July 22nd, 2008
At Netroots, relations warming with Obama
The netroots are still pissed over Sen. Barack Obama’s vote for the FISA capitulation compromise legislation, but relations are warming up again. At the Netroots Nation conference in Austin, bloggers were lining up to do their part for an Obama victory, the Washington Post reports.
Said Markos Moulitsas, aka Kos:
It’s not a question of who needs whom. Fact is, the Netroots are not going to be the decisive factor. But having said that, we’re an activist set of people: We’re engaged, we give money, we put boots on the ground. That’s why when many of us had a genuine disagreement with Obama on FISA, we let him know about it.
Even though the Obama campaign has long since expanded beyond the netroots, they still pay attention to the relationship. “Democracy cannot exist without strong differences. And going forward, some of you may decide that my FISA position is a deal breaker,” Obama wrote on his site. This week he sent a video from Iraq, with a similar message:
“We’ve had some disagreements in the past, and we’ll have some disagreements in the future,” Obama says in the video. “I promise to continue to listen to your concerns, take them seriously and discuss them respectfully.”
