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Thoughts on Obama and Organizing For '08

It seems clear that Barack Obama is the candidate who generates the most excitement among Millennials, but I have no trust or understanding for the man. I don’t really find his speaking to be that inspiring, though certainly better than Hillary and a bit stronger (if a bit more vague) than Edwards.

It’s his lack of specificity most of all that leaves me feeling rather “meh.” I think the intensity of his support is largely from people projecting their own political hopes and dreams onto Obama, and I think he knows this and uses it to his advantage. The cypher thing. It’s potentially very smart electoral politics, but it doesn’t make me trust him or want to help put him in power.

My honest opinion is that it’s very unlikely that “our people” will be meaningfully integrated into any official presidential campaign this cycle as anything other than pawns. It takes not only a political outsider, but also someone willing (in fact needing) to take risks to open up their campaign in the way that happened in 2003/04. In spite of his freshman status and his positioning against “politics as usual,” Obama does not read as an outsider to me, and he’s certainly not one for taking risks.

My sense is that most official campaign or campaign-backed efforts are going to be square and bland; milquetoast. Like Trippi, I sense regression…

And for some reason, none of these campaigns — they have varying transparency on their website but nothing near I would say even 50 percent of the kind of transparency that you saw even in the Kerry campaign. I mean, that’s what I’m saying. We’re not talking about the Dean campaign here.

That being said, I remain optimistic for the general outcome. I think any of the broadly-appealing Democrats can win next november, and that this will be an improvement over the now. But I don’t have any illusions that the 2008 election is going to solve any of our problems. It’s the work of generations, not election cycles.

All of which begs the question: what’s our best course of action? Like most of my friends, I want to “be involved.” But how?

It seems to me that rather than trying to find a horse to back in the primary, it’s better to figure out what we actually want from these people and organize around that. It lacks the sizzle of a campaign, but organization around issues has some advantages:

  • It builds political power that can persist over time.
  • It doesn’t produce the intense infighting of a primary.
  • It can still help out quite a lot in a general election.
  • Barring “one of us” getting into a position of real power (highly unlikely this time) is a better position for making a difference and continuing the momentum when a Democrat does win.

This is all a lot of parlor debate from my end as I haven’t actually done anything this cycle, and it’s clearly possibile to work for a campaign with bigger and better things in mind. Still, I find it rather difficult to get it up for any of these people.

My ultimate ambition is something along the lines of being this cycle’s “John Kerry Is A Douchebag But I’m Voting For Him Anyway.” But maybe have it be a group effort rather than one guy writing essays.

What do you think?

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March 17th, 2007 12:53pm
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Obamamania

Submitted by Michael Connery on Sun, 2007-03-18 08:27.

I tend to agree about Obama.

I’m more interested in the excitement about him and in seeing what might pop up because of that excitement than in anything he himself has to say. I think the recent waffling as to whether or not homsexuality is immoral is a pretty good illustration of what you are talking about. How different is his politics, really, and what kind of change would his administration bring about? I honestly can’t say, and my observation is that his supporters are more interested in radical change in our politics and our policies than he is himself.

That said, he’s been pretty good at taking the new and innovative things popping up around his campaign and coopting them. But as Trippi says, its not toward the end of changing our politics or policies, it’s in service of a more efficient - yet still fairly traditional - campaign.

In the end, I’d be happy with either Edwards or Obama as President. It would be a welcome change and it would be a 1,000% improvement over our current situation.

As for this:

My ultimate ambition is something along the lines of being this cycle’s “John Kerry Is A Douchebag But I’m Voting For Him Anyway.” But maybe have it be a group effort rather than one guy writing essays.

I didn’t know that guy did anything other than make a cleverly named, static website. The intent seems interesting - a movement within the electoral cycle geared not necessarily towards the election of a candidate, but rather at applying pressure on the winner. But I’ll push you on this, because like a lot of this stuff, I have a hard time envisioning the structure of such a thing, and wonder why existing channels (like the blogosphere or MoveOn) wouldn’t assume this role during a post election, Democratic Presidency. Are you speaking about creating another, parallel organization? Are you interested in creating and spreading a new meme to direct the zeitgeist around November/December 2008? Or are you talking about something entirely different?

