Liberal Bloggers Brace for Victory: Obama's Prospects Pose New Concerns for Netroots

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Liberal Bloggers Brace for Victory
Obama's Prospects Pose New Concerns for Netroots
By Jose Antonio Vargas
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 21, 2008; Page C01


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke to the 2,000 conventioneers in Austin and hosted a Q& A session. The first questions were about impeachment, irritating some bloggers more concerned about the economy. (Harry Cabluck/AP)

AUSTIN, July 20 -- "Yep, the way it's looking, we might actually win this thing . . ." That's Markos Moulitsas talking, a.k.a. "Kos" to everyone here at Netroots Nation, the four-day liberal blogapalooza that ended Sunday at the Austin Convention Center....

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Obama, who leads Sen. John McCain in recent national polls, is Topic A among the Netroots, his fate somewhat married to theirs. Five years ago liberal bloggers made a name for themselves at a time of defeat; Republicans controlled not just the White House but both houses in Congress. They craved a fight, and President Bush was their punching bag.

But these are changing times, and Obama, in his calls for getting past blue vs. red America, and in his recent positions on issues such as telecom immunity, is somewhat of an enigma. With the Dems taking back Congress in 2006 and the prospect of an Obama victory come November, many in the influential Netroots are left in a precarious, ambiguous position. The question is, who needs whom: Does Obama need the Netroots, or vice versa?

Kos, never one to mince words, is blunt. "It's not a question of who needs whom. Fact is, the Netroots are not going to be the decisive factor," Kos says, fidgeting with his iPhone as he sits on a lounge chair at the Hilton, across the street from the convention center. "But having said that, we're an activist set of people: We're engaged, we give money, we put boots on the ground. That's why when many of us had a genuine disagreement with Obama on FISA" -- Obama voted for a bill that provided retroactive immunity to telecom companies -- "we let him know about it."...

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"Think about it: Netroots was born at a time when the Democrats were in opposition, and it's learning how to be a force of good when the Democrats are in power -- and could have more power next year," says Simon Rosenberg of the New Democrat Network. A speaker at the confab, Rosenberg is a bridge of sorts between Official Washington (he worked in the first Clinton White House) and New Washington (he wrote the foreword to "Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics," which Kos co-authored).

Adds Andrew Rasiej, also a speaker at the convention and founder of Personal Democracy Forum, an online think tank that analyzes how the Internet affects politics: "For most everyone in the Netroots, the main goal right now is get Obama elected. Period. Now how the Netroots and Obama move forward after November, if he is elected, is another issue."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/20/AR2008072002191.html

[Captain Angry]

1. I like how Kos has an iPhone but is so against AT&T.

Way to be consistent there, big guy.