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.
Possibly it’s the anti-Obama “progressives” who have learned their lesson, and not Obama?
Other than, as mentioned in the post, the grifters at the top, of course.
Interesting thought and possibly true. Not holding my breath for it, though.
And that goes for the asshats like you, or Zandar over at Balloon Juice, who whine about Firebaggers, Glenn Greenwald and other nonsense. But don’t let your own outrage over imagined slights get in the way of your martyr complex.
Anger…
If there’s one thing Calvin hates, it’s outrage over imagined slights.
Well, that and the phrase “professional left.”
Hey Booman,
I know u are always talking bout how bad at his job Boehner so I just gotta hear what u think of this story:
Quote of the Day (VIDEO)
Seriously Orange Julius has GOT to stop drinking while he’s at work. It’s unbecoming and unseemly, maybe Cantor and Ryan can stage an intervention?
“Most people could understand what Robert Gibbs was saying without taking it as a personal affront.”
BINGO
From my view there were several factors that some bloggers seek to exploit for clicks.
Most people have a weak handle on macroeconomics and a crash course via a couple of web bloggers doesn’t fill in that much.
One could say the same thing about most of our elites, who should know better.
The punch line of all of this is that Netroots Nation attendees were polled on Obama’s job performance, and his approval rating was in the mid-60s.
Let that sink in: even in the forum which is held out as the epicenter of anti-Obama leftism, those who approved of his performance outnumbered those who disapproved by better than 2:1.
One shrieking harpy can make a room loud and unpleasant, but that doesn’t mean the room is full of them.
It will be dialed down becasue I’m putting my registration over until next year. 😀