Where is the Michigan Democratic Party?

So, Michigan Democrats! A "Blue Tide" has swept the elections! Whaddaya gonna do next?

"We're going to Disney Land!"

Apparently they have, if you look at the MDP website. The lights are on, but nobody is home.

Seriously, people. You have a story about the inauguration, and the link goes to the story on Brewer's tiff with Beckmann? First of all, everyone stop paying attention to Beckmann. Right now. The guy is a hack. It's like feeding a troll; you only encourage him with this stuff. Go after Skooby if you are going to go after anyone.

But more important is the fact that the MDP didn't even bother to check the link to the top story. Not only is that unprofessional, it's downright lazy.

Momentum grinds to a halt. Here is a relatively cheap microphone for promoting the "message", whatever that is, and the MDP leaves it on the ground. Brilliant.

The Michigan Republicans are on the ball. Not only do they have current statements on the passing of Gerald Ford, they take the obligatory shot at Granholm right on the front page. And Saul is blogging the propaganda quite regularly, which is actually probably a good thing for us. But anyway- they are up to date on their list of upcoming events and news. Shows they are involved.

Let's check around at some other states in the Great Lakes.

Ohio's Democratic Party has got it going on. Not only do they have current news (and as of this writing, a story about Jerry Ford, and gee, aren't we embarrassed NOW, Michigan Dems), they have a blog that includes the Ohio Lefty blogwire. The upcoming events list is sparse, but current.

The Ohio GOP is up to date with news and events. Very nice site. They, too, have a blog. One thing that jumped out at me- the Ohio Republicans managed to pass a mental health parity bill as "good public policy", while here in Michigan we are beholden to the whims of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce rather than attend to human suffering. Anyway...

Moving on- the Indiana Democratic Party site is pretty sad. They do have an inaugural announcement on the cover, but the party news stopped in November. No upcoming events. They do link to other Indiana blogs at a button on the top.

The Indiana Republicans? Up to date, informative, nice little picture of George right up front. Again, a good site.

On to Wisconsin. The Democratic Party of Wisconsin is current with both news and events. Doyle's inaugural address leads the page, and yes, the link works. No blog or links to other Wisconsin blogs, though.

Wisconsin Republicans seem like a particularly vile bunch- their home page is nothing but attacks and an announcement of Van Hollen winning Attorney General. That's it. No events, blogs or recent news.

Illinois was a surprise. The Democratic Party of Illinois has nothing but links to contact info- no news, no events, no blogs, no nothin'. I know Blago is nothing to cheer about, but with Durbin and Obama you would think they could find something to be proud of. Calendar stops last October.

Illinois Republicans are on the ball. Current news, events, nice site design.

Basically, the Republicans are kicking our ass or at least holding even in every Great Lakes state but Wisconsin. That is sad.

But back to the MDP.

Given the battles we are going to be facing here in Michigan, are we really going to let the state media be the only ones with the floor? Do we want the spin controlled by the likes of Skubick and the Detroit News?

Maybe something is coming that I don't know about, but as it stands now, we have no voice other than the blogs- and the blogs can only do so much. And we aren't very nice sometimes.

If the MDP is going to punt on this, I would love to see the Governor start her own site. Sure, there is the michigan.gov page, but that is so... official, for lack of a better word. Something casual with links to pertinent info would be helpful, just as the campaign did. Blogging would be cool too. Doesn't have to be a comment, give and take, thing- just messages would be fine. I would also like to see full transcripts or video of these press conferences so I know the full story, not the press spin on the story.

Carl Levin has a separate site from his regular Senate site. The MDP is promoting that right now, as a matter of fact.

Communication is what it is all about. The Republicans obviously know it. Will the Democrats get the message?