Blogs nudge Kerry team toward rigorous Ohio recount

As I just posted over at Personal Democracy Forum (Trippi says blogs driving Kerry camp's interest in recount):

On MSNBC's Countdown, Keith Olbermann has been one of the few television newshosts tracking down the issues related to counting and recounting votes and addressing potential voting irregularities (such as voter fraud and suppression), particularly in the closest states.

Without appearing in any way to contest the election, the Kerry campaign lawyers do seem to be pressing for a careful validation of the results in Ohio. A rush transcript I just received via email quotes Joe Trippi giving credit to the rumor mills of the blogosphere for keeping the recount / potential voting irregularities stories alive long enough to encourage the Kerry people to "get back into the game":

TRIPPI: I don‘t think there‘s any question about it. I mean, I think they were willing to walk away from it on election night. I think they wouldn‘t be sending anybody on this mission unless, except for the fact that the blogosphere went out, grabbed the story. And you know, it was something we were seeing all day at MSNBC. Citizen journalists were commenting on our blog of problems that they were seeing in Ohio. We have the make your Count Vote Project that MSNBC was running, has 2000 recorded complaints from Ohio. So these complaints were out there. But it was blogosphere that picked them up, ran with then, and then bloggerman yourself reported it. And I think it sort of got - another one of those stories that jumped in the mainstream media. And now all these campaigns are reacting to it, and I think even using it as a valid excuse to go in and see what‘s there and try to, you know, at least count every vote. Make sure some of this stuff didn‘t happen.