What Hath Blogs Brought?

War-blogger Edward Driscoll, Jr. reviews the top ten blog events in The Year of Blogging Dangerously. I played a small part in Driscoll's number two:

Christmas in Cambodia: While the Kerry Campaign managed to pull itself together in the fall to come within a three million votes (and 34 electoral votes) of winning the election, out of the starting gate after the Democratic convention, it was a very wobbly machine. Its first stop, on July 31st, a photo-op at a New York State Wendy's, was brilliantly documented by Mark Steyn, who noted that the real food came not from the hamburger chain that the late Dave Thomas started in the critical swing state of Ohio, but from a nearby yacht club!

At the Wendy's however, Kerry, the ex-Navy man who had only just "reported for duty" at the Democratic convention, received a frosty reception from a pair of Marines who were also dining there.

This meeting foreshadowed two of the most under-reported elements of the campaign: the respect and admiration of much of the military for their current commander and chief, and the loathing of Kerry by many of his former "band of brothers" from Vietnam.

The Swift Boat Vets' ad campaign and their book, Unfit For Command was a certified new media phenomenon. Bootstrapping their ad campaign through contributions solicited via their Website, their first commercial was relegated to late night spots on Podunk TV stations. Nobody saw it.

But actually, everybody saw it: via the Internet. Glenn Reynolds linked to it, and a reader called it "the most devastating political ad I have ever seen -- bar none".

August for Kerry went into freefall the next day with "Christmas in Cambodia". Via Unfit For Command, Hugh Hewitt read a passage from the Senate record from March 27, 1986, in which Senator Kerry noted:

"I remember Christmas of 1968 sitting on a gunboat in Cambodia. I remember what it was like to be shot at by the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge and Cambodians, and have the president of the United States telling the American people that I was not there; the troops were not in Cambodia. I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me."

This story had more holes in it than a swift boat hull full of AK-47 hits. Using his digital camera, Glenn Reynolds simply went to his university's library and took a photo of the Senate record in question, and uploaded it. Even more damning, Reynolds scanned a passage from a 1979 Boston Herald story that sounded like Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia story took life after Kerry saw Apocalypse Now, and its similar plot. Kerry and his handlers started backpedaling, and fast.

Camp Kerry was so spooked by all of these developments that they waited until nearly the end of August for his only appearance that allowed televised Q&A: with comedian Jon Stewart; and even that didn't go well.

My role was this story, publicized by Instapundit and Lucianne, my first two links. It was, indeed, a hell of a year.

More:

Hugh Hewett has a new book Blog: Understanding the Information Revolution that's Changing Your World. Glenn Reynolds has repeatedly praised the book, but it's too recent to have been reviewed (to my knowledge) by the mainstream media. No matter, says the Professor:

Well, he doesn't really need the help, I guess, as he's already up to #98 on Amazon.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Now it's up to #88. And all without a review in the New York Times. Kinda proves his point.

There's just No Escaping the Blog!