The backlash against Obama's vote for the FISA bill hasn't gone away in the blogosphere, even as leaders in progressive politics, the Democratic party and the liberal blogosphere gather in Austin later this week for "Netroots Nation," formerly known as Yearly Kos. Liberal commentators, such as Keith Olbermann, who defended Obama's action as a way to protect himself against GOP smear campaigns targeting ill-informed voters, have been pilloried by an increasingly outraged left.
Now the talk of "betrayal" is spreading on the Web, though, and some in the Netroots are starting to resemble those nearly half of die-hard Hillary supporters who say they won't vote for Obama.
And Isaiah Poole, executive of the website for Campaign for America's Future, a co-sponsor of the Netroots Nation conference, told the "D'Antoni and Levine Show" on BlogTalk Radio last week that many in the netroots are likely to "hold their noses" in supporting Obama -- an ominous sign that there could be less enthusiasm needed to generate the high turnout Obama is banking on to win, particularly among younger voters. You can hear Poole's comments here in the first half of our show, co-hosted with Portland broadcaster Tom D'Antoni.
Unfortunately, the growing anger and coolness towards Obama is starting to resemble Andy Borowitz's parody, "Liberal Bloggers Accuse Obama of Trying to Win Election":
The liberal blogosphere was aflame today with new accusations that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill) is trying to win the 2008 presidential election.Suspicions about Sen. Obama's true motives have been building over the past few weeks, but not until today have the bloggers called him out for betraying the Democratic Party's losing tradition.
"Barack Obama seems to be making a very calculated attempt to win over 270 electoral votes," wrote liberal blogger Carol Foyler at LibDemWatch.com, a blog read by a half-dozen other liberal bloggers. "He must be stopped."
But those comments were not nearly as strident as those of Tracy Klugian, whose blog LoseOn.org has backed unsuccessful Democratic candidates since 2000.
"Increasingly, Barack Obama's message is becoming more accessible, appealing, and yes, potentially successful," he wrote. "Any Democrat who voted for Dukakis, Mondale or Kerry should regard this as a betrayal."
Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean said that he was "sympathetic" to the concerns of bloggers who worry that their nominee seems stubbornly bent on winning the election, but he warned them that the DNC's "hands are tied."
"If Sen. Obama is really determined to win, I don't think any of us can talk him out of it," Mr. Dean said.
Liberal bloggers said that they would be watching Sen. Obama's vice-presidential selection process "very closely" for signs that he is plotting to win the election.
"Barack Obama still has a chance to pick someone disastrous as a sign that he wants to lose this thing," Ms. Foyler wrote. "If not, he should brace himself for some really mean blog posts."
The anger against Obama is real, though, even as the netroots fails to get the mainstream media to focus on John McCain's vulnerable record as a serial flip-flopper and opportunist who didn't show the courage in the Senate he showed in the Vietnam war. Cliff Schecter, author of The Real McCain, explained it well in a July 3rd segement of our show.
While bashing Obama, many in the netroots could clearly do more to go after McCain in an effective way. The right-wing noise machine, including talk radio and their blogs, joined by the McCain campaign, on the other hand, seems quite skilled at shaping the media narrative about Obama as a flipflopper while giving McCain almost a free pass.
Let's hope that pragmatism and media savvy that can strengthen the progressive message emerges from this upcoming week's important Netroots Nation conference.
UPDATE: The New York Times reports this week on the left's anger and the threat it could pose to Obama's chances in the November election. The hari-kari progressive purists wing of Obama's support is drawn from the ranks of Naderites, bloggers and Kucinich supporters who are moving away from Obama towards a self-destructive path that could help put McCain in the White House, except, of course, that they're a relatively small faction:
In the breathless weeks before the Oregon presidential primary in May, Martha Shade did what thousands of other people here did: she registered as a Democrat so she could vote for Senator Barack Obama.
Now, however, after critics have accused Mr. Obama of shifting positions on issues like the war in Iraq, the Bush administration's program of wiretapping without warrants, gun control and the death penalty -- all in what some view as a shameless play to a general election audience -- Ms. Shade said she planned to switch back to the Green Party.
"I'm disgusted with him," said Ms. Shade, an artist. "I can't even listen to him anymore. He had such an opportunity, but all this 'audacity of hope' stuff, it's blah, blah, blah. For all the independents he's going to gain, he's going to lose a lot of progressives." .......
Many Obama supporters said the most vocal complaining about various policy positions was largely relegated to liberal bloggers and people who might otherwise support Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate, or Dennis J. Kucinich, the liberal Ohio congressman who dropped out of the presidential race earlier this year.
"I think it's accentuated by the fact that Obama's appeal is an appeal to idealism," said Kari Chisholm, who runs a blog, blueoregon.com, and does Internet strategy for Democratic candidates. "They believe their ideology is the only idealism and Obama's is very mainstream. I'm not surprised they're getting a little cranky. They've always been kind of cranky. A mainstream Democrat has always been too mainstream for them."
Some of Mr. Obama's supporters say he is less vulnerable to accusations of flip-flopping on issues because his campaign ultimately has been built on his biography and philosophy.
And some sort of pragmatism still prevails among a wide swath of progressive Democrats:
Asked last week whether Mr. Obama's vote on the surveillance law or any other recent statements or actions had altered how he felt about the candidate, Mr. Blanchard, of North Smithfield, R.I., said "absolutely not."
"When are these people going to go, anyway?" Mr. Blanchard said of left-wing critics he believes have hurt Democrats in past elections. "My attitude is lighten up on the guy. We want to win. Moving to the center is not a crime in this country."