Bloggers Vie for More Influence in Official Party Biz

Aug. 26, 2008— -- Late Monday afternoon, just after the Democratic Convention's opening gavel, the party overwhelmingly approved a 94-page document that serves as a blueprint of the Democratic Party's goals.

But you can be forgiven if you didn't see or hear much about the official codifying of the party's mission. The party platform has been viewed in recent years as a largely symbolic document, crafted by the political elite, holding little meaning for the general public.

But some close to the process hope that this year's platform will change all that and plant the seed for what many in the liberal blogosphere hope could influence the way the government is run and policy is made.

The presumed Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama, has campaigned on the notion that he wants to govern from the "ground up. " And so some of his supporters argued that a party platform drafted, as party platforms have always been drafted, didn't fit in with his campaign's image.

So for the first time, the Democratic National Committee opened the platform-drafting meetings to the general public in all 50 states as part of an initiative called Listening to America.

"Platforms are usually drafted by paid professionals and crafted by professional insiders," Michael Yaki, the platform director for the Democratic National Convention Committee and Obama for America, told ABCNews.com. "Sen. Obama has consistently talked about breaking the barrier between the Beltway and the American people, so it was natural to extend that to the usually closed platform process."

The Republican National Convention Committee is also opening up its platform drafting this year and is seeking policy ideas online at GOPPlatform2008.com. The Republican's convention Web site characterizes the move as the "most grass-roots driven platform effort" in history.

While the notion was applauded, the Democrats' Listening to America effort was announced only a month before the first platform draft was published, leaving some to wonder what impact the planning meetings would actually have on the platform creation.

Nevertheless, participants turned out in larger numbers than Democratic Party officials had anticipated.

An estimated 30,000 people attended 1,600 meetings in conference rooms and living rooms across the country. The Democratic National Convention Committee sent out platform committee members and policy experts to help direct the meetings. But according to Yaki, these officials were sent out with strict instructions not to lead the meetings, but to let the people do the talking.