Macaca Moments Reconsidered: Electoral Panopticon Or Netroots Mobilization?

WITP Macaca Moments Reconsidered: Electoral Panopticon or Netroots Mobilization?

Karpf David Karpf

ABSTRACT. This article addresses popular misconceptions about so-called “Macaca moments”— high profile candidate gaffes that are captured on YouTube, receive a cascade of citizen views, and contribute to some substantial political impact. Since the 2006 Virginia Senate race, when Senator George Allen made the original “Macaca” gaffe and went on to be narrowly defeated by his challenger, the term has become synonymous with the transformative influence of YouTube. This article constructs a case study of that Senate race through the archived blog posts on DailyKos, the largest progressive blogging community in America. It compares this case study with a second high-profile candidate gaffe occurring in the 2008 election season—Michele Bachmann’s verbal misstep on Hard- ball with Chris Matthews. The central argument of the article is that the impact of these high-profile moments, and of YouTube more generally, must be viewed in the context of the campaigns and organizations attempting to engage in partisan mobilization. YouTube provides additional tools for parties and political organizations, but its influence is often overstated when academics and commentators focus on the technology in the absence of the organizations that use it.

KEYWORDS. Blogging, netroots, politics, youtubenetroots

“This fellow here, over here with the yel- media would take a great look at the views low shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name of the people in Congress and find out, are is . . . He’s following us around every- they pro-America or anti-America? I where. And it’s just great. Hey, let’s all think the American people would love welcome Macaca to America, welcome to to see an expose like that.”—Congress- the real world of Virginia.”—Senator woman Michele Bachmann (R, MN-06), George Allen (R-VA), August 11, 2006 October 17, 2008

“What I would say is that the news media The so-called “Macaca moment” is often should do a penetrating expose and take a treated as indicative of YouTube’s transforma- look. I wish they would. I wish the American tive effect on American politics. Named after

Dave Karpf received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Pennsylvania in August 2009 and is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University’s Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions. His primary field of interest is the Internet’s effects on political associations. The research presented here was conducted while he was serving as a Fellow-in-Residence at the Miller Cen- ter for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. Dave would like to thank Rogers Smith, Jack Nagel, and John Lapinski for their supervision and support throughout the writing period. Additionally, Lokman Tsui, Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Daniel Kreiss, and Kevin Wallsten provided substantive feedback and early discussion around the underlying theme of the article, and the anonymous reviewers and active participants in the YouTube and the 2008 Election Cycle in the United States conference tremendously improved the piece from an earlier draft. Address correspondence to: David Karpf, Brown University, Box 1977, Providence, RI 02912 (E-mail: [email protected]).

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Senator George Allen’s utterance of the obscure efforts, as political campaigns and Internet- racial slur at a camera-wielding, Indian-American mediated organizations incorporate it into their opposition campaign operative during a rally, repertoire. which was caught on tape, posted to YouTube, This article attempts, in essence, to “bring and led to an ongoing controversy, it is the organizations back in” to the study of infor- frequently referenced by scholars and pundits mation technology and politics. Rather than the alike, and is almost as frequently misunder- technology-centric framework commonly used stood. Allen’s subsequent loss in a close Senate to discuss YouTube, social networking sites, race has led the term “Macaca moment” to blogs, and other Internet artifacts, I propose a enter the public lexicon as a synonym for politi- community-centric framework that concen- cal gaffes that are heavily accessed through trates on the new communities-of-interest that YouTube and lead to cascades of media and have come together on the basis of the Internet’s public attention. As Ryan Lizza of The New York lowered transaction costs. As such, it pays Times puts it, “When politicians say inappropriate particular attention to the DailyKos blogging things, many voters will want to know. Now community. Previous research (Karpf, 2008b) they can see it for themselves on the Web” argues that such community blogs function as (Lizza, 2006b, p. 1). Likewise, political scien- quasi-interest groups. The DailyKos community tist Vassia Gueorguieva suggests that YouTube endorses and fundraises for political candidates, “ha[s] increased the potential for candidate engages in issue education and strategic mobili- exposure at a low cost or no cost at all and the zation around policy priorities, engages hundreds ability of campaign to reach out to the public of thousands of volunteers (or “Kossacks”) at for campaign contributions and for recruiting various levels of participation, and even holds volunteers. In addition, [it] ha[s] provided an annual in-person convention. lesser known candidates with a viable outlet to In comparison to all of the public and divulge their message to voters” (Gueorguieva, scholarly discussion of “Macaca moments,” 2008, p. 288). Communications professor David attention to new Netroots political associations Perlmutter writes that “Politicians learned, from such as this one has been surprisingly lacking. the example of George Allen, that the ‘citizen The article attempts to demonstrate the impor- journalist’ with a cause and camera should not tant role played by the Netroots organizations be ignored” (Perlmutter, 2008, p. 105). through the development of two cases studies This article argues that the political impact of of high-profile “Macaca moments:” the original YouTube as an isolated medium has often been George Allen–Jim Webb campaign and the overstated. A closer look at the Virginia Senate 2008 Michele Bachmann–Elwyn Tinklenberg race suggests that the individual “Macaca House race in Minnesota’s 6th district. Relying moment” itself had a relatively small effect on upon a dataset of over 1,000 blog entries posted the Jim Webb–George Allen race. The notion by the DailyKos community, it traces the time that user-generated video content has trans- series of events preceding and following the formed political campaigns into a panopticon in high-traffic YouTube clips, and notes how the which all politicians must beware the prying clips were used as tools in broader campaign eyes and video recorders of citizen journalists efforts.1 fails to account for the heavily skewed power I argue that the political impact of YouTube law distribution of attention throughout the videos is deeply rooted in the usage of such videos Web (Hindman, 2008). Even in the few high- by Netroots organizations such as DailyKos: profile cases where online video of a candidate Simply put, when YouTube videos are high- gaffe attracted substantive attention, detailed lighted by the major Netroots groups, they case analysis reveals that it is not YouTube receive substantial viewership and, more itself, but the self-identifying Netroots political importantly, are converted into campaign dona- community’s involvement, that drives this tions and pressure campaign tactics. Without process. YouTube’s impact on political cam- these donations and pressure tactics, it is paigns occurs in the context of mobilization unclear why large national viewer numbers Karpf 145 would be determinative in the outcome of a of the community-engaging Scoop software local election. platform in 2003, blogs such as DailyKos began Rather than the common technocentric “You- to offer their readers the opportunity not only to Tube effects” explanation, which treats collec- comment on the posts by Markos Moulitsas tive action as though it happens spontaneously (nicknamed “Kos” during his time in the or in response to formal elites, this theory of Army), but also to author their own “diary” “Netroots effects” argues that the dramatic low- posts and have them hosted for free on the site ering of video-content production costs only itself. In previous work (Karpf, 2008b), I argue bears political fruit when organized interests that these “community blogs” function as incorporate them into ongoing efforts. Thus gathering spaces for identity-based communi- the lasting impact of such Web 2.0 technologies ties-of-interest. The DailyKos community, for as YouTube lies not in the dissolution of elite instance, endorses, fundraises, and volunteers for control, but in the creation of more porous a slate of Netroots political candidates, even elite networks and the development of new, holding an annual in-person convention of self- “peer-produced” tactical repertoires. identifying “Kossacks.” The group engages in political education efforts, chooses issue campaign priorities, and attempts to pressure political BLOGOSPHERE RESEARCH: WHY decision-makers. The difference between an STUDY DAILYKOS? elite community blog and a traditional interest group lies in the details of staffing, tax status, There has been surprisingly little written and tactical repertoires, while the similarities about the political Netroots thus far—in the between such a hub community blog and the academic literature, virtually nothing, in fact. average pseudonymous individual blogger’s Some research on political blogging has site are few enough to make sweeping generali- appeared in political science journals—most zations about bloggers highly problematic (Karpf, notably a special issue of Public Choice and 2008b). various issues of the Journal of Information Figures 1 and 2 are reproductions of figures Technology and Politics (JITP)—but this has from a recent study, and they demonstrate just largely considered bloggers as a single, discrete how expansive the DailyKos community has set of “citizen journalists” and sought to discuss become (Karpf, 2009). The data come from an their habits, practices, and effectiveness (see ongoing data-gathering project called the Blog- Lenhart & Fox, 2006; McKenna & Pole, 2004, osphere Authority Index, openly accessible to 2008; Pole, 2006). While the blogosphere circa the research community online. Figure 1 illus- 2004 was arguably small enough to allow for trates the growth of content production in the such a classification, the explosive growth of the DailyKos blogging community since it switched technology has since rendered such population- to the Scoop platform. This is the total number level studies problematic. Blog software is a of blog posts, both in front page and diary for- relatively simple type of code, and as blogging mat, per month, an important figure given has grown in popularity, various institutions Marlow’s (2005) finding that content genera- have adopted blogging into their suite of online tion, rather than pure preferential attachment, is communications tools. While Duncan “Atrios” the main driver of increases in site traffic over Black and Glenn “Instapundit” Reynolds—two time. We see that content production increases early bloggers from the Left and the Right, during the months surrounding an election, and respectively—shared much in common with we see a continual increase in the overall size of each other and could be reasonably classified the community. Figure 2 provides some con- according to their role as “bloggers,” it is text for just how enormous DailyKos has unclear why we should expect NBC news become, comparing the average number of anchor Brian Williams or Sierra Club Execu- comments per week posted to DailyKos, the tive Director Carl Pope to use their blogs in next 24 largest progressive political blogs, and much the same way. Likewise, with the launch the top 25 conservative political blogs during 146 JOURNAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & POLITICS

