

-- Jon Henke, The Next Right

I think bloggers played a valuable role, but less so than in 2004. From my perspective, it was pretty clear that the Obama campaign never wanted or courted bloggers or the netroots at all. He and his team had their own plan, and it appears as if it worked. Bloggers certainly helped to raise critical money in downballot races on a state-by-state basis. And I think this is where the real future of political blogging lies: the local blog as gadfly and possible fundraiser. It's a situation not without risks, to the officeholder and blogger, but the day of big blogs dominating the fundraising is probably over. And that's a good thing. The more spread-out and dispersed the power of the blogs is, the better.

-- Sean-Paul Kelley, The Agonist

Most partisan blogs that don't do dispassionate essay-length analysis probably don't sway many people other than facilitating a change that was on its way anyway -- like skimming the steam off a hot cup of coffee. A blog like mine can help in adding heat to that fire and demonstrate that there are alternative worldviews out there that are viable as well as offer open arms for anyone who wants to join in -- particularly if they agree on other of the blog's positions.

-- Martin Solomon, Solomonia

It surprises me and awes me when people who are too busy to follow downballot races and issues thank us for helping make it easier for them to understand the issues and get some insight into the candidates. DWT also played a role that combines blogging and activism, and with our allies at Crooks & Liars, Firedoglake and Digby, we raised over a million and a half dollars for progressive candidates.

-- Howie Klein, Down With Tyranny!

In general, bloggers on the right have had less of an impact in this election cycle than in 2004 -- with the mainstream press having increased its influence, despite losing readership, if only because of its astonishing bias in favor of Barack Obama. I have no doubt that but for the active aid given Obama by the press, he would have lost the Democratic primary. If he wins the general election, the press will almost certainly have put him over the top.

Bloggers on the left fairly early on fought an internecine battle for the soul of the Democratic party. The progressives came out on top. Whether that proves to be beneficial to the party remains to be seen, but the progressive bloggers had a major influence this election season. Whereas conservative bloggers could do nothing to stop the GOP from nominating John McCain.

-- Jeff Goldstein, Protein Wisdom

Daily Kos and other liberal blogs have been a rallying point for progressives and activists to identify candidates to support, to fundraise on their behalf, and to follow the election news as a community. In addition, we have provided a new daily tracking poll (Research 2000) and all of its internal data (as well as daily interpretation and context) so that both the status of the presidential election campaign and the way it's measured can be as transparent as possible.

-- Greg Dworkin, Daily Kos

When you sit out an election without backing a candidate, you become painfully aware of how easy it is for blogs turn themselves into an echo chamber for their side's talking points. Not attractive.

-- Walter Olson, Overlawyered

Centrist blogs such as mine, The Moderate Voice, don't really play as much of a role since we have no built-in "constituency." Blogs on the right and left rally the partisan troops, get people out on the hustings to vote, and get others to vote. But blogs have evolved largely into partisan op-ed pages read by those who already agree with what the blog publishes before they even log on. The left blogs have had more influence in terms of helping raise money.

-- Joe Gandelman, The Moderate Voice

The right-wing blogosphere has become an extension of the "Murdochization" of media and politics in the United States. It's no wonder conservatives like Patrick Ruffini pine for a real movement that can get good candidates elected. Left-wing bloggers have become adept at affecting elections, yet the impact of progressive bloggers in setting not just "the message," but a progressive agenda, has fallen rather short.

I've said this a few times in public and it's more a wish than a forecast: Grassroots politics online have the ability to become a force to reckon with outside the two-party system. Yet it's probably going to take a few more national election cycles -- or political and economic catastrophes -- for "The People" to do something about it. As it is, the "political blogosphere" remains nothing more than a rather uncomfortable extension of both parties and the mainstream media. As one of the first wave of digital activists (predating my blogging by four years), this arrangement doesn't satisfy me one bit.

-- Liza Sabater, Culture Kitchen

Bloggers went back and forth trying for political advantage. But it seemed like there was this one game of inside baseball going on, while the campaigns operated in a different sphere. To mangle my metaphor further: We were playing ping-pong while the candidates were playing chess in another room. While I guess that Democratic bloggers did a better job of getting out the vote, I don't think that bloggers convinced many not already committed.

