John McCain has earned some
accolades from conservatives for holding weekly conference calls for righty bloggers. I've participated in a few of these and always found the back-and-forth discussion to be open, and often, more forward-thinking than many traditional press conference calls. McCain, and his online outreach guru
Patrick Hynes, have flipped things this week by inviting liberal and "non-political" bloggers to join in on a conference call. It's certainly debatable as to whether this sort of outreach is worth McCain's time. He's not likely to sway their opinions, but it does earn him praise and
attention from media outlets like this one for showing a bipartisan touch. It also fits well with his campaign themes of the past week, both in outlining what his first time would look like, and his proposals for combating climate change.
The downside is how those still very touchy conservatives will feel about such outreach. Michelle Malkin, one of the leading voices in the conservative blogosphere clearly
feels betrayed by McCain's outreach efforts:
If he's willing to take questions from hostile liberal bloggers, why
not take some from conservative bloggers who represent substantial
readerships with dissenting views on how best to make this country
"safe, prosperous, and proud?"
In other words, reaching across the aisle is a worthy effort, but it often places between each aisle with both sides pointing attacks in your direction.
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