FIGURE 1. DailyKos blog posts over time.

DailyKos: Combined Blog and Diary Postings 25,000

20,000

15,000

10,000

5,000

2004/12004/42004/7 2005/12005/42005/7 2006/12006/42006/7 2007/12007/42007/7 2008/12008/42008/7 2009/1 2003/10 2004/10 2005/10 2006/10 2007/10 2008/10 Year and Month and after the high-traffic 2008 election season.2 political blogs is to be accurately determined, One year prior to the election season, in therefore, future work should explore how the November 2007, DailyKos received nearly as Daily Kos is used and whether its readers are many comments as the next 24-largest progres- taking political action” (Wallsten, 2007, p. 119). sive blogs combined, and nearly 50 percent No member of the research community has fol- more comments than the entire elite conservative lowed up on this suggestion, though, and in the blogosphere (Karpf, 2008a). During the 2008 meantime, works such as Matthew Hindman’s election season, the lion’s share of increased The Myth of Digital Democracy (Hindman, public participation in the blogosphere went 2008) and Richard Davis’s Typing Politics to DailyKos, with no analogous growth any- (Davis, 2009) have treated the site as if it were a where else in the political blogosphere. (See solo-author blog, ignoring the internal site Karpf, 2009 for a full discussion of shifts in mobility that allows the most popular active various measures of blog authority during the community members to eventually become 2008 election season).3 paid, full-time “Kos Fellows” with front page- These changes are particularly important, posting privileges and a national daily audience given that the literature has, to date, sidestepped in the hundreds of thousands. David Perlmutter’s the DailyKos community. For example, Kevin 2008 book, Blog Wars, includes some discussion Wallsten (2007) notes the methodological chal- of community blogs and the Netroots more lenges in studying a “hive blog” like DailyKos generally, but his largely interview-based and, noting that, circa 2004, the site was not approach sheds limited light on the comparative much larger than its contemporaries, excludes it size and strength of these sites. Perlmutter is from his study of the political uses of blog primarily a journalism and communications posts. Wallsten concludes his study—which scholar, and so his work treats the DailyKos com- introduces the content analysis framework that munity as “citizen journalists” rather than political I rely upon in this project—by suggesting the mobilizers or partisan activists. importance of the site as an area of future For this reason, most of what has been written research: “If the political significance of about the Netroots consists of journalistic Karpf 147

FIGURE 2. Comments per week during the 2008 election season (including baseline data from Karpf, 2008a).

