Barack Obama's honeymoon with the liberal blogosphere is over

wyldwolf

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Wed Oct-24-07 05:11 AM
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Barack Obama's honeymoon with the liberal blogosphere is over

When the Illinois Senator, the freshest face in the Democratic field, announced his candidacy earlier this year the who's-who of the influential netroots movement gave him a relatively chilly welcome. Sure, they paid due attention. But it wasn't the enthusiastic embrace that greeted John Edwards, who's been courting the netroots for more than a year and whose campaign is now overseen by Joe Trippi, a certified netroots hero. In the monthly straw poll on Daily Kos, arguably the most influential liberal blog, Edwards has consistently placed first, followed by Obama. No more.

Yesterday's straw poll of 12,369 "Kossacks" showed Edwards at 31 percent, followed by Sen. Chris Dodd at 21 percent and Obama at 16 percent, his lowest placement in the poll. Indeed Obama's standing with the netroots has diminished in recent weeks, following a series of positions that have been criticized by prominent bloggers.

In June Robert F. Bauer, general counsel to Obama's campaign, argued for pardoning Scooter Libby. "A pardon is just what Bush's opponents should want," wrote Bauer, "A pardon brings the president into the heart of the case... compels him to do what he has so far managed to avoid: accept in some way responsibility . . ." To which Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake retorted: "This may be well and fine for a presidential candidate trying to massage a potential pardon into position as a campaign issue, but it's an extremely cynical argument, and I really can't imagine what the Obama campaign was thinking."

Last week two separate incidents left bloggers growing even more frustrated.

On Thursday, after The Post reported that a bill supported by Senate Democrats and GOPers seeks to grant immunity to telecoms who have aided the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program, blogs such as Daily Kos, Firedoglake and MyDD, to name just three, asked their readers to contact Dodd, who's against the bill. "Dodd is now the go-to guy. Losing faith in Obama," wrote Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas.

Two days later, John Aravosis of Americablog pointed out that among those participating in Obama's "Embrace the Change" gospel concert tour in South Carolina -- where Obama is in a heated battle with Sen. Hillary Clinton over the sizable African American electorate, especially black female voters -- is Donnie McClurkin. McClurkin has talked about his own fight against gay tendencies and has called homosexuality a "curse." Touting the gospel tour, Obama's aides issued a release saying, "This is another example of how Barack Obama is defying conventional wisdom about how politics is done and giving new meaning to meeting people at the grassroots level." And Aravovis wrote on Saturday: "Yes, sucking up to anti-gay bigots and joining them on stage -- no, giving them a stage -- is certainly defying conventional wisdom as to how a Democrat becomes president."

Aides to Obama said that the senator "strongly disagrees" with McClurkin's views. "I have consistently spoken directly to African-American religious leaders about the need to overcome the homophobia that persists in some parts our community," Obama said in a statement.

"A lot of people held out big hope for Obama early on but he just seems to have fizzled. He's squarely ducked almost every controversy that has come along," Firedoglake's Hamsher told The Trail Monday. "The blogosphere likes people who put their boots on and fight. It has become apparent that this just isn't who Barack Obama is."

OpenLeft's Matt Stoller had even harsher words: "Obama seems to believe that if you say 'change' a thousand times something magical happens. Maybe he can learn about leadership in the spring, when he'll have more free time."

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/10/23/post_145.html