Which blogs have Gone Carter? [update 3]

Soon after the last election I asked if regime change will mean blog change? -- suggesting that the pro-National blogs would find it hard to maintain their enthusiasm for blogging under a National Government, and if they did they’d simply turn into a blue Jordan Carter. (Uugh! What could be more shameful?)

Along those lines, two Tory bloggists have questioned their blogging raison d'être this week including Barnsley Bill, who’s questioning his blogging mojo but seems to be staying put, and Keeping Stock who cites other interests and is saying Goodbye. And not so long ago we saw Roar Prawn go, then come back again, then . . . (just what the hell is she doing now?)

Blogging is by and large an oppositional medium. Perhaps that’s why Labour’s Red Alert has made a splash without seeing anything comparable from the government – and just how dull would it have been if there had been? Because, let’s face it, it’s far more interesting downloading posts that rip the arse out of the ruling panjandrums than it is reading soothing encomia to their brilliance. And that’s why the pro-National blogs are so boring. I predicted as much back in November, suggesting that

the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy -- which is to say Whale Oil, Kiwiblog, No Minister and the odious Matthew Hooton -- well, they'll just quietly transform the Conspiratorium of Right Wing Opposition into a Softcock Centre-Right Blancmange sending out trial balloons for their masters between frequent encomia to blandness and big government.

Was I wrong? Well, Matthew Hooton’s got a new job inside the tent; Whale Oil has taken to attacking people no-one cares about; and David Farrar keeps sending out those trial balloons in between recycling the news, republishing some good stats, and explaining why this is the best government since Gladstone’s.

And there’s only so many times you can read Adolf filling up the columns at No Minister with news about how wonderful that nice Mr Key is for not listening to his employers before feeling the bile rise in the throat -- and his regular attacks on Labour’s front bench are quite simply irrelevant. Who cares? Attacking Labour made for readable posts when Labour was in power, but it’s a dumb-trick one-trick pony now they’ve been turfed out.

So No Minister under Adolf’s dictatorship is the prime example of Going Carter.

What about the left side of the aisle? As expected, The Double Standard has moved from the Ninth Floor of the Beehive down to EPMU headquarters, but has become more interesting for it, if no less hyperbolic; Tumeke has gone from hating John Key and George Bush to really, really hating John Key and wanting to fellate Obama; The Hive has disappeared into the lobbies; and the men and women of Public Address are slowly realising John Boy is one of them, especially now he’s telling Family First it’s still not okay.

And the Dim Post has got funnier.

So I don’t think I”ve done too badly with my predictions -- though I confess I said nothing about Dim Post or the ermgence of the MacDoctor -- and nor has Cactus Kate with hers, particularly with her prediction: “new left wing blogs to emerge now they all face long-term unemployment.” That might explain the bitter tone of the newly unemployed at the likes of Kiwipolitico.

And if you’re wondering if this is all a precursor to folding up my own tent, I’m afraid not. NOT PC is going nowhere (as the latest blog rankings confirm). My own reasons for blogging haven’t changed since I began.

And there’s always some breaking news to talk about:

UPDATE 1: Trying to find a new mojo, Whale Oil is now blogetically co-habiting with Cactus at a new blog location called Gotcha! – the name an homage, I presume, to The Sun’s famous/infamous headline.

UPDATE 2: Pablo from Kiwipolitico reckons they’re neither bitter nor un(der)employed. The latter we’ll have to take on trust, and on the former claim you can simply head over there and decide for yourself about the bitterness or otherwise of this increasingly influential left-wing blog.

UPDATE 3: Speaking of mojo, DomPost's political editor reckons Farrar has lost his, The Standard writers haven't quite acquired one, and Whale Oil is, "once I got over my squeamishness . . . utterly nihilistic and entertaining." Oh, and NOT PC doesn't exist -- except when it comes to pinching lines. (Yes Virginia, we bloggers can spot a pinched line when we see one.)

Read Tracy Watkins's must-read political blogs.