Comments on: MoveOn — How Do You Like them Now?

By: Blue Texan

Blue Texan — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 19:59:40 +0000

Uh, that was sarcasm.

Geez, do I have to /sn every time around here?

By: brantl

brantl — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:07:29 +0000

The Betrayus ad totally backfired because no one backed them up.

By: jimbo92107

jimbo92107 — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 18:06:10 +0000

No idea whether he intended to or not, but Barack Obama did the blogosphere a huge favor by snubbing it early in the election.

Think about it: Are we politicians? Hell no. We aren’t journalists, either. We’re bloggers - a completely miscellaneous aggregation of concerned citizens that like to opine and inform each other about what’s going on in our country and around the world.

As volunteers of our time and opinions, bloggers get no private benefits from either journalism or politics, and that’s incredibly important. There is almost no money involved and almost no power, either. Blogs are run on shoestring budgets, which gives them a chance to avoid influences not based on merit.

Blogs aren’t perfect. We get flame wars, concern trolls and frustrations with this rapidly developing technology. But as long as access is free and connections run wide, blogs are able to communicate news and ideas that open people’s eyes to what’s really going on. And that changes things. It changed this election, and it will make it increasingly difficult for propagandists to fool the public in the future.

Meanwhile, blogs have a vital role to play in the aftermath of this election. Barack Obama sent a lot of mixed signals during his campaign, some liberal, some downright neocon. It’s up to the blogosphere to make sure that his better angels dominate during his first four years. Let’s push him towards FDR before the MSM and right wingers make him into another Gerald Ford.

By: skippy

skippy — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:41:44 +0000

with 4.5 million members, moveon is now bigger than they nra. maybe our leaders should think about that for a while.

yeah, but they still got the guns.

maybe we should think about that for a while.

By: moondancer

moondancer — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:30:38 +0000

As an Obama team leader, and minor Dem official in Chester County Pa, I will tell you they did a magnificent job in guiding out of state volunteers to my small city. I could not believe the quality and selfless work they did. Thank you MoveOn, and thanks vols from NY, NJ, MD, DE, DC for coming and allowing us to crush the GOP here. The first time Chester County voted Blue for pres since Jackson. Yes that Jackson.

By: LaurencePassmore

LaurencePassmore — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:54:45 +0000

The statistics you cite are pretty meaningless without context (Eric in comment #31 alluded to this). I contributed my time and money to the Obama campaign, but not because MoveOn’s emails asked me to. Lots of liberally inclined people devoted lots of resources to the Obama campaign, and I don’t appreciate MoveOn taking credit for that. It’s wrong to assume that these contributions wouldn’t have been made, or the extra voters registered, without MoveOn’s efforts. Had MoveOn’s members volunteered directly with the Obama campaign instead of feeding this extra bureaucracy with a penchant for discrediting its own causes, our victory may have been more impressive yet.

Also, what does “in coordination with the Obama campaign” mean, exactly? Isn’t that illegal?

Finally, comparing MoveOn to the NRA is absurd. NRA members all agree on their cause, whereas MoveOn’s “members”, who pay no membership dues, do not. This comment should make that much clear at least.

By: BargainCountertenor

BargainCountertenor — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:27:37 +0000

Jane,

Did you miss Countdown last night? KO’s Worst Person in the World made it official: It doesn’t matter what O Really?, Bill Kristol (Meth), Rushbo have to say.

Although I’d consider being on O’Liely’s Enemy List a badge of honor.

By: alank

alank — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:26:57 +0000

What a load of wank. I want to see moveon’s independent audit reports.

By: oldoilfieldhand

oldoilfieldhand — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:04:48 +0000

I hope that MoveOn remains a grass roots, ground up LIBERAL organization dedicated to promoting good governance. We don’t need to “go after” the criminals leaving (deserting) the government; let’s concentrate on rooting out the imbedded ones. We should rejoin the International Criminal Court ASAP and offer our unrestricted cooperation to the rest of the world, helping to bring war criminals to justice in a world court specifically set up to deal with the lowest form of humanity, and thereby purging our collective guilt.

By: RevBev

RevBev — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 15:45:14 +0000

Well, Jane, isn’t it good. Poor Bill-O, “He can’t help it…” He manages to be wrong almost all the time.