Will Obama Feel the Sting of Social Networking?

Barack Obama may get what he wishes for, 7 months early.

A viral campaign is underway that seeks to enlist people in the my.BarackObama.com group, Senator Obama - Please Vote Against FISA.

Allow me to explain.

A key plank of Barack Obama's candidacy platform has been civic engagement. His plan for creating an open and connected government is one of the most refreshing and detailed elements of his entire campaign.

Some excerpts:

Our nation's progress has been stifled by a system corrupted by millions of lobbying dollars contributed to political campaigns, the revolving door between government and industry, and privileged access to inside information-all of which have led to policies that favor the few against the public interest. An Obama presidency will use cutting-edge technologies to reverse this dynamic, creating a new level of transparency, accountability and participation for America's citizens. Technology-enabled citizen participation has already produced ideas driving Obama's campaign and its vision for how technology can help connect government to its citizens and engage citizens in a democracy. Barack Obama will use the most current technological tools available to make government less beholden to special interest groups and lobbyists and promote citizen participation in government decision-making.

Obama says he will accomplish the goal by, inter alia,

- Giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days before signing any non-emergency legislation.

- Bringing democracy and policy deliberations directly to the people by requiring his Cabinet officials to have periodic national online town hall meetings to answer questions and discuss issues before their agencies.

- Employing technologies, including blogs, wikis and social networking tools, to modernize internal, cross-agency, and public communication and information sharing to improve government decision-making.

Indeed, Obama's campaign website, my.barackobama.com, already implements some of the capabilities he describes above. As much a social networking site as it is a campaign site, Obama allows users to create profiles, blog about issues and establish "groups" -- a kind of on-line club of people with common interests.

The technology Obama envisions for the country may not work the same way it has worked on his campaign website. Members of MyBarackObama.com are, as should be expected, overwhelmingly supportive. In browsing current user-created Groups, I didn't find a single one that wasn't supportive of the candidate. Of course, Obama will not have that luxury when it is time for him to govern the entire country. There will surely be masses of comments and testimonials in support of proposed government policies; the negative commentary will be even more plentiful. (Think about it: when was the last time you were tempted to pick up the phone to tell the government they did something right? People are much more motivated by perceived threats and deficiencies in government than they are by positive developments).

Obama may be about to witness a foreshadowing of his vision.

Yesterday, my.BarackObama.com member "Mardi" created the group "Senator Obama - Please Vote Against FISA Membership".

The Netroots anger over Obama's reversal on FISA (he had promised to support the filibuster any bill that contained "retroactive immunity" for telecom companies; last week he disavowed the pledge) is palpable.

Right now, the most active group on My.BarackObama.com has just over 13,000 members; the new group could easily reach that size before the Senate returns from their 4th of July recess. It would be easy to do. When I woke up this morning, I did not have a my.BarackObama.com account. Someone sent me the link to the group and in less than 60 seconds, I not only had an account at my.BarackObama.com, but I had also joined the anti-FISA group.

The really cool thing about all of this technology? It is exactly what Barack Obama wants to see happen; it comports perfectly with his vision of an engaged electorate. Over and over again on the campaign trail, Obama has talked about what YOU have done. He aspires to represent "we, the people" and consistently disparages the old system of lobbyist-fueled special interest politics.

So...

If you want to be the change you desire, take a few seconds, visit this group and sign up. It'll provide Barack Obama with an unprecedented opportunity to lead by listening to the people.

Comments

[Nonamnesiac]

The reality is that U.S. progressives are willing to turn a blind eye to war crimes and be Good Germans. So Obama has nothing to fear. How do you think Obama would react if he knew that progressives wouldn't vote for him if he voted to fund the war, or if he voted for immunity for the telecoms and the expansion of the infringements on civil liberties that are also in the new FISA law? He'd genuflect to us the way he genuflects to right wing vermin who support the war crimes Obama funds and the new FISA law.



But US progressives lack the principles, conscience or even understanding to act like they really care about the murder and maimings of Americans and Iraqis and the torture of Iraqis, so they delude themselves into being the Good Germans of WWII who participated in the Nazi body politic, knowing there was genocide going on, but not personally participating in the genocide -- in effect supporting the genocide.



