I see now that Swingstate Project also feels compelled to attack the Tim Kaine campaign for pulling their ad from Steve Gilliard's blog:

Today, Tim Kaine's pathetic campaign alienated both the netroots and the African American community. The netroots have the most to offer with last minute rapid response, something the Kaine campaign will now be lacking. This will also hurt their fundraising and volunteer potential after they were slammed on a blog read by more than a million Democrats a day.

Do they not see just how offensive this all seems? To me, the net sum of all this is that, for some bloggers, the game is Pay for Play.

In the comments, there are some interesting remarks....

Steve M:

Sure, we should challenge our candidates when they're wrong on the issues. If a Democrat tries to waffle on the war, they're fair game for criticism. But that hardly means we need to tar and feather our own candidates for every trivial little omission.

Yes, let's all front-page the meme that Tim Kaine hates black people because he pulled his ad from an "African-American blog," whatever the hell that means. Brilliant stuff, that. What better way to convince politicians to take the netroots seriously than to show them that we have no sense of proportion or fairness and that we are willing to sink their campaign at the last minute just because we feel like it.

Kagro X:

Thanks, Ralph.

A great way to continue your determined push to make blogs campaign poison.

I often disagree with Kagro over issues in discussion threads on the various überblogs, but I think he (?) captures the danger here: That advertisers might get the sense that advertising on a blog involves endorsing whatever the blogger says. I say an advertiser can advertise where they want, and pull ads for their own reasons. And I feel that bloggers threatening advertisers with public berating like we're seeing now is at best unprofessional.

Imagine such attitudes expressed in the New York Times if someone pulled an ad. "...So we at the New York Times say 'FUCK YOU' to Exxon for pulling their advertising!"

Stuart O'Neill:

Remember, the aim of elections is to win. And if a Blogger or two can't hold fire for a week because a another blog owner had an ad pulled, without even requesting a refund, then....that's over-reaction.

This is another example of a single action being blown out of proportion into an indictment of a Candidate and his integrity.

On the other hand, we get 5oclockshadow, who misses the point:

RETRACT THIS. TAKE IT DOWN. YOU'RE JUST WRONG AND THIS IS THE WRONG TIME FOR THIS.

Gilliard's blackface graphic was in poor taste.
Kaine is a PAYING CUSTOMER. He's paid Gillard, Kaine owes Gilliard NOTHING.
Kaine is in a live or die race against the worst kind of wingnut lunatic you can imageine in a state that's barely treading water under a deluge of mindless conservative insanity.

You are WRONG to attack Kaine. Kaine was RIGHT to take the ad down. Not just as a matter of political convenience, but as a matter of principle.

Gilliard was WRONG to go wild and crazy and post his incipid whining.

I'm sorry, but Gilliard's political satire is beside the point. Gilliard was I think unprofessional to attack an advertiser who pulled an ad, but not because Kaine was somehow right to pull it, but rather simply because Kain was within his rights to pull it. Then again, it seems 5oclockshadow works for the Kaine campaign, so that explains the bias there.

Oh, and for the record, I do not live in the region, and I've not been following any of these campaigns closely. I do oppose Tim Kaine because of his anti-choice, pro-criminalization stand on abortion, but I know nothing about his opponent, who could be Darth Sidious for all I know. Neither campaign has advertised here. As is their right.

I will write what I think about any candidate, advertiser or not. But I will not attack an advertiser simly for pulling an ad. Nor will I favor an advertiser for choosing to buy an ad space here. Who is or isn't advertising here has nothing to do with what I write.

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