D.D. 07/13/05

The latest results from the Survey USA poll are out tracking Governor Bredesen's popularity in the State. For the first time, the Governor has dropped below a 50% approval rating. Ironically, the Governor still maintains his popularity among Republican voters, despite being a Democrat. Still, Bredesen's approval rating among Democrats is down to 45% from 49% and his approval among Republicans is down to 55% from 61%. Predictably, the TennCare debate has hurt Bredesen's popularity, especially among black and Hispanic voters and in the Western region of the state, where the most TennCare enrollees are concentrated. The TennCare debate may also explain why Bredesen's disapproval rating among self-described "liberals" is at 51%. However, there seems to be something else in play here bringing down Bredesen's approval ratings, especially considering the 18-34 demographic has the most negative opinion of Bredesen. Perhaps some of these are college students who tend to be more liberal, however, 18-34 has also been considered generally to have the highest readership of blogs. So could blogs be bringing Bredesen down, especially considering blogs on both the left and right have been vociferiously critical of Bredesen? It's a complicated question, but it does at least seem at some points that the MSM, which everyone agrees can have a substantial impact on public perception, does take cues from the blogosphere, even if not in an intential way. In this way, perhaps blogs are affecting these numbers. Consider for example, the falloff of Bredesen's popularity among Republican voters. Since the last poll in May, Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Bob Davis has reminded Republican loyalists that they aren't supposed to like Bredesen- leveling many of the same criticisms first intitated on blogs. Then the mainstream media picked up on these criticisms because it was Davis who was saying them. Perhaps its grandiose to consider the blogosphere the voice of the grassroots masses, but at the very least blogs did contribute to a perceptual decline in Bredesen's popularity- and it appears as if that perceptual decline has lead to an actual decline due to the bandwagon effect. Blogs as buzzbuilders is interesting in its own respect, but considering it in terms of politics, it's something of which every politican should be mindful.