Stephen Kruiser at Blog Con: "You don't have the luxury of not 'getting' Twitter anymore"

“I’m not going to do Twitter.  There’s no way to make any money on Twitter. Twitter is just fad type stuff,” Rush Limbaugh famously said last summer. Stacy McCain set him straight in "For the First Time Ever, Rush is Wrong," and now a chorus of top bloggers add their voices to the chorus at Blog Con (see below). Note current languishing stats on Rush's placeholder Twitter page pictured above: Following 1 person. Has 65,558 followers, zero tweets to date.

"You're not here? I was totally walking up to women and asking 'Are you Sissy Willis?'" twittered a disappointed sounding John Hawkins of Right Wing News last evening from the floor of "Blog Con: Taking America Back," a four-day conference at the DC Sheraton Crystal City sponsored by FreedomWorks that climaxes Sunday in a "9/12 Taxpayer March on Washington." "I hope they were all beautiful," we twittered back from our home computer here in Chelsea-by-the-Sea. Thanks to the marvels of modern technology, we were able to set up a Tweet Deck column here on the desktop that streamed every tweet with the hashtag #blogcon in real time. We added our own retweets and a few comments back into the #blogcon stream. This enabled us to follow and participate in the conversation of conferees tweeting from the floor, a lively mix of sound-bite quotes from the formal presentations, together with fun and funny personal commentary like that bit of banter with John Hawkins above. We expect a fuller picture once videos are posted on YouTube. Lots of quotable quotes. A sampling and then an analysis:

Really impressive turnout at the 1st-ever #blogcon. Lots of top-notch conservativebloggers/Tweeters here. [Matt Lewis]

You don't have the luxury of not "getting" Twitter anymore. [Stephen Kruiser via Michael Bates]

Power of Tea Party = no one person = in charge, no one who can be destroyed Alinsky-style [Matt Kibbe of FreedomWorks]

Twitter = powerful way  to influence influencers. Use it. And remember, it's a SOCIAL medium. [MelissaClouthier via Holly Richardson]

I just met @jimmiebjr a few minutes ago for the first time, but oddly enough, I feel like I've known him for years. [Glen Asbury]

Note to #blogcon speakers: Don't worry if none of us is paying attention. We're all blogging and tweeting. [Jimmie]

These activist conservative bloggers who are so at home with each other upon first meeting are the rabble in arms we and our blogfriends Dan Riehl, Melissa Clouthier, Stacy McCain and an army of other Tea Party types — not least Rush, Mark Levin and Tammy Bruce — have been marching beside through our social networks as the election season heats up and we prepare to storm "the biggest hill for me in all this," as Dan writes, "capitalized and in the District of Columbia." The issue for conservatives is the contentious RINO Factor that separates Angelo Codevilla's "Country Class" — us great unwashed — from "The Ruling Class," those Northeast Corridor Fuddy-Duddies who had counseled a "safe" pick for John McCain's running mate back in the fall of 2008. The Republican primary for Joe Biden's old Delaware seat has brought things to a head. In her tour de force "Republicans: 2010 Was The Year To Fight, Not Flee," Melissa gets it down to what amounts to 2 1/4 tweets (311 characters):

But then again, the old-boys' network is all about doing one’s time, being a faithful soldier over years and years (or be born into the right family). In short, the Republican party is not a meritocracy, it’s a political bureaucracy not unlike unions. Do your time, hang in long enough, and you’ll get a bump up.

That's the bottom line. You're either with the Fuddy-Duddies or against them. We know which side we and the bloggers of BlogCon are on, and "getting" Twitter has emboldened us to storm the Hill.

Update: Michelle Malkin "Buzzworthy" link!

Update II: Trending on Memeorandum.

Update III: "Sissy Willis You're not here? twitters John Hawkins of Right Wing News:

I was totally walking up to women and asking, "Are you Sissy Willis?"

Update IV: Stacy McCain casts "Are You Sissy Willis" as a Blog Con pickup line and lands an Instalanche!

Update V: Stacy links with a "Stinging Rebuke of Stephen Kruiser's Twitter Philosophy."

Crossposted at Riehl World View and Liberty Pundits.

Comments

[KingShamus]

Three cheers for the smashing of the old boy network.

[Carol Ward]

You are here in spirit - I am here in the flesh, and hoping the weather cooperates.
I'll send you a report on the events.

Hope all is well
Carol

[Sissy Willis]

Carol: Can't wait for your report ... Any pictures?

[Lars]

You and your fuddy duddy buddies can pack up your woolen scarfs and hit the door!