Well said, none-too-anonymous-poster:

Most curious to me is that someone who presented themselves fairly competently via the Net also seems to be the candidate with the weakest social skills. And before *I* get flamed, honestly, you've all experienced it. Some people communicate gracefully and intelligently in, say, their usenet posts, but one quick disagreement over minutia later and you're watching a thirty-reply flame war explode in a hail of usenet spam.

Until typing somehow is able to express character as well as actually spending time with a person -- or until people start doing all their interaction through simple ASCII -- expect blogs to remain a tool, not a panacea. And when it comes to the man you'll have sitting across the table from Putin or Chirac or another world leader, political/social skills are always going to remain a top concern.