There wasn’t any time or appetite for airing the left’s frustrations with the president. Wis. shadow hangs over Netroots

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Last year, the liberal Netroots unleashed their ire on President Barack Obama for short-shrifting the progressive causes they thought he’d champion in the White House. This year, they had a more pressing matter on their minds: a fear that Republicans, backed by the boatloads of cash that helped Scott Walker win in Wisconsin, could make even more gains up and down the ticket — and perhaps even beat Obama in November.

There wasn’t any time or appetite for airing the left’s frustrations with the president. Instead, the conversation at the three-day Netroots Nation conference centered around the recent Wisconsin recall election — and what it means for November.


Both in panel discussions and in conversations in the halls of the Rhode Island Convention Center, GOP Gov. Walker’s victory provided the backdrop for a gathering of progressives shocked into attention, not just by the outcome of the nationally watched Wisconsin race but also by the role that outside money played in it.

( Also on POLITICO: VIDEO: Netroots Nation 2012)

“The general temperature here is much less energized than it was last year. It’s sobered,” said Robert Borosage, who heads the progressive Campaign for America’s Future. “We now know [the right] will have money the likes of which we have never seen.”

Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the influential liberal blog Daily Kos, explained the mood as one of determination after an eye-opening experience.

“When you spend that kind of money, you put your finger on the scale. So yeah, it’s going to be a problem,” he said. “We realize our foe is well-organized, insanely well-funded and committed. We’ll just have to do the same.”

The urgency of the discussion over campaign spending was reflected at one of the gathering’s best attended events: a panel on the Citizens United court ruling and super PACs that featured three United States senators: Sheldon Whitehouse, Sherrod Brown and Jeff Merkley.

The Walker victory proved especially stinging in part because of the particular evolution of the Netroots. Now roughly a decade or so old — Daily Kos is celebrating its 10th anniversary — the liberal blogosphere and organized labor now operate as an almost seamless political entity that fights and bleeds together.

“At first, we hated each other. We looked at them as dinosaurs and asked, ‘What have they done lately?’ They looked at us as dorks with computers and asked, ‘What are they going to do, hit George W. Bush over the head with a laptop?’” explained Moulitsas. “Not only has that animosity disappeared, but the lines have blurred…A loss for labor is a loss for the Netroots.”

If Tuesday’s Wisconsin election set off the alarms on the prospect of getting dramatically outspent in races up and down the ballot, it also introduced a once-unthinkable idea: that President Obama actually has a real fight on his hands in November.

The size of Obama’s 2008 victory, the uneven course of the GOP presidential primary season and Mitt Romney’s inability to generate much enthusiasm among conservatives left many progressives under the impression that the president’s re-election was all but certain.

For many on the left, that impression changed Tuesday night.

“It was a wake-up call,” said Siobhan Bennett, president and CEO of Women’s Campaign Fund. “Nothing is more dangerous to our effort than complacency. The circus atmosphere of the Republican presidential primary lulled us into thinking this was a slam dunk. In truth, the Republicans are going to be formidable, extremely hard to defeat and to overcome.”

“People thought that in a fair fight Mitt Romney was unelectable,” said Garlin Gilchrist, national campaign director for MoveOn.org. “But now the rules have changed and in a way that could benefit the 1 percent and that’s Mitt Romney.”

Borosage worried that the left wasn’t worried enough in the wake of the failed Walker recall.

“There’s a general sense here that Obama is in better shape than he’s in,” he said. “The perception is that Romney is a pathetic candidate and they can’t imagine anyone is supporting him.”

Unlike the 2011 Netroots Nation event, which was marked by instances of progressive activists pushing back hard against the White House – one panel was even titled, “What to Do When the President is Just Not that into You” – this year’s convention showcased a progressive movement that has for the most part made its peace with the president.

“Obama should have gone to Wisconsin even if they knew they were going to lose. How can he expect us to fight hard for him when he won’t fight for us?” said Moulitsas. “But that’s not hostility.”

“There isn’t the same level of frustration and disappointment as last year. There’s been some progress,” said Arshad Hasan, executive director for Democracy for America, the progressive group founded by Howard Dean. “I don’t think there’s anyone here that doesn’t want to see Barack Obama re-elected.”

Yet there aren’t a lot of immediate answers as to how to get there. The left’s strength has always been in mobilizing voters. But the GOP managed to do that in Wisconsin. Leaders and activists frequently expressed the idea that, in the short term at least – that is, before the larger campaign finance issues that suddenly loom very large on the progressive agenda can be addressed – the movement must double-down on the organizing that it does best.

“It’s a moment of deep seriousness. There’s a get to work feeling,” said former Congressman Tom Perriello, who is now with the Center for American Progress Action Fund. “[Republicans have] tried in the past to buy a ground game but they don’t have the same kind of intensity.”