Only one blogger that I know of, Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion, had the nerve to run this cartoon about the base arrogance of the convention bloggers. And Rubel is a pro-blogging fanatic, but apparently one with a rare sense of humor. During the entire election blogging scene, with all these guys getting free drinks and being interviewed by CNN, not one blogger made a humble comment such as, “Its a privilege, and I’ll try to contribute something people will appreciate.” Instead you got a lot of, “It’s about time.” Or “We rock.” Or “Now things will change.” Or the ubiquitous, “Wow, free food!!” Curiously the last comment was darn close to what a real journalist thinks, but never puts into print. My fav example of the inane self-absorbed convention post is this beauty found at talkleft.com. And they say the liberals are the intellectuals in the group. Curiously, the blog site is offline now. Luckily I captured the post.

Blogger Bash and Blogger Media

We just finished updating our post on our interview yesterday with Sen. Durbin. To switch to a lighter topic for a minute, we had a great time at last night’s blogger bash. It was at an upscale resturant called Meze. Bloggers were the guest of honor. We got green wristbands which allowed us to get free drinks all night. There were a few hundred people at the party–the non-bloggers had to pay for drinks at the cash bar. We got goodie bags with USB memory sticks and blogger buttons and other stuff. There was a large buffet table filled with excellent Greek food.

We mostly hung out with our fellow bloggers, but we chatted a bit with Eric Alterman of Altercation and the Nation, Mickey Kaus of Slate, some guys that have started an environmental site called DefenderBear.com, a guy who runs a New York performance artist space called Tank. We said hello to Janeane Garafolo of AirAmericaRadio. We didn’t know a lot of people there. When we left at 2 am, the party was still going strong.

Why does this post have the ring of a small-town hick waltzing into New York City and pointing at buildings saying, “Golleee, them’s big!”

Is there a convention blog that I liked? In fact there are quite a few considering my grumbling. I found BlogPolitics on a Trackback and thought it had the right approach with links to obscure but interesting stories and a sense of humor. More importantly BlogPolitics isn’t endlessly pounding the drum for one candidate but insteasd advocating that people get involved. This is a site independent thinkers can appreciate and there are none of the “I ate a cheese sandwish” posts you’d find at talkleft.com (if the talkleft server ever comes back online).

I think what bothers me most was the fact that I could not find any posts where a self-actualized blogger ever mentioned that he or she was being “used.” They got stuck is a far corner at the top of the convention hall and nobody complains. They think this is good treatment since they got a free breakfast, booze and got to rub elbows with a few D-list celebrities. So which of the bloggers got the John Kerry interview?? Well?