I like reading a lot of what Nate Silver has to write at fivethirtyeight.com
Chris Hayes
Aug 7, 2009, 12:43pm
I think people should put all of this in a bit of context. I know the line from the DNC and blogosphere (which has been very effective!) is these are “mobs” that are “shouting down” and intimidating folks, and that’s clear true up to a point. But I also have to say, I’ve covered zoning variance hearings on Chicago’s north side that devolved into shouting matches and nearly came to blows.
later
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
There’s a pretty fine line here. I agree with your term “effective” — it’s been interesting to watch the number of incoming links to these stories at places like Memorandum. It started out as something that the conservative blogs seemed to pretty thrilled about, and now it’s liberal blogs driving the attention by about a 3:1 margin. For me, it’s not been the most intellectually honest moment in the history of the liberal blogosphere but, oh well, it’s an Important Time, and I certainly think people’s hearts are in the right place and I’ve enjoyed standing mostly on the sidelines and watching it unfold.