Daily Blog Roundup, Day 1 of the 2004 RNC

The first day of the RNC had interesting blogger moments - mostly from outside of the convention, where both Liberal and Conservative bloggers placed their attention. Much of the following information is taken from Technorati's Politics Attention Index™, a new feature on politics.technorati.com where we watch the most authoritative bloggers following the US Elections - both liberal and conservative, and track the stories they are monitoring, and in some cases, breaking.

  • Conservatives happy with McCain and Giulani: Roger Simon, a blogger at the convention, remarks, "John Kerry should take speech-making lessons from John McCain. And if McCain is busy, he should try Giuliani." Blogs for Bush's Mark Noonan wrote, "tonight, for all practical purposes, the critics of the war have been answered."
  • Bloggers claim another scalp? When asked about blogging's effect on the political discourse in the United States, many people point to the loss of Trent Lott's speakership as the first time political webloggers kept a story alive and had a real effect on inside-the-beltway actions. We now may be witnessing another story in the same vein - that of the resignation of Rep. Ed Schrock, a two-term Republican from Virginia's Second District, after pernicious reporting from Blogactive. Daily Kos presents an interesting set of posts on the situation.
  • The Kerry sisters get boos at MTV AwardsThe Conservative blogosphere was abuzz with links to the video clip of the Kerry sisters getting boos and then "shushing" the crowd.
  • Bloggers reporting from the convention hall A number of credentialed RNC bloggers have been posting on their experiences at the convention, akin to the DNC bloggers who wrote of the events that occurred while at the convention itself. Ann Althouse reports on her day 1 experiences, as do the folks at Wizbang!, where they report on the issues in the Blogger's Corner as well as an interesting run-in with Ari Fleischer getting interviewed by the bloggers.
  • More highlights from Liberal Bloggers: Liberals were spending a lot of time watching stories outside the convention. One item that created a buzz in the Liberal Politics Attention Index was a story in The Washington Monthly by bloggers Joshua Micah Marshall, Laura Rosen, and Paul Glastris, the editor in chief of The Washington Monthly. In it they delve deeper into the FBI investigation of Larry Franklin, a veteran Defense Intelligence Agency Iran analyst. Juan Cole has additional commentary.
  • Conservatives outside the convention Lots was going on outside of NYC that the Conservative blogosphere was talking about. The Conservative Politics Attention Index ranked the discussion going on around John Edwards' remarks about confronting Iran over nuclear plants and fuel. Orin Judd comments, "If the Iranians refuse the offer and France and Germany say that's fine by them, would President Kerry accept this European diktat or act unilaterally to prevent Iran from developing a potential nuclear capability?"