A campaign blog shows what the candidate is like behind the scenes: the same as he is the rest of the time, apparently.
Many politicians have been quick to realize the power of the Internet to humanize themselves: they can show a casual side of their personality in a way that makes them more relatable to the average voter, but still affords them a fair amount of control over how they're depicted. Think Sen. Claire McCaskill's Twitter or Sarah Palin's Facebook page. Sometimes things go awry: think Anthony Weiner's Twitter.
What, then, to make of a new set of blog posts on Mitt Romney's site? Written by Romney body man Garrett Jackson (and via Huffington Post's Elise Foley), there are only two entries so far, though one hopes there will be more. In form, they are perfect: it's a behind the scenes look at the life of a presidential candidate, there's a narrative arc to both posts, and they're a nice web-friendly mix of text, photos, and videos. In execution, they are ... perhaps not so compelling. It's not Garrett Jackson's fault. Just watch the videos. "I'm in Rosemont, Illinois, about ready to go on Fox and Friends, I've got some friends around me here, so this ought to be some fun," he says, utterly unconvincingly (given a few of his recent appearances on Fox, that's understandable). In another, he stands in a poorly lit hall and informs the audience flatly that he's going in to talk to Bill Hemmer.