Total Comments/week 300000

250000

200000

150000

100000

50000

0 Nov- Aug- Sept- Sept- Oct- Oct- Oct- Oct- Nov- Nov- Nov- Nov- Nov- Dec- Dec- Jan- Feb- 11- 20- 21- 28- 05- 12- 19- 26- 02- 09- 16- 23- 30- 07- 14- 11- 22- 2007 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2008 2009 2009 BAI Collection Date Conservative Comments Progressive Comments DailyKos Comments coverage in newspapers or magazines, or of It is the aim of this article, through the con- books published by Netroots leaders and the struction of two case studies, to begin building journalists who follow them (see Bai, 2007; some theory of the distinctive effectiveness we Feld & Wilcox, 2008; Moulitsas, 2008a; Moulitsas should expect from these Internet-mediated & Armstrong, 2006). These works unsurprisingly political associations. What, in essence, does all tend to display the sort of techno-optimism and of the Netroots activity amount to? It is an broad, sweeping claims of effectiveness that especially important moment to engage in make for popular writing. Deeply theorized such theory-building, because the same sort of accounts of how these Netroots political inter- technology-focused pieces that we originally ests are affecting politics, much less attempts saw regarding the blogosphere a few years ago at large-scale data-gathering, have yet to are now being produced regarding YouTube emerge. Some excellent research has been con- and Twitter. A few scholars—most notably ducted on the use of blogs and Internet tools by Bruce Bimber (2003) and Andrew Chadwick formal political campaigns (see Bimber & (2007)—have discussed the Internet’s impact Davis, 2003; Bloom & Kerbel, 2006; Foot & on interest groups and social movements, but Schneider, 2006; Latimer, 2007; Pole, 2008), their work has not made the direct connection but these studies have not been aimed at con- with community blogs or other leading social sidering independent Netroots blogging technologies. In considering the political communities. impacts of the Web, a deeper understanding of 148 JOURNAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & POLITICS these novel quasi-interest groups can help to Both were, in fact, referred to as “Macaca contextualize the use of new media applica- moments,” though the latter reference was an tions such as YouTube. indication of how the term has taken hold in the public lexicon. The similarities also extend to how the formal campaign operatives attempted METHODOLOGY to use the event. Each campaign tried to capitalize on the gaffe in local, national, and Following Bloom and Kerbel’s 2003 study, online media spaces, deploying campaign which traced blog involvement in publicizing operatives to post diaries at DailyKos and even Senator Trent Lott’s racially charged state- having the candidate himself (Jim Webb in the ments made at Senator Strom Thurmond’s birth- Allen case, Elwyn Tinklenberg in the Bach- day celebration, this study relies on archived mann case) post long “thank you” diaries on the blog posts to construct a time-series of events site to great response. The major difference for qualitative content analysis. The value of between the cases, then, included differences in online data such as blog posts to qualitative timing (Allen’s gaffe occurred in August, studies has been relatively underappreciated before the start of the traditional campaign sea- and overlooked in light of the more tantalizing son. Bachmann’s gaffe occurred with only two implications that floods of Internet data hold for and a half weeks left in the campaign season), quantitative studies. Rather than relying on the national profile (Allen’s seat could determine faulty memories and 20/20 hindsight of politi- which party held the Senate majority in a non- cal actors in the aftermath of an event, however, presidential election year, Bachmann’s seat archived blog posts allow us to investigate “who would have no such national implications, and said what,” “when,” “to whom,” and “with what occurred in the context of the Obama–McCain issue frames,” with remarkable accuracy. Further- presidential contest), and Netroots engagement. more, these findings are replicable in a manner While we cannot rule out the importance of that many qualitative studies are not. They are timing and national profile in the two-case akin to ethnography or participant–observation comparison, investigation of the two cases pro- in their rich detail, but the data is freely available vides a valuable context for evaluating standing for competing analysis. assumptions about the power of YouTube in the I chose to develop case studies of the George absence of Netroots mobilization. Allen (2006) and Michelle Bachmann (2008) A few caveats should be offered regarding candidate gaffes because the term “Macaca the limits of case study research. I do not moment” has expanded beyond the initial present this research as evidence of causality— Virginia Senate election. The Bachmann epi- such a research design is inappropriate for mak- sode exhibited several similarities to the Allen ing firm causal claims. Rather, case studies are gaffe, and journalists frequently invoked the of greatest value in areas of research that are term in their coverage. Both were heavily publi- theory-poor. Detailed case analyses can be used cized verbal gaffes by Republican candidates to clarify hypotheses and develop theories for who were aware that a camera was aimed at testing in later research, and the inclusion of them. Both received heavy and repeated play on multiple cases can be particularly useful for YouTube, with Allen receiving over 380,000 distinguishing variance that calls for future views and Bachmann receiving over 189,000 explanation. This research design tells us little 4 views. Both resulted in election forecasters about broader trends in YouTube usage by changing the status of the race from “Republi- bloggers, or about the interplay between can favored” to “leans Republican” or “tossup.” political blogs and the mainstream media. (See These are important distinctions since this sig- Wallsten’s (2010) piece in this volume [p. 163] nal of competitiveness can lead to increases in for an excellent discussion of this topic.) More donor interest and strategic resource support generally, the choice of focusing on only two from the Democratic and Republican congres- cases comes at the price of ignoring the huge sional and senatorial campaign committees. quantities of data available on Web-based and Karpf 149

