Just came across an article on a high profile blogger from TechCrunch, Mike Arrington, who leveraged his online influence to have meetings with Obama and McCain and interview them on their policies on technology and the Internet.

The Los Angeles Times on the political clout of tech blogger Michael Arrington: "Recently, Arrington decided to parlay his considerable clout into a different kind of currency. He thrust Silicon Valley onto the national political scene in December when he took the unusual step of mounting a campaign of his own: a "tech president" primary. His powerful base of plugged-in techies helped him land interviews with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and other presidential candidates. Then he pushed the contenders to articulate something they don't often discuss: their technology policies. As a result, Arrington, 38, claims the distinction of endorsing the presumptive nominees from both parties back in January when the outcome for each was uncertain."

Would be interested to see what a group of influential Aussie bloggers could do with the AU political sphere? I'm looking to Cameron Reilly and Mark Pesce for action on this one :)