The Freethink blog is going across the pond today, and in the process, going rather meta: blogging about american blogs.  

American political blogs are larger and more influential than in the UK, and are more integrated into the political process.  

The reasons are clear.  When the Daily Kos, one of the most influential left-wing blogs, gets more than half a million hits per day from committed democratic voters, and does much to set the political agenda, the benefits for politicians in engaging with that forum are clear.  Every democratic presidential candidate is currently at the blog's YearlyKos convention with the exception of Sen. Joe Biden will be there (and even his campaign posted a diary on Daily Kos explaining his absence).

What is perhaps more significant is that politicians now have a stake in the blogosphere to the extent that it is in their political interest to defend it.  Sen. Chris Dodd, a democratic candidate for President, appeared on the Fox News channel's 'O Reilly Factor', very much enemy territory for democratic candidates, to take Bill O'Reilly to task for his attacks on the Daily Kos as a 'hate site'.  He acquitted himself well, given that O'Reilly has something of a temper.

Having begun in a serious way in the 2004 presidential primaries, the use of the internet for campaigns, fundraising, raising awareness is now very much the norm in the US. It will be interesting at the next general election to see how much the UK has caught up.