WP: Liberal Bloggers Brace for Victory

[highplainsdem]

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

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

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. He's got a head cold, which explains his hoarse, strained voice, and by "we," he means the Netroots and their candidate of choice, Sen. Barack Obama. If the Netroots can be compared to high school -- still maturing, somewhat cliquish but definitely a community -- then Obama, as the presumptive nominee, had been voted Most Likely to Succeed.

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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 liberals are left in a precarious, ambiguous position. They remain influential, no doubt. 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."

The mood between Obama and the Netroots has warmed up considerably in the past few months. Obama, who's on his first overseas tour since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee, sent a 10-minute video greeting to the conventioneers.

"We've had some disagreements in the past, and we'll have some disagreements in the future," Obama says in the video. "I promise to continue to listen to your concerns, take them seriously and discuss them respectfully."

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More at the link.

[DFLforever]

1. This is a good article

Thanks for posting it.

[highplainsdem]

2. You're welcome!

[YvonneCa]

3. My two cents...

...on what role the netroots plays after November is that we do...in our own way...what Gore is doing for climate change. We expand the arena, the meritocracy of ideas (to use Gore's words), in which our government makes policy.

In other words, we build momentum for an idea we support in order to make it more likely that our new President (and hopefully Democratic Congress)can be successful creating changes we all want to see. That momentum (IMHO) will be necessary to successfully confront and gain leadership over powerful lobbies and establishment inertia.