Barak Obama is a Political Cypher but I'm...

Submitted by Josh Koenig on Sun, 2007-03-18 13:11.

First, an observation: while there is no Dean-like campaign, if anything the Public seems more primed than ever to get the fuck involved. For instance, 500 people at a volunteer coordinating meeting? That to me means even more than the crowds. The People are excited, and not just for Obama, though he seems to be the sizzler. I just hope there’s not a Clark-like collision brewing down the line.

As for the John Kerry Is A Douchebag site, I think what it provided was a coherent and detailed set of essays which were well written in an authentic (and, yes, snarky) voice. There was no organization, just a student writing essays, but the sentiment was influential. I think that by taking a similar track — attempting to rationally but entertainingly communicate a candidate-centric call to action but for our own reasons — coupled with some lightweight organization and an issue-based platform could get some traction.

Anyway, the idea appealsto my own itch-scratching.

Barack Obama is a Cipher but

Submitted by Fred Gooltz on Mon, 2007-03-19 10:01.

Trippi’s interview came after the panel he was on at the Politics Online Conference, where DeFeo, Ruffini, and Trippi talked about how much innovation there was, politically vis a vis transparency and accountability on the left in 2004, and how much innovation there was on the right (flip-flip flash games were mentioned glowingly by the Repugs).

Trippi’s point was that while a GOP campaign will never evolve into a place where dissent within a campaign’s blogs or networks will be tolerated, but at least the size is growing. However, on the left, our campaigns are not putting on the make up as Exley calls it.

{The other liberal who was on the panel, was turned away from the conversation and smiling at the C-Span cameras like he was on quaaludes. He only engaged to fight about the size of the blogosphere.}

But Exley was right, even if all the best people in the world joined a campaign, if there is no TRUE buy-in at the top for transformational internet usage campaign-wide, then it will get dialed back to either a walled garden of chatty Cathies or a talking-point delivery system. When Connery and I were in D.C. at NOI, we discussed this exact point.

Damn our Sam Adams. post soon

Limp & left out~

Submitted by Joshua Gorman on Mon, 2007-03-19 14:59.

Sorry to hear you’re having trouble gettin it up this ‘go-around’… I think they have magic pills for that disorder. :)

But seriously, this is actually something I’ve wanted to mention for a while now. As someone who only recently tapped into this blogging community, my impression has been that many of you sound a little “over the hill” already…jaded, cynical & a bit sour regarding this presidential election cycle and not being at the front-lines of another energizing Dean campaign. Not that this is an anomaly…most of you are “older” youth/“young” adults, and many of you lost your political virginity in 2004 campaigns if not in 2000. For the most part, getting old sucks. As does being sobered up by “the Dean disappointment.” But while your ‘sobriety’ from previous election experience is actually an extremely valuable asset, your sometimes ‘crotchety’ crestfallen spirit doesn’t do the movement any good (and probably turns quite a number of potential new readers off). And it’s clear that as limp as some of you may be, you’re still committed to creating some real fucking change in this world.

I’m not going to argue with your qualms regarding Obama. I think for the most part you’re right on, and there is clearly a lot lacking in respects to living up to his high-flying rhetoric. But the fact is that he’s the One this go-around, and we’re going to see the most lively and dynamic parts of the movement rallying behind him, at least until the primaries. Yes he’s far from perfect (i personally had a hard time gettin it up for Dean, but i wasn’t a part of the movement), but he’s a world away from a John Kerry, or anyone else dancing on our all-too-depressing charade of a political stage. And let’s take some historical perspective: after 8 years of George W. Bush, the War on Terror, the War on Iraq, and on and on…. imagine America suddenly electing a young black Democratic President named Barack Obama. That’s some fucking change my friends. Yeah, we’re still stuck with the same old political system and most of the same ol’ politics, but things could be a hell of a lot worse.

“the question: what’s our best course of action? Like most of my friends, I want to “be involved.” But how?”

That’s the question that I’m still waiting to see you all answer. You guys have been at this a lot longer than most people I know, so I trust you’ll find your best options, but from my limited angle, I think it’s pretty clear what ‘part’ of your role is.

