Jose Antonio Vargas has a write-up of the Netroots Nation conference in the Washington Post. It’s a good piece of journalism on several levels and well worth a read. But the most important feature is that it concludes with the wisdom of Man Eegee and his new collaborative project: The Sanctuary:
The mood between Obama and the Netroots has warmed in the past few months. Obama, who’s on his first overseas tour since becoming the presumptive Democratic nominee, sent a 10-minute video greeting to the conventioneers.
“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.”
The audience claps warmly, and among those watching are Edmundo Rocha, of Houston, and Manuel Guzman, of Tucson, Ariz., Latino bloggers who recently launched The Sanctuary, a site written by a multi-ethnic group of bloggers concerned about migrant rights and immigration reform. The group sent a list of detailed, pointed questions to Obama. They’re still waiting to get adequate responses, they add.
“I’ve been waiting to see just how much he’s going to involve the Netroots in the way he thinks about policies,” says Guzman, who voted for Obama during the primaries but says he was “disappointed” with Obama’s FISA vote.
“The Netroots are not going away. It’s only going to get bigger,” Guzman continues. “We’re all learning to live with each other.”
I love that Manny got a FISA dig into his call for increased communication with the Obama campaign.