One thing that I think blogging has the power to accomplish is to reconnect the academic world to the political world. The think tanks, such as they are, have their own networks and ways of placing stories in the press. Academics tend to mostly talk to each other, which not only seems like a waste of knowledge to me, but also reinforces the Ivory Tower syndrome, wherein some of these folks can get somewhat detached from reality. So I see blogging as a way for the academic community to connect with journalists and the chattering masses in new ways. Juan Cole and Brad DeLong are great examples of how this can be done, and the "gateway blogs" like Atrios and DailyKos can point on when those folks say something that deserves a broader audience.