The Power of Drudge

Today Matt Drudge posted an item in which he said John McCain was begging the NY Times to squelch a story. It instantly got the blogosphere buzzing and proved once again the instant response that a story on Drudge's site can command.

Something very interesting happened in the wake of that story, McCain actually responded.

There are some serious heavy-hitters out there in the Internet pundit world: Kos, MyDD and TPM on the left and Hot Air, Instapundit, LGF and Captain Ed Morrisey on the right to name a few. None of those has ever forced a sitting Senator, let alone a presidential candidate, to respond directly to what they've written as quickly or explicitly as McCain did today.

That, my friends, is the power of the Internet as a whole and Drudge in particular. The NY Times website, MSNBC, Fox News and all the other media outlets wish they could harness the power that Matt Drudge has and it's been elusive. Drudge rules, he will continue to get bigger and any candidate worth his or her salt would be smart to get on Matt's good side as soon as possible.

More here.