My Obama Indifference

The HuffPo writes about Obama and the netroots. They might as well have made it about Obama and liberals who are paying attention.

The worst part of all of this is that he doesn't need to do it. Like all cautious centrists, they have a fundamental belief that the country is conservative and that Democrats must portray conservative values in order to win. It's simply not true anymore; that's a vision of the world as it existed at a brief time in 2001 and 2002. 80% of the country thinks we're moving in the wrong direction. No Democrat gains by offering the same direction.

I think it'll be marginally easier to get decent small-bore legislation passed in an Obama Administration, but that's about it. I think he's pragmatic, and if pushed he will move in the direction of those doing the pushing. The opportunity moment is that he is concerned with increasing the Democratic majority in Congress, which means we can use that to elect progressives committed to a different agenda and toss out the insidious Blue Dogs.

The best thing I've read on this is this piece by Kathy G, who lives in his old State Senate district and so has watched Obama up close for a long time. I do think Obama eventually listens to his constituents if enough pressure is applied, so the recognition has to be that the real work begins the day AFTER the election, not before.