1) Start finding creative and effective ways to share your wisdom and experience with the next generation that is rising up and being transformed like many of you were in 2003/2004. There’s a whole movement springing up around Obama and from what I’m seeing, most of them are starting from scratch with little knowledge of what went down before, nor of what needs to be happening to carry on your own advances.

2) This second one has to do with your incredibly important line: “It’s the work of generations, not election cycles.” One of the downsides of being green & young is that your vision is so often extremely narrow and naive. And most of all, you don’t see your campaign within the larger context of the lasting movement. As you all here at FM and in other places continue fleshing out, building up, and laying the tracks for the broader emerging progressive Movement, you need to be connecting this up with the generations right below you.

There’s lotz of ways these intergenerational bridges can be built. One is obviously to connect some of the younger movers & shakers of the Obama youth movement here with this community. Two is to start (continue) crystalizing some of your “movement memory” and find ways to pass it down (in digestible, comprehensible ways) into the front-line trenches of today. Along both of these lines, you naturally need to develop relationships with a few key people on the inside so that you can start helping these youngstas know what they’re doing wrong or inefficiently. Who all these players are is still emerging (they’re not going to be that hard to find), but either way, if you all have your act and intention together, what you have to share will undoubtedly find itself into the right minds and right places.

I’m sure you all can run with this and come up with a slew of other ways to make the difference that you’re called to in this life-stage of your political/movement careers, but I hope you get my main point: stop feeling left out and let’s make it happen! Whatever it takes for you to get it up, find Her quick and jump into the Mix.

I say this as an Obama 'supporter'

Submitted by Jake Thorn on Mon, 2007-03-19 15:41.

I ‘support’ him mostly because I don’t like soundbytes and when I’ve seen him on TV he doesn’t seem distant and cold like The Others (except Edwards, who also seems alright).

That being said, my ‘support’ is very soft and reflective of how little I’ve thought about the campaign so far. I don’t know why anyone—-especially a young person—-would volunteer for his campaign so early, or get super excited about it. In fact, the more popular Obama gets, the less I like or trust him. His tone seems to be turning plastic just like every other leader’s.

As far as I’m concerned, he’s just another old guy who wants to use us (‘us,’…I’m 21, so for me, ‘us’ is the vaguely college aged). I haven’t seen any evidence of any candidates saying or doing anything that will give young people a seat at the table.

To me, the presidential campaign is just an extension of the status quo in Washington; young people are only valued as cheap labor and interns… cogs, if you will. Candidates will attempt to manipulate us into voting for them just like they manipulate every other demographic.

This may sound stupid, but I’d rather spend this cycle finding ways to fight back against that status quo than get behind a certain candidate. It just seems like a more productive use of my time. I could go volunteer for Obama or Edwards or something, or maybe even get a job with one, but I’m not going to waste 6 or 8 or 12 months fighting for someone I know is just going to turn around and ignore me and my peers once he/she gets into office.

So in a nutshell, it makes more sense to me to work on preventing Tools from ignoring my issues than helping Tools get elected.

Anyway, I like what you wrote in this diary. If you start a project, gimme a shoutout.

[[http://www.losethelabel.org/user/3|-6.00, -4.15]]

Word

Submitted by Josh Koenig on Tue, 2007-03-20 08:14.
This may sound stupid, but I’d rather spend this cycle finding ways to fight back against that status quo than get behind a certain candidate. It just seems like a more productive use of my time. I could go volunteer for Obama or Edwards or something, or maybe even get a job with one…

Word.

Beyond the potential of working for someone who will let you down — which is pretty much inevitable to some extent — I think that desire, to actually be effective, to use your real skills and human potential rather than being a cog in a machine, is incredibly vital. That’s what took me where I went. The call to be more than a warm body in some volunteer pool is a good one. Heed it.

your first Obama campaign insider~

Submitted by Joshua Gorman on Mon, 2007-03-19 16:55.

Looks like Sam Graham-Felsen of the Nation has joined the Obama for America team. (http://my.barackobama.com/page/commu…) Mike, do you two have an open flow of communication?

