As I noted yesterday, the Fightin’ Netroots were none too pleased with Barack Obama for taking his road show to Fox News over the weekend. Today, the king of the progressive blogopshere, Markos Moulitsas himself, filed an extensive grievance on the matter. Moulitsas had four main complaints:
Personally, I find Markos’ anger somewhat baffling. I have to admit it – I thought he was shrewder. Obama is running for president. That means he has to go get votes. While discrediting (or not “legitimizing”) Fox News may be a priority for the Netroots, Obama has bigger fish to fry. Or look at it this way: Can you imagine a conservative eschewing the networks or CNN because the interlocutors between him and the voters aren’t to his liking? The common thread running through Moulitsas’ complaint is that Obama’s not angry enough. He should be angry at Fox News, and thus have refused to appear there even though Chris Wallace is hardly a pit-bull. He should have “taken on” Fox News, potentially offending Fox’s millions of viewers but “electrifying” a hundred thousand or so blog readers. The last complaint is especially telling. The charge that the Obama campaign is “a bunch of liars” is a potent one. It shows that a measure of the anger that the far left habitually vents could well be headed in Obama’s direction. The Netroots love blaming political setbacks on their politicians failing to “act like Democrats” which by their definition includes frequent instances of spittle-flying rage. In appearing on Fox News, Obama has failed to act like a properly enraged Democrat in a big way. Lastly, the Moulitsas’ grievance reveals the Netroots’ unbecoming self-importance. Blogs are an important thing; as an alumnus of the blogopshere, I’d be the last to argue otherwise. But the accrediting of Fox News does not depend on some hundred thousand blog readers, but rather the network’s far more massive audience of a few million eyeballs. Chris Wallace is a serious newsman. No one (with the exception of a purple-faced Bill Clinton) has argued otherwise. Obama had a positive appearance with Wallace yesterday, and certainly based on that experience he has no reason to fear a return engagement. As for the significance of this Kos post, the best way for a politician to use the blogs is as an early alarm system. Things often percolate in the blogosphere before entering the mainstream media and becoming part of the campaign narrative. It seems like Markos has concluded that Obama isn’t tough enough. Funny – I’ve reached the exact same conclusion. Obama’s tendencies to vacillate, equivocate and to try to befriend everyone suggest that he lacks the requisite feistiness to be president. If Obama has to begin dealing with a “wimp factor” on top of all the other baggage he’s currently lugging, that may be more than his candidacy can bear.