YouTube-specific activity. At this juncture, I (5–1) user-generated content, (5–2) media clip, would suggest that case-based research is of (5–3) campaign commercial, and (5–4) video value specifically because of the frequency mashup. This category was added so that I with which the “Macaca moment” term is could specifically examine Netroots usage of invoked. If the research community is going to different types of YouTube content. make reference to the Allen incident and subse- I use the data to investigate three questions quent, similar events as a proxy for YouTube’s regarding the DailyKos community’s involve- influence, it is worthwhile to produce a detailed ment in the two cases. First, over what time analysis of just what impact the individual clips period and in what quantity did Kossacks post likely had. about the cases? This question doubled as a Given the large volume of content on qualitative time-series investigation, mimicking DailyKos, and its aforementioned status as a Bloom and Kerbel’s (2003) study. Reading central hub among the elite progressive blogs, I blog entries in chronological order allowed me chose to build upon Wallsten’s (2007) content- to identify the sequence of major events as they coding scheme for this study. Using DailyKos’s occurred, which led to some surprising findings tagged searching feature, I coded all blog about the Allen case in particular (detailed entries tagged with either “MN-06,” “Michelle below). Second, what post-types did Kossacks Bachmann,” or “Elwyn Tinklenberg” that were commonly use, and how did this change posted January 1, 2008 through November 3, between 2006 and 2008? Third, what was the 2008, the day before Election Day. I did the breadth and depth of community involvement same for all entries tagged with “VA-Sen,” “Jim in the issues? For this third question, I isolated Webb,” and “George Allen” from December 1, the subset of the population that appeared either 2005 through November 6, 2006, the day prior as front-page content or was voted onto the to Election Day. This yielded 211 Bachmann- recommended list, and also counted the total related entries and 825 Allen-related entries.5 number of unique diarists in each case and their For each of these data points, I recorded the frequency of posting. The findings from each date posted, author, title, number of comments, case are presented individually below, with and whether the post appeared on either the between-case comparison and analysis provided front page of the site or the high-traffic “recom- in the discussion section. mended list.” I then duplicated Wallsten’s content-coding scheme (relying on the appen- dix from his 2007 piece), with a series of bivari- ate entries for (1) Link or Quote Only, (2) NETROOTS CAMPAIGN MOMENTS: Commentary, (3) Request for Feedback, and (4) “MACACA” AND THE CAMPAIGN Mobilize Political Action. Following Wallsten, FOR JIM WEBB I broke down (4) into a number of subcategories, including (4–1) voting; (4–2) protest, march, or The original “Macaca moment” is legendary rally; (4–3) contribute money; (4–4) send an in American political campaigning. University e-mail; (4–5) online poll; (4–6) online petition; of Virginia senior S. R. Sidarth was tasked by (4–7) volunteer; and (4–8) phone call. I found the Webb campaign as a “tracker,” attending that the DailyKos community often added internal George Allen’s events and recording them with polls to their own blog posts as a mechanism a handheld camera. On August 11, 2006, after for requesting feedback, and given that I found five days on Allen’s campaign trail, the aspiring zero cases of DailyKos bloggers asking their Presidential candidate and elected Senator of readers to take action by voting on non-DailyKos Virginia acknowledged Sidarth’s presence to online polls, I reclassified (4–5) as (3–5) to the crowd, referring to him as “Macaca” and indicate that, on this site, online polls are used “welcoming him to America and the real world to solicit feedback. I then added a fifth cate- of Virginia.” The clip was later posted to gory to the content analysis, (5) YouTube YouTube, where it received hundreds of thou- link. This was divided into four subcategories: sands of visits. The cascade of negative attention 150 JOURNAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & POLITICS essentially ended Allen’s Presidential aspirations noose in his old law office, voting against the (he had spent most of the summer visiting the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial holiday, and early primary campaign states of Iowa and New long collecting Confederate Flags and memora- Hampshire) and led to a running campaign bilia (Lizza, 2006b). The political Netroots, issue that eventually let his opponent, Jim including the DailyKos community, a number of Webb, win a narrow victory in the race, 49.6 active Kossacks cross-posting from the Vir- percent to 49.2 percent, or a difference of about ginia State community blog, RaisingKaine.com, 9,000 votes. Perlmutter (2008) summarizes the and other top progressive blogs such as Atrios’s lessons from this event as such: “Politicians Eschaton and Joshua Micah Marshall’s Talk- learned, from the example of George Allen, that ingPointsMemo, seized on the racial dimension the ‘citizen journalist’ with a cause and camera of the comment and, over the next two and should not be ignored. Allen’s ‘macaca a half months, consistently returned to that moment’ would have been a local story or even theme. no story, but via YouTube it received upwards Why did the comment receive front-page of 400,000 viewings in weeks” (p 105). Online treatment from The Washington Post prior to news magazine Salon.com would later name the large number of YouTube visits? The reason, S. R. Sidarth their “Person of the Year,” for quite likely, is the same as the reason why the “changing history with a camcorder” (Scherer, journalist Lizza had devoted column inches to a 2006). The details of the original “moment,” George Allen profile in April 2006: Allen was however, paint a far less clear picture of You- viewed as an early presidential frontrunner, and Tube’s supposed importance to the episode. in the months prior to the congressional elec- The central question we need to ask is tion season, news and speculation on early whether Perlmutter and others are correct in presidential frontrunners had national appeal. asserting that the obscure racial slur would have Further, the impact of Lizza’s article, generally been “a local story or even no story” without ignored in popular retellings of the Macaca the presence of YouTube. Here one detail of the episode, meant that there was an ongoing narra- episode is often left forgotten: Sidarth was not a tive that the incident connected to. Though the “citizen journalist with a camera.” He was a term is not a commonly used racial pejorative campaign operative on assignment as a “tracker.” in America, the original Washington Post piece The video was property of the Webb campaign, noted, “it’s not the first time Allen has and was not posted to YouTube until August confronted charges of insensitivity to race or 14—three days after the event occurred, and ethnicity from minority leaders and longtime also after the The Washington Post had been political opponents.” Kossacks had been blog- successfully pitched to run a front-page story ging about making Allen’s racial views a cam- about the episode (Craig & Shear, 2006). Tech- paign issue in April and May 2006, priming the nically, one could argue that the The Washington pump for the YouTube moment (Feld, 2006; Post is a local paper with national circulation, TheApatheticMilitant, 2006). but its front page is generally reserved for Though the zero-cost publishing and direct national news. Salon.com records that the cam- access of YouTube led hundreds of thousands paign had initially been unsure how to use the to view the video, arguably boosting the appeal video, and indeed its initial reaction was to of the story, extending the media cycle, and focus on the “real Virginia” dimension of the creating an identifiable turning point in the comment, in an appeal to affluent northern campaign, we have to keep in mind that the Virginia Democrats, rather than focusing on the lion’s share of these viewers were likely not potentially more explosive racial connotations Virginians. Unless these viewers forwarded the (Moulitsas, 2008a, p. 85). Webb had offered a video to a Virginian friend, donated money, or similarly tame response to an April 26, 2006 took some other political action, it is unclear feature story in The New Republic by Ryan how we would expect them to affect the Senate Lizza that discussed Allen’s long history of race. The YouTube video may have helped racially tinged associations, including keeping a raise the comment from campaign-trail gaffe to Karpf 151 lasting campaign moment, but without Allen’s The DailyKos community would go on to national standing, one has to wonder whether name Webb as one of their top-tier “Netroots many people, Virginia voters in particular, candidates,” regularly blogging about the cam- would have cared. The initial reading from paign and urging their national community-of- the national punditry was that the gaffe had interest to donate and volunteer for the Webb likely ended Allen’s presidential ambitions, campaign (Moulitsas, 2006a). All told, the but his $7 million campaign war-chest and DailyKos community would donate $193,248 to incumbency advantage in traditionally Republi- Webb through their ActBlue.com fundraising can Virginia left him well-positioned to hold page, while Raising Kaine, the Webb campaign, his seat against the underfunded and little- and other online activist groups would raise an known Webb campaign. additional $700,000 for the candidate through Turning to the Webb campaign, the importance the ActBlue fundraising system.6 DailyKos cov- of Netroots mobilization in the case becomes erage of the campaign also continually focused far more clear. Beginning in late December attention on Allen’s racially charged statements, 2005, Lowell Feld of the Raising Kaine state including both the “Macaca moment” and later blog, posting under the username “lowkell” on Allen campaign gaffes, including the revelation DailyKos, began advocating for a “Draft Jim that Allen had once stuffed the head of a deer Webb” effort online. The frontrunning Demo- carcass into the mailbox of his black neighbors; cratic candidate at that time was Harris Miller, a that Allen had repeatedly used the “n-word” in close associate of Virginia Governor Mark his youth, despite public declarations that he Warner. Miller was unpopular with labor lead- never had; and Allen’s testy response during a ers due to his years working as a lobbyist in campaign debate that a question about his favor of outsourcing information technology mother being raised as a Jew qualified as “cast- jobs. The “lobbyist” label was likely to be a ing aspersions” (Moulitsas, 2006b). The politi- particularly big problem in an election year cal Netroots actively recruited Webb to run for featuring national outrage over lobbyist Jack the Senate, they consistently wrote about the Abramoff’s conviction for purchasing political race, they pursued the racial elements of the influence on Capitol Hill. Feld felt that Webb, a “Macaca” story during the early days when the former Republican who had served as Secretary Webb campaign was resisting “playing dirty” in of the Navy under Reagan but had switched to this way, and they were engaged in the the Democratic Party and become an outspoken campaign itself on multiple levels. Feld was early critic of the Iraq War, would be a far hired by the Webb campaign as their “Netroots stronger candidate. Webb, however, was reluc- coordinator,” various top campaign staff posted tant to enter the race. The Draft Jim Webb heavily read entries on DailyKos, and Webb effort raised the somewhat paltry sum of himself (or a campaign staffer empowered with $40,000, but also identified 240 Virginia-based writing in his voice) posted three diaries to the volunteers who were enthusiastic to work on DailyKos site, including a June 16, 2006 thank- Webb’s campaign and made it clear that there you post, “My Netroots Victory” (Webb, 2006). was grassroots support awaiting the first-time Coverage of the Webb campaign on DailyKos candidate. Webb agreed to enter the race in was both broad and consistent throughout the mid-February and eventually would defeat 2006 campaign season. Figures 3 and 4 provide Miller, despite a three-to-one fundraising disad- two measures of this coverage. Figure 3 depicts vantage, in the June Democratic primary with- the total number of blog posts (including user out purchasing a single campaign commercial. diaries) posted about the campaign from Instead, the Webb campaign relied on earned December 2005 through November 6, 2006. media, with an outpouring of campaign volun- What we see is that, after the August 14 You- teers, organized largely through Raising Kaine, Tube posting, there was a sharp increase in site and a series of high-value endorsements from discussion over the race, from 14 early August interest groups and national elected officials diaries to 164 late August diaries. This fluctu- (Moulitsas, 2008a, pp. 52–60). ated through the rest of the campaign, but 152 JOURNAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & POLITICS

