Welcome to the blogosphere, Jerry Brown. I often disagree with the Oakland mayor (and former Boy Wonder Governor, and future ???), but I still have a lot of respect for the man. I'm not at all surprised to see him leap into the fray, putting the medium to great use--and giving the folks at Typepad some well-deserved pub. (Hat tip to my neighbors at SFist.)
Brown's blog raises some interesting questions, though. What do we really expect of our political leaders in a post-blog world? Should more of them be blogging, and if they start, will it add real value to the political process, or will it just be a new form of spin?
Clearly, something's changed, and pols will have to make adjustments. For example, I'm a big fan of SF's own Mayor Gavin Newsom, whose website would have seemed perfectly adequate two years ago. But after reading Brown's first few blog entries, Newsom's site seems somewhat old-fashioned and PR-ish. It's clearly written by aides, who gush over their boss a little too much at times. (Sample entry title: "Nuthin' But Net" Uh, can we leave that crap to Harper's Bazaar?)
