Some liberals, who backed Barack Obama from the beginning, and were responsible for obtaining the Democratic nomination for him, are now upset that Mr. Obama has now taken some positions that are contrary to the beliefs they hold dear.
Obama now supports the FISA bill, the part that offers retroactive immunity to the telecom companies. A bill that Obama said repeatedly that he would filibuster. Now, feeling betrayed, some in the progressive community have openly questioned his liberal credentials. One of them, Atrios, have given him his daily “Wanker of the day award”. Matt Stoller, a blogger at Openleft.com has said that Obama has broken faith, and is part of the old politics that has been rejected by his supporters. We must hold his feet to the fire on this issue.
Another blogger, Jane Hamsher over at Firedoglake.com is angry at Obama also. “It angers the blogosphere to the core Hamsher said. We want to know, what did you do!! A lot of people wanted to portray him as the progressive hero, and they were disappointed. You can feel a real shift in the zeitgeist online”.
Another well known, and popular blogger online is Markos Moulitsos Zuniga, who hopes that Obama is not just another spineless Democrat. “I don’t want to hear him talk about leadership, Moulitsos said. I don’t want him to talk about defending the Constitution, I want him to do it If he does, then he will increase the intensity and support in the Democratic base. If he doesn’t, then we may worry that he is just another spineless Democrat, who is more afraid of the controversy than in doing the right thing”.
Dan Gerstein, a longtime aide to Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), said this is the first test for Obama within his own party. He says that Obama must stand firm behind the bill, given Republican effort to brand Obama a “partisan, reflexive liberal” Gerstein went on to say that “people will be looking at this to see if Obama has the strength and independence to stand up to his friends and a significant support of his base and say I think this is right, and I am going to hold firm in my position”.
So this is the first big test for Sen Obama. Will he be pulled to the left by the netroots, or will he show that he doesn’t always follow the liberal line, and vote for the bill. We shall see just how much power the netroots have over this man.