FIGURE 3. Allen-related diaries, pooled into two-week periods.

Allen Diaries 180

160

140

120

100

Jan 1-15 Oct 1-15 Nov 1-6 Dec 1-14 Jan 16-31Feb 1-13 April 1-15 May 1-15 June 1-15 July 1-15 Aug 1-13 Sept 1-15 Oct 16-31 Dec 15-31 Feb 14-28March 1-15 April 16-30 May 16-31 June 16-30 July 16-31 Aug 14-31 Sept 16-30 March 16-31 date (2006) remained at a very high rate. New polls and “recommend” voting. Figure 4 provides the new Allen missteps produced a flurry of blog incidence of recommended diaries on the subject posts, while weeks without a new poll or major during the campaign season. Starting a few misstep still saw a few dozen posts on the subject. weeks before the Democratic primary, there The individual “moment” represented by the was an average of one to two recommended YouTube video was just the first of many diaries per week on the subject. In reaction to events that prompted the outpouring of activity the “Macaca” clip, this soared upward, with 16 in the blogging community, and given that it recommended diaries in the two-week period, occurred in mid-August, before the start of the but this total was exceeded in late September traditional campaign season, one could speculate and late October. As the campaign drew closer that the Netroots mobilization would have picked to a close, the DailyKos community became up a few weeks later regardless. Kossacks had increasingly invested in it, voting it a higher already decided to highlight Allen’s racially and higher priority. charged past in the aftermath of the April 24 Table 1 provides the frequency distribution Lizza (2006a) article, so the counterfactual of the 825 blog posts by author. Thirty-three argument that, in the absence of that specific cam- percent of the Virginia Senate campaign-related paign gaffe, they would have found another to posts came from a poster who only discussed focus on, bears serious consideration. the issue once. The top-three most-frequent Since anyone can post to the site, and the posters, meanwhile, produced 21.3 percent of opportunity costs of content production are so the content on this topic. These top-three posters low, total blog posts may not be the best metric were Netroots coordinator Lowell Feld (84 of popularity. The high-traffic “recommended posts), Markos Moulitsas (68 posts), and DailyKos list,” however, provides another measure, since regular “teacherKen” (24 posts), who lives in space is limited to the five most-popular diaries northern Virginia and volunteered regularly for on the site, as determined by registered user the campaign. Feld and teacherKen were also Karpf 153

FIGURE 4. Allen-related Recommended Diaries, pooled into two-week periods.

Allen Recommended Diaries 25

6 15 31 – – – 1 1 July 15 July 31 June 15 June 30 – – – – August 14 August 31 – – 1 September 15 September 30 October July 10 July 16 – – October 16 November May 29 June 16 1 August August 15

September September 16 dates

TABLE 1. Frequency Distribution of TABLE 2. Allen-Related Posts by Activity Type Allen-Related Posts by Author Full allen Recommended Number of posts Number of authors Frequency dataset and front page

