it's not their time, just yet.   The "blogosphere' is like a 4 year old child trying to influence their parents about the decisions they're making...     look at dailykos, its a edwards stronghold even if he keeps losing, look at this site it's "anything but barack" but he keeps winning, look at Huffington Post moving wherever the wind pushes them and they still think they can influence voters (give me a break,)   Do they exert any influence?  Not in any meaningful way, it seems.

Its not the time, not right now.. maybe in 20 years....

Those who spend time here push the political envelope to the edges.  Within the netroots, you are considered a troll if you are moderate.  After a while, you end up with the situation at DK where you must believe in the most extreme wack positions, or you get TRed and eliminated.

Most Democrats are not wack edge nutcases.  They are moderate, somewhat left of center but not way out there.  The netroots are just too extreme for most.

Finally, the netroots involve a lot of argument, but very little action.  Nothing happens here.  No phone calls, no mail is addressed, nothing touching actual voters.  It's a virtual reality politics, and that means that, like Second Life, it has nothing to do with real life. It's just a place for fun for now.

Lamont was a victory and Lieberman isn't even a democrat anymore.  We may not have gotten Lieberman out of office but we have killed with the party and he will be gone next time around.  
There were many other victories, such as pushing candidates the party couldn't bother to support and making sure that there were candidates in most races allowing for the take back of congress.  Compared to Rahm Emanuel the netroots did brilliantly.

This time around is a different story.  I don't know what will happen to dkos, but it is no the place where smart democrats get their news anymore or come  to discuss issues. More rules is not going to fix it.  Occasional petty little fits of banning people is not going to fix it either.

But dkos is not the netroots and there are many other blogs where people can talk and post intelligent diaries.  The thing I find funny is that the people at dkos who have tried to control the debate here and failed are constantly whining about this site being not worth visiting.  What they really mean is that no matter how much they whine they can't shut up the Clinton supporters like they can at dkos.  

I wrote a diary last night about Obama and his Movement and Jerome's comment is still in line with what he has been saying all along: "Yea, if you want to call marketing a personality a movement, and wrap about buzzwords like 'unity' 'hope' 'trust' around it... yea, feel free to 'believe' in him.

There is no invite to the WH in Jerome's future. But at least he is consistent.

I keep coming around because I like the debate. I am bored when everyone agrees. I step back when it turns vitriolic.

Many of the bloggers are highly educated white boys who haven't experienced or worked with poverty or addiction or racism first hand. They are pundits just like the guys on TV; Working in the suites and not the streets.

Over the past four plus years, I have learned so much about polling and campaigning and messaging and framing. Essentially the liberal blogs are an exercise in politicking but not governing--the policy discussions are few and far between and often ill informed. I get my information on politics here but policy else where.

Finally, the growth of new blogs sponsored by the media has effected this whole process. I read a lot of journalist's blogs, not for opinion, but for a glimpse of what is going on on the ground. I rely on them for to determine which way the wind is blowing. (In 2003 I got that info here.)

Liberal blogs are going to have re-definition problems as DC turns democratic. Its more than a year a way but I won't be interested in Obama-is-too-centrist-attack-sites if that is how it evolves.  The beauty of sites like these was to provide an outlet for liberal anger and frustration but what happens when we are happy and content. What do the highly educated white boys and girls do then?

The netroots are a political force. On a scale of 0 to 10, the netroots will NEVER be a zero, and I suspect, the netroots will never quite reach a 10. All we are left to argue about, then, are the numbers in between.

The netroots is/are (which one?) not monolithic. It has many players, and the number of players will continue to grow.  It's only going to get stronger.  Accordingly, it makes little sense to simplistically suggest it is a single entity, or subject to defeat.

The truth of the matter is that the netroots are divided between Edwards supporters and Obama supporters. And the front page posters at various sites are essentially divided between Obama and Edwards.  (As an aside...I am always amazed, however, how transparently Pro-Obama the Huffington Post front page has been.  Wow...just wow.)

Bottom line: if either Obama or Edwards gains the nomination, the power of the netroots will have been a substantial part of that victory.  

By contrast, if Clinton gains the nomination, you can fairly say that the netroots has power, but that power has not yet become a determinative factor.

By the way, if I were a MSM journalist, I would be fearful of the netroots. I would criticize the netroots.  This is so because the netroots will slowly, but surely, dissipate the power of the MSM. And nobody likes to lose power.  

The power of the netroots is ascending.  The power of the MSM is declining.  It is only a matter of time before the two lines will cross. Maybe not this year, but soon...very soon.  

ebb and flow.

The reason why the netroots became prominent in the first place, was because of a vacuum of power and media. The media has largely reacted to the new form of communication, and has at least a sense of participatory media, though very little community. As for the power, well the Democrats winning back congress in '06 accomplished a big part of the netroots goal, and put power back in its traditional place along the way. If a President is elected as a Democrat, then even more of that transition is complete, and the vacuum pretty much gone.

But that just means things will have to evolve to be able to influence policy  more, the FISA example is where this needs to head.

I never expected that the netroots would play a very big role in the '08 presidential. In fact, you could find quotes where I state that it would become even more diffuse than it actually did. I was looking at a race that was going to include, aside from Edwards, the candidacies of Kerry, Warner, Fiengold & Clark.