Lessons in Blogging

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There are lessons in blogging here and here. Some of the lessons may not be quite the same ones as the instructor had in mind:  
 
When you stand up for Sarah Palin and respond to unfair attacks on her with a point-by-point discussion of issues, don't expect a rebuttal in kind. Rather, expect an attack on your character, just like Sarah Palin's character has been attacked. Also expect the attacker to cloak the attack with words to the effect of, "now I'm not suggesting you are any of these things, but I've been told these things about you."

Your attacker will also attack your blog, call it a "fan" blog and hold you accountable for all of the comments your readers make on your site. Just because you support a particular candidate or potential candidate, you are a fan, not a supporter who made the decision to support a political figure based on that person's record and good character, as well as his or her stated and demonstrated positions on the issues.

Call us whatever names you wish to. Attack our character, and attack our blogs. It will not deter us from responding to attacks on Sarah Palin which we consider to be unfair. When we see them, if we have the time and resources to do so, we will call out those who make such attacks.

Sometimes a little good can come from a bad situation. In times past, Texas for Sarah Palin and Conservatives 4 Palin haven't always been on the same chapter and verse. While we share many of the same goals, we have taken different paths to try to accomplish them. There have been some arguments and strained relations between the two blogs.

But over the more recent months, the two blogs have been moving closer to one another. It began when we put our differences aside and cooperated in a common fundraising effort for Gov. Palin's defense fund. More recently, we have exchanged links and each website has begun to acknowledge some of the posts which have been published on the other.

With the recent attacks on both TX4P and C4P, I stand in solidarity with my colleagues at C4P. Both blogs have been fierce defenders and supporters of Sarah Palin. From now on, when C4P or any other Palin support blog is attacked in an unfair manner, I will rise in support of that blog, blogger and contributors.

Perhaps the best thing to come out of this entire dustup is that it serves as a reminder that Palin and Palin-friendly bloggers have a golden opportunity to at last become a true community of websites which will focus on those things that unite us rather than those which divide us.

We don't enjoy engaging in blogwar with any bloggers with whom we share common beliefs, common principles. So this will be my final words on the latest dustup. I agree that we all have more productive things to do with our time and our websites. As a step in that direction, I will accept that responsibility for the comments readers make on my blog. I am removing all comments from recent posts which only served to escalate the war of words. Perhaps other steps can be taken, and perhaps we can all ratchet down the hostility. I hope that we can all move on to what should be our common purpose -- defeating the radical leftists who have taken over one major political party, are working to manipulate the other major party and to transform this nation we all love into what is the antithesis of the republic the founders sacrificed all they had to establish.

- JP