Bloggers On The Bus-- Don't Leave Home Without It

Netroots Nation is coming up this week. President Bill Clinton is giving the keynote address. I love Pittsburgh-- especially the Andy Warhol Museum-- but I'm not going, I've never gone. I know I should and I usually want to in like February or March. But then something always happens like a trip to Mali or Bali and... I miss out. All that not withstanding, I just had my dozenth call from a candidate or office holder who is going, looking for advise. "What should I do there? Who should I meet?" They all want to know.

They'd be better off asking me about Timbuktu-- awesome place-- or Ubud, Kathmandu, Kerala, Kabul or... how to get to Bush's rancho in the Gran Chaco region of Paraguay. But here's my advice to candidates who are going. It's real simple: always be genuine and never pander. Don't say anything different to the netroots than what you'd say to your constituents back home. If you do, that message will definitely get back home, and probably before you do. Oh, and before you go, get Eric Boehlert's book Bloggers on The Bus. Reading it I learned so much more about people I thought I really knew-- not just from reading their work for years but by hanging out with them in real life too. In fact, despite starting the part about me by likening me to "a golden retriever suddenly blessed with the gift of speech," I recommend the book to anyone looking to figure of the progressive blogosphere and some of the characters populating it. And you can get it right on the first page of the Down With Tyranny Books & Music Store. And so can all the candidates and incumbents with the slightest bit of interest.

And if you don't like to read books, our friend Doonesbury captured the spirit of the blogosphere real well in this cartoon and you should study it carefully: