Never a dull moment here in Minneapolis as Netroots 2011.
Last night the house was filled to hear former Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold speak about the influx of corporate money. He excoriated the Supreme Court and called on Netroots to push to see next open seat on Supreme Court to open up (on the right) to overturn Citizens United.
Today, Dan Pfeiffer fended off some pretty blunt attacks on President Obama’s policies. While some of his answers gleaned a chilly reaction, it is important to remember that he was representing the White House, but with the media in attendance. In private, his explanations would not appear so tinged by careful wording.
Andrew Breitbart, whose Right Online conference is taking place nearby, tried to enter the convention. Netroots attendees swarmed toward him, one person in particularly heckling. Unfortunately, the best course of action would have been to ignore him. He had his own damn camera entourage. Heckling was what he wanted. Still, the organizers barred him from entering unless he bought a registration pass. They denied him a “media pass.” Realizing they were serious (organizers asked convention center employees to not admit anybody who did not have credentials), Breitbart scuttled away.
Debbie Wasserman Shultz also fired up the crowd talking about how Netroots and social media were critical for electoral wins. She compared it to her earlier political campaigns that were won on “shoe leather.”
Politicians galore from Sens. Mark Begich, Al Franken, Amy Klobuchar, Howard Dean, Keith Ellison and more. Lots of interesting panels and such! So far so good, Breitbart notwithstanding.
Netroots ends Sunday. I’ll post again if there are other developments!
I ran into Congressman Jim McGovern yesterday, it was great to see him. My daughter is with me and he made a special point to meet her as well when I mentioned her.
Great conference so far! I agree about Breitbart, it’s a shame anyone fed his ego – we should have just turned our backs on him en masse.
…over at the Greater Blackstone Valley Dems blog:
http://www.gbvdems.org/blog/?p=56
Greater Blackstone Valley Dems is an officially recognized Democratic group in the Worcester and Norfolk Senate District. We also have a PAC, and we are seeking to turn the entire valley blue! If you live in the area, please consider joining us.
absolutely. He desperately wanted people to freak out when he got there, and they gave him exactly what he wanted. Really too bad. If people had just ignored him, he’d have been crushed.
Did you not mention you-know-who.
Shoulda clicked Preview.
Jane Hamsher’s comments?
She said, to paraphrase, that, “We know what you need from us, and you’re not going to get it, unless … ”
I understand her point perfectly. Maybe she’s right. But I’m not willing to go there.
Basically she was saying Do what we want, or you lose.
To say the least.
My summary, or her point?
I don’t think she actually said that he’d lose, it was just heavily implied.
It also occurred to that she may know the threat is meaningless, but she’s already decided he will lose, so she’s trying to make him give us what he can when he can.
I’m sure your summary is accurate! 🙂
Netroots Nation 2012 is going to be in Providence. That should be fun!
It’ll shock and shut him up. And either way he will poo on the story of the netroots, harder for him to make a story if the meanine leftists killed him with kindness. Also plays into the civility being on our side, the Coffee Party and Giffords and all. Let the tea party heckle and beat their opponents, lets only engage them with the facts, because when we do they always lose.
I generally agree with you, but I don’t trust He Who Shall Not Be Google-Enabled by Me to not pull a Shirley Sherrod on several speakers, thus forcing thousands of people to spend a week defending them.
The man is a completely toxic personality. I’m not joking. He needs help.
Walking past Breitbart surrounded by a clump of people and cameras, and going up the escalator to the next panel, accounted for a couple of minutes of my time at Netroots Nation. Keynote speeches, about 5 hours total. Panels and training sessions, over 14 hours worth – somewhat more if you count discussions with the panelists after some of the sessions. Sure, I ran into a few prominent elected officials outside of the panels too. But the bulk of my experience of this conference was of the panels and presentations and training sessions.
Monetary policy, and figuring out what progressives should want in a Fed chair.
How to handle when your public and private life collide due to online activities.
Branding and messaging.
Common mistakes in web site design and usability.
Theories of change, and how to communicate them.
Voter targeting.
Q&A with the Obama campaign’s 2012 field director.
How Wisconsin bloggers covered the collective bargaining movement and made it a national story.
.. and more. And so many others that I didn’t get to go to. And the conversations after almost every one, with panelists/presenters and people who’d been there, following up on the topics we’d covered.
I think coverage of Netroots Nation, year after year, has a tendency to focus on the big names and minorly scandalous moments, giving people who didn’t go an unrealistic sense of what the conference is.
At Netroots Nation 2009, a small group of us in a hallway talked with Darcy Burner about the House’s strategy to try to get the best deal they could with the Senate on health care reform.
This afternoon, after a panel, I got to chat with Krystal Ball about how campaigns can respond to sexist attacks, and met a young woman from Massachusetts who may want to run for state rep.
A small group of people who are starting a new regional progressive blog came up to me because of what they’d heard me say at the web site mistakes panel, to ask advice about their blog.