As Jerome's posts became increasingly, virulently anti-Obama over the past few days, I considered writing a diary suggesting my theory for why he was so adamant in his stance. Frankly, I think Jerome is so against Obama's campaign because he perceives a win by Obama would diminish his power, and the power of the big name bloggers generally.  I think this assessment is generally correct, but as a progressive I am unconcerned. However, if I were to make that argument I would have to challenge netroots CW on a number of fronts, and so I decided to give Jerome the benefit of the doubt - until he wrote another front-page article attacking Obama.

The most recent article by Jerome goes the furthest of any towards of his anti-Obama screeds towards recognizing what I see as the real reason for his hostility: simply put, Obama never kissed the elite bloggers' asses. What is going on here is the blogfather (and to a lesser extent the rest of the netroots mafia) are more concerned with solidifying their status as kingmakers than they are about pursuing a progressive agenda. As a progressive, and a member of the netroots outside the blogger elite, I find this distasteful and disheartening.

Edwards versus Obama is going to start taking up a lot of time in the progressive blogosphere. This is the first presidential cycle that we are taken seriously by the establishment of the party, and  the mainstream press. In light of this, it seems important that we clear up a few misconceptions in how progressive politics works online: We all seem to take for granted that we know what the netroots are, that the netroots are the progressive base of the party, and that candidates who court the netroots are the true progressives. I think all of the assumptions are wrong at least in some way.

Our idea of the netroots is overly proscribed. Simply put, the blogosphere and the netroots are not the same thing. Additionally, we should be careful to recognize the difference between how we promote our own power, and how we promote our issues. Making "the netroots" kingmakers is not the same as passing progressive legislation.

Perhaps the most difficult part of engaging in the political process is creating policies to deal with realities you would rather pretend didn't exist. However, it is incredibly important to look beyond your ideology in determining policy, and the only way to do that is to confront uncomfortable truths. In this case, we as a liberals may have opposed the war in Iraq, but that does not require of us that we now support a full troop withdrawal. I think we need to take the possibility of massive ethnic cleansing very seriously and should proceed accordingly. Reasonable people can disagree about the best way to manage the withdrawal, but the conversation should start with how to prevent the disintegration of Iraq. If an honest analysis starting from that perspective concludes that keeping troops in Iraq is necessary to prevent ethnic cleansing, then that may be a legitimate conclusion.

If the Democrats want to take back the House this year, we need to win two or three races that aren't on the national radar. If I had to bet on one such race, it would be Robert Rodriguez's challenge to Buck McKeon in California's 25th district. I'm not the only one who thinks so, as Robert is starting to gain a lot of coverage on the blogs. You can (virtually) meet Robert today at an online chat on firedoglake,Down With Tyranny and Crooks and Liars from 2 - 5 PM Eastern Time (11 - 1 Pacific Time).

Robert is garnering attention because he is such an inspiring candidate. So inspiring in fact, that he convinced me to give up my summer plan to get an easy gig and party with friends to go work insane campaign hours on his race. Most people who meet Robert have a similar reaction - it's why Matt Stoller of MyDD listed Robert as one of his all-time favorite politicians.

This is going to be a series where we introduce the people who make up the campaign. Every staffer will explain a little about who they are, and why their involved in the campaign. It is cross posted at our campaign blog, and throughout the blogosphere

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Max Berger, and I'm currently working as Web Coordinator for Robert Rodriguez for Congress. I'm a 20 year-old college student dedicating my summer to helping a fantastic candidate (and a good friend) get elected to Congress. I'm what you could consider a "netroots Democrat." I've been a daily blog reader since 2002, took time off school to work full-time for the Dean for America campaign in Burlington, and spent a summer at Media Matters. I want to share the story of how I came to be involved on this campaign, and why it matters so much to me.