1 275 .333 Comments (standard dev.) 62.3 (97.9) 206.7 (124) 2 54 .131 Link and quote only 4.4% 5.4% 3 14 .051 Commentary 94.7% 94% 4 12 .058 Request for feedback 15.2% 4.2% 5 4 .024 Mobilize political action 25.4% 40.5% 6 5 .036 Fundraising request 11.9% 31% 7 3 .025 YouTube usage 6.9% 14.3% 8 1 .010 9 2 .022 10 1 .012 11 1 .013 of 206.7 comments per entry, with a large stan- 12 1 .015 dard deviation of 124, indicating substantial 13 1 .016 15 1 .018 variance in these numbers. The full 825-post 17 1 .020 dataset had a mean of 62.3 comments per entry, 24 1 .029 however, with a standard deviation of 97.9. Inci- 68 1 .082 dence of the five major content categories, 84 1 .102 along with the particularly important “donate” subcategory, are detailed for full dataset and regulars on the recommended list, with 24 and recommended/front-page subset in Table 2. nine recommended posts, respectively. Recom- Similar to Wallsten’s (2007) findings on the mended and front-page posts garnered an average wider blogosphere, we find that commentary is 154 JOURNAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & POLITICS the most frequent use of blog posts. Recom- example of “Internet hype” that produces no mended and front-page diaries are 15.1 percent change in Congressional leadership. more likely to mobilize political participation than the population as a whole, and 19.1 percent more likely to include a donation link. This MN-06: MICHELLE BACHMANN appears to indicate a strong preference in the GIVES A GIFT TO HER OPPONENT DailyKos community for “action diaries,” though I would caution that such a conclusion If the Allen case was initially newsworthy needs to be tested against the full population of because of his large national profile, Bachmann’s DailyKos diaries, rather than the case-specific gaffe was the exact opposite. Bachmann, the time series I am investigating here. YouTube Republican House member from Minnesota’s usage rose from 6.9 percent to 14.3 percent 6th District, was facing an easy re-election between the full population and the subset, campaign against the poorly funded and mostly but both of these indicate the generally low unknown Elwyn Tinklenberg. In mid-October incidence of embedded YouTube videos or 2008, with less than three weeks left before YouTube hyperlinks in this supposedly video- Election Day, Tinklenberg had raised roughly led, case. $1 million in the previous nine months and had The picture that emerges from the aggre- yet to take out a single television commercial. gated time-series of “Allen,” “Webb,” and Though he was listed among the Democratic “VA-Sen”-tagged diaries on DailyKos is of a Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) topic that attracted early interest and involve- second-tier target list, and though increased ment, spiked in interest during the “Macaca” DCCC fundraising had led them on October 16 scandal, then continued to receive high and con- to add this and several other races to their list of tinuous engagement as election day approached. funding priorities, the campaign had a virtually The Netroots publicly claim Webb’s victory as nonexistent national profile and was viewed as an example of their growing influence and effi- a “likely Republican” seat retention. Given that cacy within the Democratic party coalition, and the Democratic Party held a large majority in an examination of their archives supports this the House, was pursuing a 60-seat, filibuster- claim: Kossacks helped to “draft” the candi- proof majority in the Senate, and was primarily date, volunteered for and were hired to work on focused on electing Barack Obama to the Presi- his campaign, and routinely highlighted the dency, the Bachmann race received little atten- campaign within their online community-of- tion from either the national media or the interest long before it was clear that Webb political Netroots. Bachmann spent much of would emerge as the winner. The other element the fall appearing as a Republican surrogate on that emerges from this time-series analysis is the 24-hour news channels, her re-election the limited scope of the “Macaca moment” seemingly assured. itself. Prior to that moment, Webb was polling That all changed on the evening of Friday, roughly ten points behind Allen in the Senate October 17. Appearing as a McCain presiden- race. Afterward, the gap closed to roughly five tial campaign surrogate on Hardball with Chris points, and it was not until late October that Matthews, Bachmann was asked to defend the Allen took a lead in the majority of polls. The latest Republican talking points, which were 2006 Virginia Senate race was a close affair focused on Obama’s associations with contro- throughout, and though Sidarth’s camera work versial left-wing individuals like Reverend proved an early turning point, there were sev- Jeremiah Wright and former Weathermen eral other candidate gaffes along the way that extremist William Ayers. With Obama leading reinforced the narrative, and without those in the polls, Republican campaign rhetoric had gaffes, a strong Democratic challenger, and taken a highly negative tone, and it was Bach- sizable field and fundraising campaign compo- mann’s job to defend campaign-trail comments nents, it is likely that Webb’s tiny margin of and try to keep the conversation focused on victory would have instead been yet another Barack Obama’s associations. After seven Karpf 155 minutes of grilling from the veteran political Time and again, DailyKos members posted the reporter, Bachmann found herself backed into a clip, and with close to 200,000 views on verbal corner and, in response to the question YouTube, newspapers and bloggers alike were “who else in the Congress holds ‘anti-American quick to dub this the “Macaca moment” of the views’?,” suggested that “the news media 2008 election. should do a penetrating expose and take a Once again we must wonder, however, what a look . . . into whether people in Congress are high-traffic YouTube video is worth. Bachmann’s pro-America or anti-America.”7 The specter of appearance on Hardball made her a target of left- Eugene McCarthy and the House Un-American wing ire and a ready example for pundits on the Activities Commission was too obvious to miss, Sunday talk shows, but if that does not translate and Bachmann’s comments dominated the to money, volunteers, or votes, what difference weekend news cycle as an example of a vicious does it make? This was not the first controver- campaign going too far. Two days later, when sial appearance Bachmann had made on national former Secretary of State Colin Powell television, nor would it be the last. The constit- announced his endorsement of Barack Obama, uents in her district had apparently displayed a he made specific mention of the “Congress- tolerance with her antics. woman from Minnesota” when indicating that What made this different, in essence, was the the Republican campaign had gotten far too way YouTube was used by the political Netroots. negative. After months with barely a passing mention on Bachmann initially attempted to brush the DailyKos, Bachmann suddenly became the comments off as being taken out of context, and symbol of all that the community-of-interest later settled on the claim that she had “walked disliked about the Republican Party. Popular into a trap” on Hardball. Indeed, if one watches longtime community member “thereisnospoon” the entire seven-minute interview, it seems quickly pulled together a diary that featured the highly plausible that Bachmann’s comment was YouTube clip, outlined the state of the race, more an example of clumsy media skills than including the latest polling that showed it was an explicit, intentional call for a return to winnable, the DCCC’s recent decision to McCarthyism. But Bachmann’s initial denial upgrade the campaign’s status, and background that she had not made any such statement on on the centrist Tinklenberg who, though not a Hardball was exactly the wrong tactic in the classic fit for the interests of the progressive YouTube-infused campaign environment. As arm of the party, suddenly seemed an out- Moulitsas put it: standing upgrade for the U.S. House of Rep- resentatives. He also included a fundraising [I]n the old world, blatant lies . . . could be link to Tinklenberg’s Web site and, after that easily covered up. A reporter catches you Web site immediately crashed from the tor- saying something stupid? Who cares! Just rent of traffic, a new link to an ActBlue fund- lie and deny it. At that point it becomes a raising page devoted to electing Tinklenberg “he said, she said” question and people (Thereisnospoon, 2008). Over the course of the will shrug their shoulders unable to inde- next 48 hours, Tinklenberg would receive over pendently determine who is right. Enter $810,000 in online donations—nearly doubling YouTube.. . . Bachmann can blatantly lie the money raised in an entire year of fundraising. and it doesn’t matter because we have the Of that, $130,000 came from the Kossack-created video and can see for ourselves what was ActBlue page. Recognizing the importance of actually said. What’s more, the more the Netroots community, Tinklenberg himself Bachmann explicitly denies her comments, (who, at the time of Bachmann’s Hardball the more insulting it becomes for those appearance, had been shaking hands at a local who can see for themselves the truth of hockey game) authored a diary for the DailyKos the matter. People may assume politicians site titled “Kossacks, Thank You and Michele lie, but they don’t appreciate having it Bachmann, $488,127.30 raised!” (Tinklenberg, rubbed in their face. (Moulitsas, 2008b) 2008). 156 JOURNAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & POLITICS

The DailyKos community would continue to explosion that infuses a large amount of cash discuss the Bachmann incident for the follow- into the otherwise-offline race. With only two ing week, in particular noting new poll data that and a half weeks left before Election Day, showed a too-close-to-call race, and posting Tinklenberg put the influx of funds to the best YouTube embeds of Tinklenberg’s first cam- use he could, but he had only achieved financial paign commercials that debuted the following parity with the incumbent Bachmann, and with Monday. But within a few days of the event, so little time, he eventually went on to lose the Kossacks lost interest in the race and turned race 46 percent to 43 percent, with 11 percent their attention to the next latest scandal from going to a third-party candidate. the Republican presidential campaign. Com- Figures 5 and 6 demonstrate the incidence of menters even began to caution each other that Bachmann, Tinklenberg, and the MN-06- they had given “enough” to Tinklenberg, and tagged diaries on DailyKos, again in the form should instead be donating to other worthwhile of total diaries and recommended or front- races through the site’s “Hell to Pay” program, page posts. What we see is that, though both which highlighted a different race every few “Macaca moments” were indeed self-inflicted nights and encouraged the community to campaign gaffes, captured on YouTube and engage in a 24-hour donation binge. A week covered by the blogosphere, the heavy and after Bachmann’s Hardball appearance, the ongoing coverage we saw in the VA Senatorial only bloggers still posting about the race on campaign was not present in this case. Nonethe- DailyKos were MN-06 locals and Tinklenberg less, perhaps more interesting than that lack of campaign operatives, and their posts were no coverage pre-gaffe is the decline of coverage longer making it to the high-traffic recom- post-gaffe. It appears that the DailyKos com- mended list. The Bachmann case was a classic munity acted as an amplifier of sorts, reacting example of what has been termed a “money- to the same latest intrigues that were covered by bomb”—a short-duration online fundraising the mainstream media, but adding an infusion

FIGURE 5. Bachmann-related posts by day (dates with no datapoint had zero posts).

