| Influential Democratic blogger Matt Stoller, an early front-pager at MyDD and one of the co-founders of Open Left, has not exactly been supportive of Senator Obama's candidacy. He appeared in a Bill Richardson web ad which castigated Obama and other candidates for not matching Richardson's impossible promise to immediately withdraw all troops from Iraq upon taking office. Stoller has put up a lot of extremely critical posts about Barack recently: September 12, 2007: Obama Is Done "Obama isn't one of us, and in his political career he has shown himself entirely unequipped to lead in a time of extremism. It doesn't much matter than he worked as a community organizer in his twenties. At crunch time, Obama is almost always absent, or even on the other side.""Obama will not lead on Iraq, but worse than that, he will not even address it...He's just avoiding the subject. And why should I pick Obama if I want someone who avoids the subject? I can get a better version of that in the form of Hillary Clinton." |
October 29, 2007: Progressive Campaigns Do Not Gay Bash "My position has always been that Obama could win if he runs a progressive campaign, but he's just not a progressive. Clinton is brand Democrat who has faced the right-wing smear machine, and she knows just how awful they are. Her strategy will be bad for the general since she is centrist and represents the status quo. In a primary or the general, though, you can't beat something with nothing, and Clinton is at least something." October 29, 2007: Paul Krugman Guts Obama On Social Security "A lot of Obama supporters at this point will become much quieter since there's little that is positive to say, which will allow the more ardent types to occupy more of the conversation. That's really unfortunate, but it's just a reality that Obama has given up his role as a participant in the progressive conversation." Well today, things have changed. Upon reading the just-announced outline of Obama's "Innovation Technology" plan, Stoller has announced that he's tentatively moving into the Obama column. November 14, 2007: Transformative Proposals From Obama "Today, Obama is throwing down the gauntlet on a internet freedom, telecom lobbyists, and on opening up government in general to the public. It's some genuinely radical stuff, and it includes the use of blogs, wikis, and openness in government hearings." "In the face of this set of challenges, Obama has thrown down a big gauntlet, policy-wise. He is pushing to break up the wireless gatekeepers, net neutrality will be a strong priority in his administration, and open government will allow citizens to generate new sources of political power. I don't trust Obama's politics and I find his post-partisan rhetoric problematic, but I believe in organizing, and I believe that if he is willing to put the government on an open level playing field for all citizens while protecting our ability to access it, good things will happen. That's more than I can say about Clinton." "I am now leaning towards Obama in my choice for President, with a second choice of Edwards, who has had an excellent set of policies out there on media and internet policies." I guess the lesson here is that ideas matter. Welcome to the fold, Matt. |