-- David Gerstman, Soccer Dad

Bloggers in California have been enormously powerful in controlling the narrative. For example, progressive blogs across the state were able to drive the media narrative about Proposition 8 to the question of who is donating to the Yes on 8 campaign while driving over $1 million to the No on Prop 8 campaign.

-- Brian Leubitz, Calitics

On both sides, we are read by the activist class and partisans. In the primary, that meant a lot of influence, even among the media. In the general, the only blogs that drove the media were high-profile left-leaning ones like Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo.

-- Soren Dayton, The Next Right

Latino bloggers have played an important role. The Sanctuary blog (Promigrant.org) secured answers to a comprehensive questionnaire on immigration from the Obama campaign and the much-ignored Cynthia McKinney campaign. Given the hype around the Latino vote, independent Latino blogs have played a critical role in breaking down the messages being sent by both campaigns and getting behind the messages.

-- Maegan La Mala, Vivir Latino

A limited, yet still significant, role. The blogs are but one additional avenue for citizens to communicate and share their ideas about the nature of the campaign and what direction they feel the country should go. Bearing Drift has given those who feel they need more detail and more information about the campaign to not only have a source, but a place to interact.

-- J.R. Hoeft, Bearing Drift

Holding the primary candidates' feet to the fire. Debunking right-wing spin. Promoting individual engagement in the electoral process (through comments which have generated communities of commenters.)

-- Jeralyn Merritt, TalkLeft

I don't think blogs play as much of a role as we'd like to think. I think that mostly we're playing to people who already agree with us. The undecided probably aren't trolling around political polls trying to find out more about the candidates.

-- Betsy Newmark, Betsy's Page

The number and diversity of blogs have served to inform more people about the 2008 election. Our blog The Back Forty has focused on highlighting issues of concern to rural voters, a key white-hot demographic in the presidential race.

-- Matt L. Barron, Rural Votes/The Back Forty

Blogs continue to provide up-to-the-minute coverage and commentary (especially commentary) on the election. They represent a longstanding American tradition of passionate observations on politics combined with the instantaneousness of current technology. I have attempted on my own blog to provide a reasonable perspective in an increasingly partisan blogosphere, although the degree to which I have achieved it is up to my readers to decide.

-- Steven Taylor, PoliBlog

The role of bloggers has been smaller this year than most thought; at least, the role of moderate and/or conservative bloggers, that is. Still, my blog has succeeded in informing thousands of readers every day, from a moderate to conservative perspective, forcing said readers to think about both the candidates, rather than speak with those who agreed with them on everything already. It has become clear to me that most of our readers are increasingly feeling that both candidates have their weaknesses. As such, I would say that we have brought a bit of realism back into the debate; neither are evil, neither are purely good.

-- Michael van der Galien, PoliGazette

Monitoring The Media

Except for Joe the Plumber, which saw Obama creating and McCain capitalizing on an issue, every single important Obama story wended its way through the blogs before bloggers were finally able to force it on the mainstream media (which, immediately, attempted to defuse each story's impact). In other words, it was the bloggers who acted as journalists in this election, while the journalists acted as political operatives.

-- Bookworm, Bookworm Room

If we define "blogging" to exclude the on-line newsgathering of, e.g., TPM or Politico.com, then blogging remains a fairly marginal activity. If we count Media Matters as a blog, then the impact has been profound, both in refuting specific lies and in changing the incentives facing reporters and news outlets. Blogs had some role in shortening the cycle time between a false charge and its widespread refutation, and some role in holding reporters and news outlets accountable for accuracy. If Karl Rove, opus III, didn't work as well as the first two opus numbers, maybe the institution of blogging gets a piece of the credit, but a small piece. If we count Drudge as a blog, then a substantial role also in spreading false charges, typified by the "B for Barack" fakery.

-- Mark Kleiman, The Reality-Based Community

The investigative journalism the media refused to do. Lone individuals vetting the candidates. I am a lone blogger, and I broke the massive campaign fraud story, the birth certificate forgery story, Obama and Odinga. The media have thrown their reputation under the bus to drag Obama over the line.

-- Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs

I think bloggers have trained the media to understand that there will be an immediate, coordinated and sustained reaction when they try to inject bias into coverage. The problem with this election is that many liberal bloggers used those same hated media tactics against Clinton in the primary, undermining their own credibility with readers.

-- Susie Madrak, Suburban Guerilla

Right-wing blogs, including mine, played a major role in outing the foibles and negatives of Barack Obama. My site, for example, broke the story of his Nation of Islam staffers; pressed the point of his close ties to Louis Farrakhan, despite claims he cut Farrakhan loose; and began the discussion of Obama's Muslim family background and his tight friendship with haters of Israel in the Arab American Action Network. My blog was later copied by Los Angeles Times writer Peter Wallsten, who contacted me in writing and let me know he was going to use my work (which he did uncredited), which led to the disclosing of the existence of the tape now being held hostage -- the tape that shows Barack Obama's reaction to anti-Israel and anti-Semitic statements at a dinner with William Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn and Rashid Khalidi. I also broke the story of the likely source of the tape, Ali Abunimah of the Arab American Action Network, which was the third-most-blogged-about politics story on the Net, according to Yahoo, on Wednesday. On the GOP side, my blog helped keep John McCain honest and led him to dump Hezbollah supporter and convicted insurance defrauder Ali Jawad from his campaign.

-- Debbie Schlussel

Front-line position revealing and excoriating the sexist coverage Hillary received, from Eric Adelman at DoD, to Robin Givhan's "cleavage" column, to Keith Olbermann. Sadly, some prominent progressive male bloggers mimicked them. The good news is that the maturity of the blogosphere allowed everyone to come together once Obama won the nomination to fight the smears mounted by Republicans, providing a front-line defense that jumped from Web to cable to traditional news outlets.

-- Taylor Marsh

The mainstream media's coverage of this presidential election is the worst since at least 1968 (the first election I followed closely). Much of the MSM have functioned as Obama surrogates. Much of MSM have been even barely even attempted serious coverage of issues and candidates' backgrounds. Many blogs, including the Volokh Conspiracy, done the job that the MSM hasn't: careful analysis of policy proposals of the various candidates, and examination of candidates' backgrounds, network of connections, and fundraising practices.

-- David Kopel, The Volokh Conspiracy

Blogs and their bloggers have served as media filters, amplifiers, and most importantly, as a sort of binding agent that filled in the gaps of political coverage left by the mainstream media. It's made me realize how big those gaps in coverage were in the past -- a scary realization. As a result of bloggers, I think more of the electorate is more educated about how the political process can work and how it actually works. Most of the time I've felt like my job was just to point out the obvious -- the last eight years were full of incompetence, corruption and failures.

-- Tracy Viselli, Reno And Its Discontents

I think blogs have become a substantial portal for many Americans and people abroad to get their political news -- particularly as the mainstream press seems to tilt towards extreme homogenization. Independent blogs and those owned by mainstream vehicles are more agile and quick to publish, adding to the overall excitement in news flow. I think blogs have mattered in second-tier issues -- helping Joe Biden to beat Evan Bayh in the VP race with a blog-based "surge of concern" and helping to give a giant echo chamber to significant doubts about Sarah Palin.

-- Steve Clemons, The Washington Note

Bloggers offer something news media does not, and that is links to the information we use to form our opinions instead of just interpreting the information for their readers. That helps people who are undecided.

-- Susan Duclos, Wake Up America

I'd like to think that the liberal blogosphere went some went some way toward rebalancing the debate somewhat, and that we will be even more successful in the future. I think we did a good job of helping to de-spin much of the right-wing rhetoric and pushing forward our own points. I hope I helped.

It worries me that we weren't necessarily so good in the primaries, actually helping to further some anti-Dem talking points when the RNC pushed them out against the candidate we didn't support. But people are human; I don't expect them not to lean with their biases. On the other hand, I did expect people who'd been through the GOP's war on the Clintons to be forearmed against that kind of thing.

