techPresident - Daily Digest: Does Obama Need the Netroots? - Comments

Obama and the Netroots

Luigi Montanez — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:18:35 -0500

It's definitely true that Obama hasn't courted the Netroots, hasn't needed the Netroots, and if he wins tomorrow, won't need the Netroots moving forward. It's also true that his campaign has built a much more broad, and powerful, coalition than the Netroots can ever hope to be.

But the problem I see, as a partisan Democrat and a small-dollar donor to the Obama campaign, is that while Obama has positioned himself to take down the Clinton machine and obliterate McCain come November, he's not leaving behind any coattails behind for the hundreds, even thousands, of down-ticket Democrats that will be on the ballot with him.

True, it's still the primary season, and the Obama campaign has every right to focus on their candidate rather than the party. But at this point, they've shown no hint that they at all care about party building if they were able to finally put down Clinton. Movement building? Definitely. Party building? Not so much.

"love" and "funny"

Joshua Levy — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:50:47 -0500

To be clear, I wrote that I "love that name," not that it was funny. But you're right that we shouldn't single out peoples' names based on how where they come from.

That said, I don't think I questioned Mr. Tobaccowala's achievements or made fun of him; in fact, I called him an astute observer.

funny names

Peter Pasi — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:47:15 -0500

Not to be a killjoy, but I really see nothing funny about Mr. Tobaccowala's name. If someone were named "Baker" or "Shoemaker" or "Carpenter" we wouldn't make fun of them. But wait, those are European names, and Rishad is just a South Asian who has distinguished himself as a very smart and accomplished person in his industry. So it's OK to make fun of him.

Daily Digest: Does Obama Need the Netroots?

Joshua Levy — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:53:09 -0500

Obama's neglect of the netroots bores progressive bloggers; Obama's broad coalition of supporters, cultivated online, may negate the need for the netroots; dueling "red telephone" ads and a much-needed parody; six seconds of silence on a Clinton campaign call; a new aggregation site has a misleading about page; what if Bloomie were stilling running?; and Off The Bus profiles a whopping 200 superdelegates.