Governor 'Moonblog'

No, the computer isn't really fixed, and I'm not really back (sorry, Dan, you're still on the hook for another day or two) - but as I hobble along on this old machine - some political blogging news caught my eye - seems former California Governor, and current Oakland mayor Jerry Brown has launched his own blog.

Generally speaking, I don't buy elected's blogs - sure they're cute and chatty, but I'd bet dollars to donuts they're penned by staff, not officials themselves. Of course, if any elected would chance blogging, it'd be Jerry Brown - I mean, have you seen they guy's offical portrait? 'Nuff said. The Chron article quotes from several comments posted to the new blog:

Blogger Flap advised: "Make this blog 'real' and people will read it. Keep on sounding like a press release and it (soon) will be ignored.''

Finally, there was this prediction from Nora: "It will be interesting to see how a politician handles this medium where all your critics are just as visible as you are. I predict either unprecedented enforced honesty, or you'll get bored with this before the election and it won't matter.''

I agree on both points - also with the idea that blog critics are as visible as the authors. Of course, that can be solved by disallowing comments. And you do have click to see the comments, they don't show up on their own. The pushback isn't usually as powerful as the initial push - but the chatter created by blog comments can make waves. This might be interesting to watch - though I tend to think the nature of public office will foreclose on salient elected blogging.