I don’t know about you, but when I think of Dan Rather I instantly think “blogosphere”. It’s almost astonishing to consider how quickly the media world forced themselves to forget the power of the internet and its community. One of the most influential News Hosts was taken down by a handful of bloggers, and when I say taken down, I mean he went down in flames. But that seems to be long gone now. It’s not even brought up in most related conversations.

The good news is, the blogosphere is alive and well. In fact, I would say the community is sitting quietly, waiting for the 2008 campaign trail to really start heating up. I predict the internet will play a major role in the outcome of the 2008 election cycle and we’ll begin seeing new forms of information dominance move in to play.

A good example of this just dropped in to my inbox. Apparently, Mitt Romney’s exploratory committee is stumbling around grasping for damage control over a YouTube video of an earlier debate where Romney openly supported abortion rights and gay rights. Something he’s since stood against.

Call it the YouTube effect, and it is only growing. The video-sharing site, which less than a year after its founding was bought by Google for $1.65 billion, has revolutionized the transfer of information via video, spawned a number of imitators and forced candidates to recalibrate choices, from their announcement strategies to their staffing decisions.

The Mitt Romney exploratory committee almost immediately launched a video re-stating their claim. You have to applaud the quick action by the campaign team, but also admit that this kind of thing will cause head aches for just about any political campaign out there. And so it should.

Long gone are the days where politicians could dance the night away in secrecy while pretending to be a “public servant” in the public eye. The internet, the social networks, and US, the bloggers, are hot on their trails and we will not let up.

It’s time for honesty. It’s time for transparency. And if the government isn’t going to give it to us, then we’ll just have to provide it for ourselves.

God bless the internet… and God bless America!

-Eric Odom
ConservaBlogs.com