I see that my colleague bmaz referenced a post I wrote about a year ago back at Digby’s place, about how Obama the candidate was consolidating structures within the progressive movement – field, voter registration, fundraising, messaging, new media, organizing – into his Presidential campaign.

Shutting down Democratic and progressive structures that do not toe his line is exactly what Obama and his right hand man, Rahm Emanuel, have done since the election. This modus operandi was apparent even before the 2008 general election to those paying attention. Only a strong voice and accumulated power by progressive interests will be able to make headway in the face of it now.

On December 12th, I wrote President Barack Obama a letter and wrote a Seminal diary about the letter and my frustrations with his adminstration. In my letter – sent via the White House website – I checked the box that I wanted a response. If ya haven’t read that diary, scurry on over and take a gander at it so we are all up to speed.

*humming Jeopardy think song*

Ya back? Great – ya didn’t miss a thing. Let’s see what that response was…

One of the reasons that FDL was never quite comfortable during the primary battles was because the context for the conversation here has always been issue-based. And frankly, there just wasn’t much difference between the leading Democratic candidates when it came to issues. The voting records of Clinton and Obama were almost identical, and although [...]

[Ed. Note: Marcy also has a great take on Ezra's rewriting of history, and Obama's reneging on his promises. In case the news of the day prevents me from bringing it up to the front later, please go have a look.] Ezra Klein is trying to make the absurd claim that this Senate bill closely [...]

John Conyers is like the rest of progressives who fell in love with Obama the person and not Obama the moderate.

The Republican Party has engaged in a decades-long project to portray any Democratic electoral gains as fraudulent, chipping away at the legitimacy of any Democratic politician. A new poll by a Democratic firm shows that these efforts have paid off.

In a special one-hour live stream, we bring back many of our guests from last year’s election day show to discuss what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and what we still hope to see happen under Obama. Elections around the country of course saw nowhere near the turnout of the presidential race, yet the corporate [...]

Every day I am reminded that change can only happen when citizens stand together and take ownership over their government, their country, their communities and themselves. Every day I am reminded our work does not end with a campaign, but rather begins with a new President, a new government, and a new day.

Electing Barack Obama has actually been sort of the same thing. For a lot of people, just getting Obama elected president was IT. They’d been fighting (or hiding under the bed, whichever the choice) for so long that this was the be-all and end-all. And then he got elected (with the help of a lot of people and people who actually went and stood in the voting booth and made their choice) and everyone held their breaths and waited for some disaster to hit before the inaugural. And then Aretha Franklin stood up and sang and the Chief Justice screwed up the oath and they did it again. And there’s been all this noise trying to delegitimize the entire thing.