Obama Supporters

In little under seven days, the My.BarackObama.com group Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right has become the largest group, organic or campaign created, in the entire Obama universe.

That's leadership. Obama? Still in the way.

Supporters of Barack Obama have used his online social networking platform, My.BarackObama.com, to organize against his cowardly FISA stance. A group titled Senator Obama - Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA Right was created late last week. It already has over almost 5,600 members (it will likely cross that mark by the time I finish writing the post). Most impressive of all, in this short time the group has become the fifth largest in the entire Obama social networking universe.

That is, a group created among Obama supporters to get him to do the right thing on FISA is now bigger and more influential than New York, Virginia, Massachusetts, and "Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)".

The Obama FISA group is on pace to be the largest group on My.BarackObama.com within its first week of existence.

Ari Melber of The Nation has a write-up on this internet phenomenon:

Since launching last week, the protest group, "Senator Obama Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity – Get FISA Right," swelled to one of the ten largest campaign groups on Sunday. (FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which the Democratic Congress is poised to amend under White House pressure.) It is the largest group of its kind on MyBo, which focuses on local networking, official campaign events, and constituency groups like "Women for Obama." It looks like the group grew through the Obama network, with a few web mentions on liberal sites such as OpenLeft and TPM, and it urges Obama to reject the "politics of fear" and lead Democrats to oppose the White House bill. Blogger Mike Stark says the effort demonstrates the kind of civic engagement and "open government" that Obama espouses, even if it delivers the "sting of social networking" pushback during a tight campaign.

One Democratic Internet consultant predicted that Obama's reaction could reveal his commitment to meaningful engagement with supporters. "How Obama responds will tell us a great deal about both his willingness to listen to input from his supporters and what influence the MyBarackObama community has on the campaign itself," said the operative, who wished to remain anonymous while working on another campaign. "In the meantime, this is a huge opportunity for Obama's supporters to organize around an issue, not just the candidate, and take action beyond using their credit card."
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Obama won the nomination by blending the practical and the ideal -- riding the financial juggernaut of Internet politics and promising a new, interactive civil society along the way. He made people feel good, and connected, and they showered his long-shot campaign with money, energy and adulation. Their votes are already in the bag, in general election calculus, but their work, enthusiasm and contributions to any larger "movement" are not guaranteed. Just as the campaign worked to mobilize so many supporters this weekend, it may have to reengage supporters concerned about Obama's recent drift. He could answer their arguments with a direct video explaining his vision for restoring the rule of the law and constitutional rights. Granting more unchecked surveillance power to the Executive and sidelining judicial oversight is a staggering affirmation of Bush's approach, especially coming from the candidate of change. If Obama is going to stand by that failed policy, he should at least explain his thinking in depth. It might even get more hits than a fundraising video.

This is a test. Obama's supporters are passing it with flying colors, integrating the tools the campaign has given them to do something important: tell their candidate that he is wrong on a crucial issue.

As of now, Obama is failing the test. Ryan Singel of Wired reports, "The Obama campaign did not return a call seeking comment."

Hopefully the strength of his supporters' outcries will get him to reconsider. Or at least say something.