Ed Kilgore writes on the effectiveness of the Republican mini-mobs.

Ed Kilgore is a pretty effective political analyst. here is his take on the mini-mobs the Republicans are attempting to field to disrupt Democratic town hall events.

There's not much doubt right now that conservatives are feeling their oats, now that the President's approval ratings have dropped, health care reform and climate change legislation are in doubt, and in general, Republicans have no responsibility for governance in Washington.

[...]

It all comes back to a point that conservatives really need to internalize: "base" energy and "noise" can be a significant political asset, but only if it's focused, strategically deployed, representative of actual rank-and-file sentiment, and attractive to "outsiders." If it's none of these things, it's worse than useless, because it simply serves as a reminder of why so many voters don't like the Republican Party in the first place.

So both the mini-mobs at town hall events and the efforts by the Republicans to create an Internet "rightroots" are failing. Instead of demonstrating the popularity of the Republican message, they are mostly demonstrating how great their failure is to reach the masses.