I find this so tiresome:
Last year, the left was angry. At their [Netroots Nation] conference in Minneapolis last year, the anger of thousands of progressives who were spitting mad at President Obama was palpable. They dragged White House Communications Director Dan Pfieffer on stage for a well-attended drubbing that included boos.
This was a Netroots still smarting from then-Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ “professional left” crack, which left progressives feeling (at best) unloved by the Obama White House. They returned that sentiment in spades to Team Obama in 2011. At a panel called “What To Do When The President Is Just Not That Into You,” LGBT activist Dan Choi actually ripped up an Obama flyer on camera and chastised the Obama volunteer who dared present it to him.
There is no such panel evident on the Netroots schedule for 2012. At this year’s conference in Providence, R.I., the bitterness will be tempered, organizers say.
Does anyone seriously doubt that there are people in the Netroots who know it is in their financial self-interest to keep the outrage level (and the click level) as high as possible? Anyone who’s ever done fundraising or membership drives for a policy organization can explain this to you. Rage-a-holics make money for purveyors of rage. Nevertheless, most people in the Netroots have more integrity than that. Most people could understand what Robert Gibbs was saying without taking it as a personal affront.
The only thing that is different this year is that the audience is not in the mood for carping about the president.
