Post-Dispatch: Blogs having major effect on Missouri politics

Blogs played a major role in Missouri's 2006 elections, according to an article by St. Louis Post-Dispatch political writer Jo Mannies:

Dave Robertson, a political science professor at the University of Missouri at St. Louis, says Missouri politicians must accept the fact that activities or comments that once were ignored could now end up as fodder for the Internet for all the world to see.

"If you thought you didn't have any privacy before, you really don't have privacy now,'' Robertson said.

Of course, the Post-Dispatch article focuses on St. Louis area blogs, and Fired Up Missouri and The Source. The newspaper doesn't realize that the same thing has been going on in the Joplin, Springfield, and Branson areas for some time, as you can tell by reading some of the blogs featured on the right-hand side of this page. Nevertheless, the article is a portent of things to come.