In Theory, there is no Practice.

I emailed the following to Orin Kerr (the only changes are I spell checked this version…no wonder he didn’t reply):

Mr. Kerr,

Thanks for the response and the consideration of what I sent you.

And I saw your new post. Okay, I understand your point.

I am still not sure how we can have a debate if the candidates are not engaged. Question a John Kerry vote, and rather than a real answer, we get “I have explained this many times. I cannot make state my position on any more clearly than I already have.” or “I served in Viet Nam, how DARE you question my patriotism”. Or try to examine George Bush’s inability to admit mistakes [aside: I *kind of* empathize with this, as the news organizations apparently are so desperate for GWB failings, they'll make them up. But it is still wrong. It is the inability of Rather and GWB to admit mistakes that is so infuriating, rather than this initial mistake. It also makes me question whether they have the maturity to learn or the wisdom to see the truth]

We can have a debate by proxy, but how real is that? I mean, that is what we are having now with Michael Moore, SBVT, MoveOn.org, the conventions, and so on.

But here is an issue: except for the aforementioned large news source, most people can only pursue 1-3 or so topics in a detailed manner (not talking about repackaging, ala Drudge or Instapundit, but in depth analysis). Some like the Belmont Club do great, great analysis of Iraq. Others, like the professional NRO do try to bring in world, national and other events, but occasionally is overwhelmed by current events.

Remember, however, the VC is a much larger organization than what, 99% of the the blogs? Each of the conspirators usually has very few concurrent open threads, and y’all only have a diverse topic base because the individual conspirators follow what they are interested in / what they know best. Even then, most threads there are quite narrowly focused compared to what, say, the NY Times pursues on a day to day basis.

The Blogosphere (however that is defined) is a self organizing community. What individuals choose to pursue cannot be controlled. It is somewhat free market / free for all. The topics that do get pursued are the ones the have the most ‘value’ to the pursuers. Wishing that were otherwise is like wishing people wouldn’t eat so much Fast Food even though people know is ‘bad’ for them.

Hey, I need to go to lunch!