DailyKos Bachmann-related Posts 35

0 6/6/08 7/4/08 5/2/08 8/1/08 5/9/08 4/4/08 8/8/08 9/5/08 7/11/08 5/16/08 6/20/08 9/26/08 5/23/08 5/30/08 6/13/08 6/27/08 4/11/08 7/25/08 4/18/08 7/18/08 8/15/08 8/22/08 8/29/08 9/12/08 4/25/08 9/19/08 10/3/08 10/31/08 10/10/08 10/17/08 10/24/08 date Karpf 157

FIGURE 6. Bachmann-related Recommended Diaries by day (zero received diaries prior to October 17, 2008).

Bachmann rec'd diaries 3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

11/1/08 11/2/08 11/3/08 10/17/08 10/18/08 10/19/08 10/20/08 10/21/08 10/22/08 10/23/08 10/24/08 10/25/08 10/26/08 10/27/08 10/28/08 10/29/08 10/30/08 10/31/08 date

TABLE 3. Frequency Distribution of TABLE 4. Bachmann-Related Posts by Activity Bachmann-Related Posts by Author Type

Number of posts Number of authors Frequency Full Recommended bachmann and front page 1 139 65.9% dataset 2 15 14.2% 3 3 4.3% Comments (standard dev.) 75.9 (174.4) 497.4 (370.1) 6 1 2.8% Link and quote only 0.5% 0 7 1 3.3% Commentary 98.1% 94.7% 21 1 10% Request for feedback 13.3% 0 Mobilize political action 42.2% 84.2% Fundraising request 37.4% 84.2% of vital campaign cash that otherwise would not YouTube usage 26.5% 57.9% have been present. Table 3 provides the frequency distribution of the 221 Bachmann-related blog posts by and more than one week post-Hardball. Table 4 author. The short time horizon of the Bachmann offers a snapshot of how these posts were used. episode is evident in the broader, flatter distri- Not surprisingly, given the “moneybomb” bution, with 139 authors posting a single diary nature of the event, there is a 42-percent gap on the subject (65.9%) while three high-volume between the full population and the recom- local authors, Bill Prendergast (21 posts), Ken mended or front-page posts. “Action diaries” Avidor (7 posts), and “Nada Lemming” (6 posts), were particularly appreciated. Likewise, the provided 16.1 percent of the posts, including high incidence of YouTube usage on the rec- nearly all of the posts occurring pre-Hardball ommended and front-page list should not be 158 JOURNAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & POLITICS overinterpreted, as this is associated with a sin- of campaign cash has the same limited effects gle, very visible campaign moment. that it did previously. The ongoing involvement The increase in fundraising requests between of the DailyKos community, which was evident this case and the VA-Sen case is quite substantial, prior to Allen’s gaffe, and continued to develop however, increasing from 31 percent to 84.2 long after it, did not materialize simply because percent among the highly trafficked Recom- of a Hardball appearance. Bachmann was not a mended List and front page. This either indi- campaign priority for the Netroots, and so they cates that Kossacks were more interested in briefly paid attention to her, and then reverted giving to Tinklenberg than Webb (highly to their main priorities. The online environment unlikely), were more motivated to give in 2008 augments the traditional news media cycle with than 2006 (somewhat unlikely—people gener- opportunities for Web-based partisan engage- ally give more in Presidential years than con- ment, but it does not uproot or necessarily gressional years, but it is unclear why that democratize the news cycle. would translate to Senate and House races in an already-motivated community of givers), or had developed additional institutions to support DISCUSSION political giving. This third explanation seems the most plausible, as the “ActBlue thermometer” What, then, can we say about “Macaca widget provided an easy giving tool in 2008 moments” and YouTube’s broader impact on that had not been developed in 2006. Likewise, electoral campaigns in isolation from the usage of YouTube embeds may have risen Netroots-based campaign efforts? The common because of advances in the software platform assertion that Allen’s verbal misstep on the that made it easier for users to embed such vid- campaign trail doomed his presidential aspira- eos within their posts; there were a number of tions and eventually cost him his Senate seat diary comments in 2006 that explicitly included demands re-evaluation. The National Republican a link to YouTube and a question to readers Senatorial Committee included a reference to about how one embeds clips into a blog post. the “Macaca moment” in its 2008 guidebook, The picture that emerges from the Bachmann urging candidates “that they should assume episode shares several technological common- there is a camera on them at all times and act alities with the Allen episode—both featured accordingly. It is also recommended that cam- elite-captured candidate gaffes that received paigns film their opponents’ public events as heavy play on YouTube, which in turn led to well. . . . The paradigmatic example of failure additional media coverage of the gaffe—but to do so is the ‘Macaca moment’” (Budoff, otherwise indicates that the “Macaca moment” 2007, p. 1). In the 24-hour cable news environ- alone does not fundamentally reconfigure the ment, however, it is unclear why this is so often course of an election. In essence, Bachmann treated as an example of YouTube’s impact on volunteered herself as the target of Netroots ire politics. Both Allen and Bachmann were well- for a weekend by offering to appear on Hard- aware that they were being recorded, and the ball and then making her noteworthy verbal recordings came from campaign operatives and misstep. This led to tangible benefits to her camera crews, rather than the intrepid “citizen opponent, in the form of both free media and an journalist.” avalanche of financial support from the online The similarities between the Allen and community-of-interest, and those material Bachmann YouTube clips themselves were resources helped Tinklenberg to become more strong. Both were candidate gaffes placed on competitive in the race. But this is a more YouTube, picked up by bloggers, and received reserved impact than the picture usually drawn viral attention cycles reaching into the hundreds when discussing “Macaca moments.” Netroots of thousands in viewership. Both elicited an dollars may flow quicker and in much larger additional news cycle of coverage on the sup- bundles than small-dollar contributions did in posed “YouTube effects” of the coverage. Both the pre-Internet campaign world, but an infusion were branded with the misused and overused Karpf 159 term “Macaca moment.” Both were, arguably, community. As such, it received “moneybomb” less damaging in context. Senator Allen was attention for the duration of the media cycle, attempting use his opposition campaign tracker then faded from view. That attention is itself to highlight that his opponent was out-of-state noteworthy for the major impact it has on cam- at a fundraiser instead of interacting with “real paign events. The Bachmann YouTube clip in Virginians.” He slipped in the obscure racial isolation received a few hundred thousand epithet, prompting cable television pundits to views and was discussed for a few days on debate what the term meant and where it even cable news programs as the latest outrage along came from. Representative Bachmann was the Presidential campaign trail. This reflects trying to argue that the media should do a better poorly on Minnesota’s 6th district, and so any job of looking at Barack Obama’s personal con- citizens paying attention to the national news nections. She deviated from her talking points programs or actively searching for Bachmann and made a much more inflammatory state- clips on YouTube might be influenced in their ment. The clips received heavy viewership— decision-making. Given Bimber and Davis’s likely blog-driven—through YouTube, but the (2003) finding that online campaign communi- viewership itself was unremarkable. As political cations primarily reach elements of the public videos go, recording artist will.i.am’s “Yes we who have already made up their minds, it is can” video received over 6 million views, 15 hard to see why YouTube is granted such trans- times more than either of these clips. If we con- formational status. Yet the DailyKos community, sider that many of the views come from citizens in the course of this brief attention cycle, living outside of Virginia or Minnesota’s 6th fundraised nearly as much for Bachmann’s Congressional District, it is unclear in isolation opponent as he had been able to raise himself in why we should consider YouTube by itself to the previous year. have any meaningful impact on electoral cam- It is worth noting that despite Allen’s status paigns. Recall that the Webb campaign embar- as a higher and longer-term priority, roughly goed the release of the damaging clip for three 2.5 times as much money was raised for days, and its release coincided with coverage in Tinklenberg online than for Allen, and in a The Washington Post. much shorter timeframe. This is likely indica- The term “Macaca Moment” is so often tive of the growing size and influence of referenced, however, because of the substantial Netroots political associations as a whole. With mobilization and citizen campaign activity with more Americans turning to blogs for their news which it is connected. And here we see some and political involvement (Rainie & Smith, important divergences between the two cases, 2008), and with DailyKos registering over 2 both evidenced through how the DailyKos million visits per day during the 2008 election political community used YouTube as part of season (versus roughly 600,000 two years pre- its novel tactical repertoire. The DailyKos com- viously), the Kossacks were able to generate far munity paid sustained attention to the Webb more total funding in 2008 than in 2006 campaign, having made it a top organizational because they are an expanding portion of the priority in early 2006. Over the course of the interest group spectrum. This is also visible in year, they used YouTube clips, online fundrais- the growth of total comments on the blog posts ing portals, and various other tools to attract in these two cases, with the average recom- campaign volunteers, small donors, and media mended or front page diary receiving 206 com- attention. The initial Allen clip was followed by ments in the Allen case and 497 comments in several others, but these YouTube clips were the Bachmann case. Assuming those users who just one element of an organizational effort that take the time to participate through comments also highlighted news clips, polls, and any other are likewise more likely to make a small donation, opportunity to focus the attention of a national it stands to reason that the growth of the DailyKos community on a priority statewide race. hub yields a continuing increase in its potential In contrast, the Bachmann case was not donor base for supported candidates. Likewise, an organizational priority for the DailyKos the blog has continued to add new participatory 160 JOURNAL OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & POLITICS institutions, both under the guise of programs to what has actually occurred in either of these like “Hell to Pay” and in the guise of permis- cases. Rather, the Internet is allowing a new sive software code that makes ActBlue fund- type of political organization to develop novel raising, YouTube embeds, and other engagement tactical repertoires. It is only through this sort opportunities simpler, lowering the transaction of organizational lens that YouTube’s most costs of online involvement even further. important effects come into view.