If you want Obama to support progressives, he has to fear we won't vote for him, even when they unleash the Nader-baiting, Democratic Party sycophant screamers at us -- blaming us who vote against funders of war criminals and immunizers of criminal corporations for what we vote against while these "Good German" sycophants vote for the funders of war crimes and immunizers of criminals -- people like Obama.

[NoCorporatePersonhood]

27 posts here and no more than 1225 people have joined the group. How can anyone that cares to see our country return from corporate rule be optimistic? Rome is burning and no one sees or cares. As long as we can get fat and have our air conditioning everything is ok but that will be over soon as well. Good luck everyone. The ship is 3/4 sunk and its too late to get off.

[mom2sons]

Calm down, give him the benefit of the doubt. He is not going to be everything to everybody, all the time.

[judyc]

I don't understand the uproar. I feel that Obama's position on this issue is balanced.

He will be called "soft" on security if he votes against it. This would be a very bad thing since that is the only area where Mccain leads him in the polls. The GOP would run with it and label him weak on terrorism.

Only 15 Senators out of 100 have said they will vote against it. Does that make you wonder why? I would prefer that he spend his time trying to win the presidency rather than filibustering in the Senate.

All of you may be causing alot of trouble for the candidate that you profess to support. I think you should all back off, trust his judgement, and trust that he will work to remove the immunity clause after the election. This issue certainly doesn't trump the economy, energy, jobs, foreign policy and all of the other things that made us all support him to begin with.

[Jennysaypa]

Well, Judy, the uproar is like this...There is this document called the Constitution of the United States which has this little additional thing called the Bill of Rights, Senator Obama, for his many qualities just joined another bunch of politicians in wiping their backsides with it. That's the big deal!

I'm going easy on you because you obviously don't know anything about national security.
With the introduction of digital technology in 1995 all cellphone calls had encryption, preventing people fromlistening to their calls. The algorythm was A51. Apparently it didnt' work, or didn't exist if everybody's phone calls were being listened to. Hey, what's the problem?

If Obama doesn't start supporting the civil rights of the people of this country, like he said he would, then it won't matter that he is called "Soft on security". Nobody in national security will put their lives on the line for this country. So the terrorists will win. Like they are winning now thanks to the ideological idiocy of the current administration.

[HAYMONBRANDON]

I NOT GOING FIGHT OR LOSE MY FOCUS ON THE REAL GOALWHICH IS TO GET SEN OBAMA ELECTED . HE IS THE ONE WHO IS RUNNING AND HE WILL DECIDEWHAT HE WILL DO ON THIS MATTER ALREADY SOME ARE TRYING TO PUSH HIM AROUND LIKE HE IS A ROBOT. HE IS A STRONG PERSON SOME OF THESE COMMENTS ARE MADE BY PEOPLE WHO ARE UNDER COVER SUPPORTERS FOR MCCAIN WHO WANT TO SEPARATE US DON'T LET THEM. STAY COOL . OUR GUY IS READY FOR THE JOB MICHELLE WILL MAKE A GREAT FIRST LADT MAN WE WILL WIN IN NOV08

[Jennysaypa]

Senator Obama works for the people and should not forget it or try to hide this fact with seals that look like classic American seals. He is not a King. we've had 8 years of that.

[Camel54]

Question, and I'm not trying to be sarcastic, I'm really asking for opinions here, if Obama ends up voting against the bill after saying he would vote for it after initially saying he would vote against it, how would this not be an advantage for Republicans? Won't they have an even easier time painting him as a flip-flopper or waffler? Not that they're not doing it anyway by parsing his language, which is just sickening when the media supports that type of manipulation, but wouldn't it become even harder for him to win the indies and the centrists and those who want a Democrat but who are seriously afraid electing one means inviting terrorist attacks?

[AxelDC]

McCain will never have a problem with Facebook because HE CAN'T USE A FREAKIN' COMPUTER!!!

