Sucked Dry and Cast Aside
I think the excitement in this post is a tad bit premature.
Now, thanks to his deft use of the social-network applications of the Web, Obama retains the means for netroots operations, high-octane fund-raising, smear-fighting and get-out-the-vote operations. His more than 3 million names-disproportionately young and energetic-remain a political force as long as he satisfies them that, once in office, he can deliver. Roosevelt had radio; Obama has, in addition, both the Web and the stadium. He can deploy his supporters to muscle reforms through. He can fill arenas, get supporters to bombard Congress with phone calls to break filibusters, and otherwise stir them to action-to overcome Big Pharma’s obstruction of a new health insurance system, say, or the fossil fuel industry’s objections to cap-and-trade emissions-cutting policies. He can pit them against the right-wing media who will surely pounce on his every mistake. He needs to keep them pumped up to resist the default privatism of American life, the cynical inertia, passivity, even paralysis, of the public will. He must “fire up” his big battalions and regularly keep them “fired up” if he is to deliver results.
Before we proclaim him King of All new Media, can we get him to update his Twitter account once a week, at least?
Since last Tuesday’s historic election, Barack Obama’s Twitter account hasn’t sent any messages. Some Internet President-Elect! He didn’t even use Twitter to announce his transition website, change.gov — and what is Twitter for, really, if not spamming your friends with your latest URL? There’s no better sign that his 127,196 followers have been pumped and dumped — Twittered into contributing money and time, and then passed over for more presidential means of communication. Like, say, press conferences.
Now that he has the power, what does he need the nutroots for? He can get everything he really wants without them. And they’re going to hate learning, over the next four years, that what he really wants isn’t anything close to what he told them he wanted.
(via Jonah Goldberg and Techmeme)
Other Posts of Interest:
- I Guess They Can Get the Bust Done in Eight Years
- White House to Establish Office of Paying Off ACORN
- Will We Finally See A Barack Obama Donor List?
Category: President Barack Obama
