It's been, for years, a standard operating procedure - release bad news on Friday at 5, where it will barely make the evening news, and then get buried in the weekend paper. Come Monday, you can start fresh. The weekend, in theory, is your friend.
Now, not so much.
The Obama campaign seems to have done that last night - releasing, to the Huffington Post, a statement by Obama disavowing the statements of Jeremiah Wright while not condemning the man; announcing in rapid follow up that Wright has left the "Spiritual Advisory Board" of Obama's campaign; and then making the rounds of evening cable news (including a rare, unexpected appearance on Fox News). And, some suggest, that is that.
Let's just say... I doubt it. What complicates the modern approach is that while some things stop on the weekend others go on - the 24 hour news cycle is also 7 and 365, and the weekend will be full of more "analysis" and discussion of Wright, Obama, and paring of various statements. That will give Wright's critics ample opportunity to renew objections and say that Obama has not gone far enough.
Moreover, and I've been meaning to note this for a while, there's a weird split between left and right blogs; many lefty blogs go silent on the weekends. My biggest example is the contrast between National Review's The Corner and TAPPED at The American Prospect; while The Corner burbles merrily on over the weekend, Tapped packs up and goes home Friday at about 5. So to do the new "group blogs" on many major news sites (SwampLand at Time Magazine, for instance); Ezra Klein used to take weekends off, and though he doesn't so much now, his posting is still light, as it is with many bloggers (even Cogitamus, the collection of former "weekend bloggers" at Ezra's... seems to take weekends off). Most of us do, after all, have lives... and solo blogging makes it a necessity to stand down, at some point.
It's a constant dilemma. I've discovered that a missed day means a drop in audience and probably a long term slip due to perceptions of inconsistency. So I try to put up something every day. My model in this is, sadly, Michelle Malkin, whose industriousness at the work of blogging deserves some respect, even if some of her opinions don't, necessarily. But she's not alone: what I've found, trolling the web on weekends, is a greater likelihood that conservatives bloggers will be moving a story forward, while lefty ones will take more of a five day week, with maybe a weekend sum-up. Lots of open threads, "Friday night at the pub" forums... that sort of thing.
As an emphasis on celebrating the "blogging community" that's probably wonderful; I'm not really a joiner, and I can't stand - really can't stand - long comment threads. That doesn't happen a lot with conservatives... because they tend to not allow reader comments. So much for lauding the free exchange of ideas.
So this weekend has a lot of Friday night/Saturday morning sum-ups of the the Obama news dump. There's also a sense growing, I think, that we should all just move on and be done with this (it's "divisive" to talk about race... let's not do it). But conservatives - who, after all, would have more to find objectionable in Reverend Wright, anyway - are not letting this go. And they're reactions are the surest sign that none of this is over.
Myself, I think Obama's statement was a nice try... but it's becoming clear that he actually needs to tackle the context of Wright's comments, not just specific, inflammatory (and easily "condemned") quotes. He hinted at as much in his conversation with Olbermann (which, when compared to his Fox News comments, shows a programmatic, rote set of responses that will also probably not be enough. I have to admit I was slow to realize that the "controversy over Obama's pastor" was possibly more than I saw at first blush. I think a lot of others, also, want to see this as not a big deal... and that'd probably not going to work. The Clinton people, wisely, have pretty much kept away from any comment (and Lord, please let Mark Penn and Howard Wolfson realize that staying shut up is a good thing). Meanwhile, a blog like Daily Kos, which could make some headway on the weekend discussing Obama and Wright in depth... is distracted by a growing implosion within the "Netroots" as Clinton supporters find themselves less and less welcome in Markos' ever more lopsided, shrill, anti-Hillary, pro-Obama leanings. Riverdaughter's own foray into blogging is part of this, and I admire her decision to strike out on her own.
Come Monday, I think, we'll awake to discover that what we all hoped would go away... just won't. More charges, more heat, less light. And me? I don't plan to spend all weekend thinking about it. For one thing it's my Mom's birthday, and though I love you, dear reader, I love her more. Oh, now, don't pout. She's my Mom, after all. It would be easy to say that I write on weekends because I don't have anything to read... but frankly, I write because you don't have something to read. It doesn't solve my problem at all. So you write something: leave me a comment, about weekends, or blogs, or Obama... or whatever. See you later. Much later.
Muito bem, eu aplaudo.
Posted by: lapa | March 15, 2008 at 07:42 PM
I did an informal poll of my parents today (Saturday) to see what their opinions were on the whole Wright kerfluffle. My mother has a very independent streak in her having voted for John Anderson in 1980, and while I've never asked to be sure, I am fairly certain my father voted for Ross Perot in 1992. So, I would say they are the independents that Barack seems to claim. My mother said she didn't care for the whole story of Rev. Wright, and that he is digging up things that have long been settled. Of course, I took your tact and said they haven't been settled, they just aren't being talked about, which kind of made her pause, but it was really too heady of a conversation to have when they were about to be eating bacon and eggs.
Anyway, the bottom line is that it is not playing well in the heartland, and if my parents are indicative, Obama is going to have a tougher time here in Indiana than I thought he was going to have. They don't read HuffPost. So the HuffPuffPiece will never be a part of their world view. I'll be intrigued to see how the Sunday shows deal with it. My parents do watch those (all three of them). So, we'll see if it makes a difference.
On another note, Obama was in Indianapolis today, and Hillary will be in Indiana on Thursday. It is so odd to have Indiana matter. Tres weird!
Oh, and Happy Birthday Mama NYCweboy! :)
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