It looks like the blogosphere is having an impact on Dutch politics too. Or rather, the phenomenon of the blog has reached two Dutch politicians: Klaas de Vries of the Labor party. It was not so long ago that the previous Prime Minister Wim Kok was seen at a computer grasping a mouse and pointing it as a remote control at the monitor.

These sites may be blogs in name, but they're still a far cry from what goes on in the blogosphere. Gerrit Zalm is the VVD's top candidate, and if his party were to get most votes he stands a good chance of becoming Prime Minister. Right now, the polls make that unlikely. Zalm's blog is definitely the less interesting of the two. Most of his blog entries are boring. I don't care that he made breakfast at 11 AM last Sunday and that it consisted of eggs and croissants. I don't care whom he met for dinner, or whether the pea soup was any good. His blog is mostly a journal of what he did, where he went, whom he met. He does go into the meat of politics now and then, but there's way too much personal fluff. But Zalm is not a real blogger: he seldom types the entries for his blog himself. Instead, he uses the phone to dictate his entries. Often he'll even write the blog entries in longhand on paper for someone else to type. What next? Chiseled cuneiform script? Zalm's blog is very much a calculated tool, supported by the machinery and funding of a political party. There's nothing wrong with that, however it's a far cry from most bloggers who just type stuff at their screens for the hell of it.

Klaas de Vries is closer to what we would recognize as a pure blogger, as he does most of the work himself. He's even had his blogging burn-out already, but I find his tone more engaging and his content more politically relevant, even though I disagree with more of it. The political blogs appear to be succesful. They don't have open counter on their sites, but the VVD claims between 5,000 and 10,000 hits per day for Zalm's site. I suppose de Vries will be getting a similar amount of traffic. Apparently it's mostly young floating voters who visit the sites, so it certainly makes sense for them to continue with elections coming up in January.

Blogging is not easy, Zalm has found. He rewards himself with a cigarette for each entry completed...