Duncan Currie interviewed Peter Robinson about Robinson’s election to the Dartmouth board this week for Currie’s Daily Standard column: “Cinderella story.” (Currie also covered the election in an article for the Standard last month: “The Dartmouth insurgency.”) Contrast the vibrant tone of Currie’s Standard column with the seasick feeling transmitted in Marcella Bombardieri’s Boston Globe story this morning: “Election revives debate at Ivy school.” (“All your seasick sailors, they are rowing home,” sings Bob Dylan in “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.”)
Currie’s column concludes with Robinson’s observations:
Robinson spoke to The Daily Standard Friday morning about the significance of his win. He emphasized the Internet angle above all. “The victory represents a victory for alumni participation in the governance of Dartmouth College,” Robinson said. “What made that possible was the blogosphere.” Blogs “made it possible for me to reach alums” and “keep up reporting and interest in the campaign.”
More broadly, he added, blogs offer a novel way for graduates to stay in touch with their alma mater. “I learned more in three months of reading these blogs about the actual state of affairs in Hanover, New Hampshire, than [I did] in 25 years of reading the alumni magazine.” Blogs thus pose a mortal threat to the “propaganda machines” of major universities, Robinson said. “That strikes me as a sea change.”
(Thanks to reader Erica for alerting us to the Globe story.)
UPDATE: Peter Robinson comments on the election and identifies the blogs to which he was referring in a post at NRO’s Corner here.
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