Goldfarb Mania Running Wild

Andrew Romano of Newsweek's Stumper blog has a great post comparing McCain's official blog, written by our former colleague Michael Goldfarb, and Obama's blog "that might as well be produced by a bunch of robots."

"If there's one word to describe Obama's blog--and, in fact, his entire Internet operation--it's 'utilitarian,'" writes Romano. "Obama's blog is about as interesting as a Club Med brochure." Ouch.

He continues:

The McCain Report, on the other hand, is actually readable. Written by new hire Michael Goldfarb (formerly a blogger at the Weekly Standard), the Report wouldn't seem out of place on any number of smart, substantive conservative websites; it just happens to be an official production. Since launching the blog on Friday, Goldfarb has advanced an interesting (if debatable) argument about how increased taxes won't lead to increased government revenue; characterized Obama's early opposition to the Iraq war as a matter of political convenience rather than bold leadership; and reminded readers that Obama wasn't always opposed to the Bear Stearns bailout. He's even tried a little--gasp!--humor. In an item titled "Take a Chance on McCain," Goldfarb informed "disaffected Hillary supporters" that "John McCain is a huge ABBA fan," then posted a vintage YouTube clip of the catchy Swedish quartet. "We're still working out a few kinks," he writes elsewhere. "A last-minute decision to ditch the lime-green background cost us some time." Needless to say, this is more self-mockery than the earnest Obama bloggers have mustered up in 17 months online.

Romano argues that this is a sign of Obama's advantage over McCain: "while the Obama campaign is essentially a bigger, badder, techier version of George W. Bush's legendary presidential juggernauts, Team McCain is still stuck in its default mode: scrappy insurgent." That sounds like a pretty fair assessment. Then again perhaps each campaign is reaching out to voting blocs they're struggling with. McCain may be trying to appeal to the youth vote with some Goldfarbian panache, and Obama, with his blog that reads like a "Club Med brochure," may be trying to break McCain's lock on the shuffleboard-playing demographic.