Obama political arm under fire (grass-roots network 'Organizing for America' on defense)

Politico.com on Yahoo ^ | 1/13/10 | Alex Isenstadt, Ben Smith

[NormsRevenge]

Barack Obama came to town a year ago to change the way politics worked, and Organizing for America was to be his instrument. The successor to his campaign organization, with the largest e-mail list in America, was poised — many observers thought at the time — to bring the campaign’s movement fervor and Web-centric tactics to pushing Obama’s legislative agenda through Congress.

A year later, politics is working pretty much as it always did, and it’s Organizing for America that’s on defense.

With little public profile and a difficulty in pointing to concrete accomplishments, OFA, as it’s known, has faced criticism on many fronts: Progressives blast OFA as a soulless, top-down machine that’s alienating the base, even as some state party officials complain that the group is stepping on their toes. Conservative Democrats, too, grumbled over the summer when OFA ran mild, campaign-style ads in their districts backing health care reform, a violation of political etiquette the group hasn’t repeated after complaints from congressional leadership.

Perhaps most troubling for the party, former Obama aides and other Democrats say, OFA simply hasn’t been as effective as they had hoped. And as 2010 shapes up to be a difficult year for Democrats, the quiet hand-wringing among party officials over the organization’s capacities has been matched by a new public hand-wringing among Democratic activists, ..

“'Fixing health care' was a tough initial assignment for Organizing for America. It was both too diffuse and abstract,” said Simon Rosenberg, president of the Democratic think tank NDN, who said he thought OFA “could get back on track” next year by focusing on the economy and the elections.

...

Top officials would speak to POLITICO only on the condition that the press office approved quotes before they could be used on the record.

[NormsRevenge]

U.S. President Barack Obama leaves after giving a statement about the
devastation caused by an earthquake in Haiti, at the White House in
Washington January 13, 2010. REUTERS/Jim Young

[MtnClimber]

I always knew he was a Marxist and why he was covering up what kind of “hope-n-change” he really wanted.

[Liberty Valance]

I read the caption but who’s that guy in the picture?

[Tawiskaro]

[grey_whiskers]

Norm, did you look closely at the picture?

It almost seems as though his face is morphing into Jimmy Dhimmi Carter before our eyes...

Cheers!

[Lazlo in PA]

I would argue the the Prez has made politics more web-centric. Just look at the Tea Party movement he spawned. Connecting opposition folks through sites like this.