Flow of Information

Submitted by Michael Connery on Mon, 2007-03-19 17:15.

Sam and I spoke a bunch of times when he was working at the Nation. Whether or not that can or will continue now that he is with the campaign remains to be seen. Though he would be the second, not the first.

In some ways, this is what Josh and Trippi are getting at. Will the campaign be open and transparent, or will they keep it close? It’s not even a question of do Sam and I talk. It’s will the campaign allow Sam to talk to some blogger.

FWIW, I know a few people at a couple of the Democratic campaigns, and I hope that they will come talk to us here (and I’ve invited them), that they’ll read the site, and that we can all learn from each other.

At the end of the day, only one campaign will go on to the general election. If we can create an atmosphere here where people from all the campaigns are comfortable posting guest blogs, or doing interviews, etc… that will be beneficial to the Democratic Party as a whole, not just one particular candidate. And that seems like a worthwhile project.

March 2007

Submitted by jpb on Mon, 2007-03-19 17:53.

FWIW, I like Obama just fine. I’m still enthralled by his 2004 DNC speech, and I’m inclined to think that he’s a very, very smart guy. How much of his plastic just-get-along-insider-beltway jive is representative of what a President Obama would resemble? I’m inclined (perhaps too charitably) to think “not that much”.

But I also like Edwards and I also like Richardson. And at this point in the cycle, I’m not inclined to throw my support to anyone. I’m inclined to make them work for my support.

my main point: stop feeling left out and let’s make it happen! Whatever it takes for you to get it up, find Her quick and jump into the Mix.

Maybe I’m really showing my age, but I’m not inclined to do anything quick right yet. I’m a little dissatisfied that there isn’t a full-on netroots effort that I can throw my energy behind.

Maybe that’s a job for BlocPAC? A netroots candidate forum? Their schedulers wouldn’t even have to commit to a live appearance; how about an online summit, a four-week long email debate ([[http://www.beliefnet.com/story/209/story_20904.html|this debate]] has redeemed my faith in email debate as a forum for argument. Its fucking awesome) culminating with a live chat candidate debate. If the establishment lacks a Trippi/Dean pair this time around—if the horse needs to be led to water—let’s lead the horse to water. Dean’s balls-out embrace of the netroots was risktaking behavior. Politicians, by nature, don’t take risks unless they have to. And since we seem to have a competitive race among a few establishment-friendly candidates who may not be inclined to take risks, I don’t see any problem with asking them to the dance.

“Netroots” doesn’t mean “perpetually marginalized”. It means “geographically decentralized” and “leveraging technology to create community” and if the candidates are more comfy in a forum, let’s indulge them this little bit. Let’s give them a venue in to ask for our support.

Oh shit, this was a post about how I don’t feel rushed to pledge my allegiance, not a post about BlogPAC and a candidate debate. Oh well. Anyway, yeah: it’s fucking March. There’s a natural urge to join a team, but in this situation it may be better for all of us to make the candidates work a little harder until we commit.

I don't feel rushed either

Submitted by Jake Thorn on Mon, 2007-03-19 18:21.

And I’m also waiting to see what the netroots does. I like the idea of making candidates work for our support.

Thinking aloud…

It’d be cool if there was one central blog set up for all the candidates (R and D) to come to and debate in. Like throughout the primaries into the general… it’d put everybody on record, but also reward candidates who stepped up to the plate with concrete stances, because they could get fundraising support that way. They could leave comments on each other’s blogs (imagine Kucinich making a comment on a McCain blog…shit’d be goin dowwwwwwwn). Users could leave comments. If it had Scoop or something, people could rec up each other’s comments and get certain issues more exposure and bring certain questions more attention. Kind of like it goes down on DKos whenever a public official comes by and posts… people leave questions in the comments sections and the good ones get rec’ed up, and are therefore made tougher to ignore.

If I could get all the candidates to participate and had a crapload of cash, I’d make a website like that.

[[http://www.losethelabel.org/user/3|-6.00, -4.15]]

tech note

Submitted by jpb on Mon, 2007-03-19 20:01.

users could leave comments. If it had Scoop or something, people could rec up each other’s comments and get certain issues more exposure

can drupal or scoop (or anyone?) do slashdot-style comment-rating? that’s a killer effin’ feature right there. community-building, it is. can drupal do this out of the box?

