January 16, 2008
Well, not exactly, but I am very happy to report that Daniel McCarthy has become the chief writer on the “The Daily Dose,” the Ron Paul campaign’s new official blog. McCarthy has contributed multiple times to this website and was formerly the literary editor at The American Conservative magazine. (Some excerpts of his work can be found here and here).
Most campaign blogs are boring. Republican webmasters usually just cut and paste press releases. The Democrats have sometimes attempted a more dailykos-esque fare, but then this kind of stuff only gets interesting when one of the writers goes off the rocker into angry-leftist zone”John Edward erstwhile official scribe Amanda Marcotte didn”t disappoint.
The Paul campaign has achieved its success by harnessing the pro-liberty and antiwar energies on the Internet”webcasting all events, giving live updates of online donations, and generally encouraging the netroots to be creative. Early on, the campaign took part in just-crazy-enough-to-work events such as a visit to the dorm room of an undergraduate named James for a YouTube interview. And yet for a long time, the campaign has been noticeably deficient in the area of rapid-response and general public relations on its website.
Clearly things are changing. McCarthy has not only been able to reply swiftly to concerns of the grassroots, but has also driven the discussion, writing serious posts on inflation and Paul’s likeness to vintage Reagan. Moving beyond the familiar Left/Right divide, McCarthy has responded to the Washington Post‘s criticism of Paul’s message not only by generally demolishing its argument but by reminding the paper that, once upon a time, its editor from 1933-40, Felix Morley, held constitutionalist views quite similar to Paul’s.
A presidential campaign has produced some “official” writing actually worth reading! This is a very pleasant surprise.
