I’ve always been cautiously optimistic about the potential for the weblog form as a mechanism for political progress. That optimism faded slowly over the years of the Bush presidency. But Andrew Sabl’s account of how Steven Benen at the Washington Monthly blog became the focal point to rally support for the US health care reform vote confirms and frankly redoubles my battered optimism. The question now: what lessons can the nascent political weblog scene in Australia take from this extraordinary story?