Blog posts have a tendency to closely follow what is being reported in the MSM, which is not surprising. But I wonder if the so-called ability of blogs to see the wider picture is undermined by this tendency.

No doubt, TPM and other collaborative sites are doing good work connecting stories, as this site has done with such undernoticed stories as voter "fraud" and dirty tricks.

But on a day-to-day business, the blogs follow very closely to the conventional wisdom or story-of-the-moment. In fact, it may lead to the creation of a kind of "hive mind," in which the posters all begin to follow the same logic or spin.

The ability of Josh to frame an issue as he sees it in his video blogs and regular posting, also tends toward this direction.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but I have been thinking a lot over the past ocuple of days about the idea that Obama's "momentum" is criticized as a cult movement, and the discussion of how the media handles Obama's candidacy.

I propose that far-short of creating a cult, or even a fully legitimate mass movement, Obama has tapped into a consciousness, aided by the Internet, that he is able to manipulate with his speeches and statements.

The question is, can Obama ride this wave to the presidency?