I do think the support of bloggers for Rachel Maddow helped get her the MSNBC show, and I believe that means liberals have had an increasing media presence.

-- Avedon Carol, The Sideshow

Conservative blogs did what the dinosaur media refused to -- vetting Barack Obama. I wrote articles on Black Liberation Theology and Obama's connection to the Nation of Islam and the Saudis through Khalid al-Mansour that went viral, and the media wouldn't have mentioned Obama's illegal campaign contributions or ACORN's voter fraud if not for blogs. And blogs were used by the Obama campaign to skew comment sections and opinion polls, as several operatives have admitted.

-- Robert Miller, JoshuaPundit

Broadly speaking, they vastly improved the depth of media coverage of the campaign. More specifically, and in laundry list format, they provided by far the best polling and delegate coverage; the best campaign event coverage; the most detailed paid media coverage; the most detailed discussion of policy proposals; the least amount of time spent on idiocy like "lipstick on a pig"; and also did a lot more to get people involved in the process than any other medium. Also, on major political issues of the day, especially the bailout, the blogosphere was virtually the only place that actually held a debate on the merits of the bailout, rather than assuming that whatever was proposed should just be passed immediately.

-- Chris Bowers, Open Left

We have exposed issues the mainstream will not touch, i.e. Obama's mysterious birth certificate, the psalms and hymns delivered unto him. Reminding the American people about the looming reintroduction of the Fairness Doctrine, etc.

-- Bob Parks, Black And Right

Mass media is about one-way messaging, from provider to consumer. Through blogs, perspective now flows the other way also, from news consumers to mass media. We the People are no longer just voiceless demographic groups to be marketed to. We are joining the nation's political discourse and challenging the slick, empty talking points that have dominated election cycles in the recent past.

-- Barbara O'Brien, The Mahablog

Blogs have elevated dozens of stories, particularly scandals or faux scandals, to the national consciousness. In a handful of cases, notably the revelation of Barack Obama's unfortunate comments about "bitter" people in the working class who "cling to guns and religion," bloggers have broken the stories. More often, they have simply highlighted them and forced wider discussion. During the primaries, they were a major vehicle for discussion of the merits of the various candidates. During the general election, especially on the Republican side, they have been leaders in internecine debates about the nature of party loyalty while holding leaders accountable.

-- James Joyner, Outside The Beltway

Pretty much the same role as always, which is to amplify and expand upon reporting and discussion of the issues, especially those beyond the reach and/or depth of the mainstream media. Our role continues to be to report on the extremely cozy and complementary relationship between Fox News and the Republican Party. Has there been a single Republican talking point that has not been turned into news or a discussion "question" on Fox News? I don't think so. I'm heartened to note that along with the rise of blogs has come a heightened public awareness of the media's role in what we perceive as "campaign issues."

-- Ellen Brodsky, News Hounds

I think that blogs have reported the stories the media hasn't this election cycle. From the unfair treatment of Sarah Palin to the lack of coverage of Obama's fraudulent fundraising, it's been blogs that have pushed many of the biggest stories in the election.

-- Rob Port, Say Anything

I'm proud that the community of bloggers -- both front-page admins and the community -- at Blue Hampshire has been successful at pushing the media narrative from time to time both during the New Hampshire primary and the general election. More and more, the micro-level of coverage we can provide on daily political news in the Granite State has an effect on the conventional wisdom, or at least effectively challenges the conventional wisdom.

-- Dean Barker, Blue Hampshire

The influence of bloggers could only help but increase since 2004 as the use of the Internet -- and blogs in particular -- has proliferated. Bloggers serve as a check on the old (mainstream) media, keeping them as honest as possible. Here in Delaware, Colossus of Rhodey, in conjunction with other Delaware bloggers and Internet talk radio, has done just that in '08.

-- D.S. Hube, The Colossus Of Rhodey

The role of bloggers this election cycle is not that different from 2004. The change has been in the respect gained for blogs by the mainstream media. Now when we call bullshit on an attack, it's reported by CNN. As for me, the Rude Pundit? I'm just the court jester, and that's how I'll stay.

-- Lee Papa, Rude Pundit

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