CONCLUSION NOTES

The term “Macaca moment” is unlikely to 1. This dataset of DailyKos archived blog posts will disappear from the public lexicon any time be placed into the JITP dataverse for future public soon. Any close election loss will lead to a reference and analysis. dozen narrative threads about “why the candi- 2. Comments are used as a proxy for community date lost,” and the high-profile campaign gaffe activity since neither hyperlinks nor site traffic effectively distinguish between posts that are actually being read versus leads to an easy reference points for pundits, posts that are merely skimmed or skipped over. It stands to academics, and the public at large when seeking reason that, prior to posting a comment, a reader must be to describe the effect of YouTube on political actually engaging with the material and considering it long campaigning. It is thus incumbent upon us to be enough to form an opinion worth posting. It further stands clear about what, exactly, the term actually to reason that these motivated commenters are more likely describes. This article has argued that the most to engage in other forms of community activity, such as important effects of the candidate gaffes came donating money or taking political action. 3. Data for both of these figures come from the Blogo- not from their easy accessibility via YouTube, sphere Authority Index dataset. See www.blogosphere- but from the various ways that a new type of authorityindex.com or Karpf (2009) for further political association used them to influence discussion. politics. We do not care about Allen’s racially 4. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= 9G7gq tinged statements because they were viewed 7GQ71c for George Allen’s Listening Tour and http:// online; we care because they became a recur- www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJIQm_7YAUI for Rep. ring campaign theme and a rallying cry for his Michele Bachmann (R-MN) At Her Very Best. Both of these videos were posted multiple times on YouTube, and opposition. We do not care about Bachmann’s therefore it is unclear what the exact total of unique views misstatement because hundreds of thousands of would be. viewers—most of them unable to vote in her 5. For those interested in either duplicating the data district—saw it; we care because of the torren- collection or conducting similar content analysis projects, tial online donations that followed. I discovered one important bug in the DailyKos search These two case examples have focused on system. The tagged search feature itself underreports blog the DailyKos community because, as the largest and diary entries, yielding only 71 Bachmann-related posts, for instance. Clicking directly on the tag of interest political community blog, it acts as a quasi- reveals the much larger universe of tagged entries, in interest group that is both distinct from other reverse-chronological order. types of blogs and also distinct from other 6. See www.actblue.com/page/netrootscandidates. types of campaign organization. Future research 7. See http://www.youtube.com/watch? v= eJIQm_ should seek to compare the activities of 7YAUI. Netroots organizations to other Political Action Committees and advocacy groups. The main purpose of this article has been to debunk some of the myths that have risen up around REFERENCES the so-called “Macaca moment” in American Bai, M. (2007). The argument: Billionaires, bloggers, and politics. The notion that the medium has the battle to remake democratic politics. New York, empowered every American with recording NY: Penguin Press. equipment and an Internet connection to chal- Bimber, B. (2003). Information and American democracy. lenge elite institutions bears little resemblance Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Karpf 161

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