NYTimes: Election 2004 is over and the winner is… bloggers

Today’s NYT op/ed page: “Every four years, by journalistic if not political tradition, the presidential election must be accompanied by a ‘revolution.’ So what transformed politics this time around? The rise of the Web log, or blog. The commentary of bloggers – individuals or groups posting daily, hourly or second-by-second observations of and opinions on the campaign on their own Web sites – helped shape the 2004 race.”

Wow. That’s an earlier concession speach than I expected. We won.

(Update: here’s another article from today’s Times: “Despite their partisan nature, [blogs] became a source of information for many political aficionados, in many cases at the expense of the traditional media, said Nick Hahn, managing director at Vivaldi Partners in New York, a strategy, marketing and brand consulting company. ‘The blogs don’t market themselves,’ Mr. Hahn said. ‘People self-select the blogs they read.’ For that reason, they may be particularly effective ways to reach younger consumers, who often dislike having products sold to them but enjoy feeling that they have discovered something for themselves.”

It’s a rout!