Yes

Submitted by Josh Koenig on Tue, 2007-03-20 08:17.

It’s technically trivial. The hard part is getting enough people to use it. You need a critical mass of commenters (maybe 25 active at a minimum), and about an order of magnitude more people giving ratings for it to be of real value.

reality check note

Submitted by jpb on Mon, 2007-03-19 20:23.

It’d be cool if there was one central blog set up for all the candidates (R and D) to come to and debate in.

let’s forget about the “R and D”s for a bit and focus on the primary. I don’t think there’s any cross-party venue for this. But, for the sake of argument, for shits and giggles: if there was a site for all the D candidates to hash it out, could it really be a new site? Would they have the clout? I don’t think so. I think some established players would need to be in on it. Kos is the big boy on the block, but maybe a little too hot for some. “Those crazy far-left Kossacks” is still a slur w some currency. Maybe TPM? That’s some serious journalism. Maybe a little partisan, but they’ve got street cred.

Or maybe this could be really plausible if there was an effort w a high enough profile. A consortium of A-list bloggers holding a limited, 2- or 4- or 6- wk ongoing candidate forum. It would take the clout of the big boys—Kos, TPM, MyDD, Atrios, (and who else?). But coming off the Fox Nevada Debate victory (for which the “far left netroots” got a fair deal of credit, albeit begrudgingly), the time is right. What would it take? demdebate08.com. or better yet, netroots.demdebate08.com. That’s the first one, at least. Maybe there’s frontrunners.demdebate08.com and last3standing.demdebate08.com and

ok, I’m gonna go buy the URL. But i’ll donate it to FM or some other worthy trustee.

Is this an idea worth pursuing? Would people put some of their “I want to work for the netroots, not a candidate” energy into it? Or have I been hitting the sauce too hard?

yeah

Submitted by Jake Thorn on Mon, 2007-03-19 20:52.

Well as far as cross-party, I think it’d be pretty badass to see candidates firing off on-the-record broadsides at one another through the primary… As a voter, I’d use it to see how far candidates are willing to go in terms of attacking the stupid things the other side says.

(That’s why candidates would never go for it.)

But as far as a primary one for just Dems, I think it’d still be pretty valuable. The thing is, Hillary’s locked out of Daily Kos because the Kossacks hate her guts, and Biden…. HAH! And others, same deal. I don’t spend as much time in the other communities, so I don’t know if there are certain zones candidates aren’t allowed into… but DK is the big one and there are definitely candidates who couldn’t debate there because the community would bust a cap.

Creating a new one for all candidates would have the added benefit of being fresh, so candidates would pump in supporters. And

Anyway, I’m still just thinking aloud. I’d be willing to put some of my yay-netroots-boo-candidates-let’s-fuck-some-shit-up energy into it if there was a concrete proposal on the table. God knows I’m not one to walk away from an ambitious project idea.

[[http://www.losethelabel.org/user/3|-6.00, -4.15]]

online candidate debate, courtesy of MoveOn

Submitted by jpb on Wed, 2007-03-28 08:52.

MyDD [[http://mydd.com/story/2007/3/28/10256/8768|reports]] that [[MoveOn.org]] will be holding online “town hall meetings” to determine its endorsement.

What makes this possible? MoveOn’s 3m members, that’s who. I’m under the impression that MO is a pretty boomer-ish organization, but if it has mainstream legitimacy (for an internet organization), it seems like a worthwhile takeover target by millennials.

this is where itz at~

Submitted by Joshua Gorman on Mon, 2007-03-19 18:27.

“If the establishment lacks a Trippi/Dean pair this time around—if the horse needs to be led to water—let’s lead the horse to water. Dean’s balls-out embrace of the netroots was risktaking behavior. Politicians, by nature, don’t take risks unless they have to. And since we seem to have a competitive race among a few establishment-friendly candidates who may not be inclined to take risks, I don’t see any problem with asking them to the dance.”

Now that’s the type of thinking that I’m talking about! Pro-active, go-gettin, creating the change you want to see in this World!