The recent dust-up with the Edwards campaign and the Marcotte/McEwen entity has had me thinking:
Aside from wanting to the outreach possibilities to a specific voting bloc, what benefit is there to a political campaign hiring a blogger(s)? As we've seen, it's a high-risk play that appeals to an oh-so-narrow band of the voting spectrum. And did the Edwards bunch not vet Marcotte's previous work? He's going to be forever tainted by his association with her.
Why would a blogger - and one with a sizeable following, evidently - take a paid position as a political mouthpiece? This puts him/her in the unenviable position of having to explain to the netroots faithful why the politico in question is straying from the platform they want to see. She/he would be forever tainted by.... well, you get the picture.
I could see the utility of netroots as focus groups, so long as a candidate understand the demographic that is being represented. After that, nope, just don't see it.