[MidwestBlue]

Here is an excerpt from McClatchey ("Will Obama's shifting stances undermine his true-blue image?"):

"Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe, while not acknowledging any flip-flops on Obama's part, said "we see no evidence" of frustration among voters."

That's a lie. People have been calling and writing Obama's campaign, his Senate office, and his district office day after day, expressing outrage at his sell-out to fear over the Fourth Amendment.

[Nominay]

I joined barackobama.com a while ago, but after two weeks I unsubscribed, because all I got was inane group emails every day, instead of an invite to active participation from my local chapter to volunteer, as I was hoping.

[Jennysaypa]

I am one of those people you are talking about--and what I've done is different from the group you list. So this insurrection is going viral.

Last Saturday morning I woke up at 4 am in a very grumpy mood over this sellout. So I drew up a petition (link below) asking him to vote no on all the FISA provisions. Now, despite efforts to suppress that petition, on and off the BO website, it has 810 signatures.

Russ Feingold heroicallly bought extra time on the FISA Update bill, delaying it until after the Congressional recess--this is a grand opportunity.

Tomorrow is the national kickoff of the Obama general election. Many supporters like us will be attending barbecues and similar events.

Here is what I want all patriotic Obama supporters to do.

1. Cut and paste the text below into wordpad or Word:

Sign the petition asking Senator Obama to Vote No on FISA Update in its entirety.

Go to http://www.petitiononline.com/bo90210/petition.html.

2. Copy it about 20 times onto a page and then print it on an 8 1/2 x 11 in. piece of paper.

3. Cut those pieces of paper into separate little squares.

4. Go to the Obama event and pass them out.

I would also suggest supporters use Obama activist standard operating procedure to recruit your fellows to the caus: Go to your event looking to recruit two people who will act, and not just sign.

[NoCorporatePersonhood]

I have been a supporter of Obama for about 1 1/2 yrs and just joined this new Obama group and emailed family and friends to do the same. I am looking forward to seeing how many people know how important this is and seize the opportunity.

I am always pessimistic but would like a great surprise to see 20,000 people join this group to make a statement about what we expect from our next president.

[ideasmatter]

Great post Mike. This issue may turn out to be the breaking point for the Obama campaign. I sure hope he changes his mind in time for the vote. Otherwise, yet another disillusion.

[nk007]

I do not agree 100% with Sen. Obama's position on FISA. I think he could have framed the issue differently by emphasizing that we can fight terrorism without violating the Constitution. I think the compromise made a good faith effort to abide by the Constitution. But it still left a great deal of Bush violations intact. The fundamental question facing netroots is whether they are willing to abandon Obama on just this issue? Some of those against the current FISA bill say they will hold their noses and vote for him but will no longer contribute to his campaign. Others are ready to either sit-out the election or vote for third party candidates. If that happens that may result in McCain winning the election. For my part, as much as I oppose the current FISA bill, I am not willing to sacrifice all other issues and end up electing John McCain. We already saw what that got us in 2000 when many of us voted for Nader and helped elect Bush over Al Gore. I am certain that had Al Gore been president we would not be debating FISA.

[christieZ]

I completely agree. As much as I would love for Obama to vote against this FISA bill, I'm still fired up about Obama's candidacy and the Democrats taking back the White House. Those who think that this issue overrides health care, the environment, energy policy, abortion rights, education, foreign policy and overall decency, are deluded and will be responsible for running this country further into the gutter if John McCain is elected President. This is the easiest vote in the history of US Presidential elections. Barack Obama or four more years of the Bush era.You know, I think I'll take the cool, transformative genius who has started a movement by connecting with people all over the world, rather than the fork-tongued buffoon who has inspired a "Make McCain Exciting Challenge" on Colbert.

[Slagfish]

You point is well taken, but what assurance do we have that Obama and the dems won't roll over on all these important issues.

[doofmann02]

Here is the bill if you have trouble sleeping tonight and need reading material:

http://tinyurl.com/56332p

[RobertArend]

Eu tu, Olbermannus?

After searing rebuke of Bush over FISA and telco immunity, Keith Olbermann betrays himself and waters down his defense of our Constitutional freedoms for Obama's sake.

Read about it here: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/26/olbermann/