DU Needs to Pivot Off the Debates onto the Economy now.

[Tom Rinaldo]

10. Start with this

DU has over 150,000 registered members. That's only people who filled in the screens to actually join and doesn't count all of the people who visit DU regularly or on occasion. That qualifies DU as a major left wing political web site. Dig a little deeper into who posts on DU and you find that a hell of a lot of Democratic activists are included in DU's membership. I'm not talking about eating Cheetos in basements, I mean people active in local Democratic Party organizations. People who run for school boards, city councils and state legislatures as well as local Democratic Committee Committee persons. Which doesn't count all the people who post on and/or read DU who do active (physical ) volunteer work for Democratic candidates. I fit tin he latter category

If you accept that DU is a major left wing website whose members include large numbers of democratic activists it doesn't take a leap of logic to realize that some people whose business it is to understand what it going on regarding the political mood of the nation, and especially that of grass roots Democratic Party members (you know, "the Base&quot would check in here on some kind of regular basis.

It's true I haven't done a research project on this. That's one reason why I don't bookmark links pertaining to it, but I've seen threads here about Rush Limbaugh doing rants about stuff that was posted on DU, and I've seen shout outs posted about DU by people like Thom Hartman who referenced information posted on DU. I remember when Elizabeth Edwards posted regularly on DU while her husband was seeking the Democratic Presidential nomination, both times. I know that Wes Clark was aware of Democratic Underground. If you spend any time here during major primary seasons it is obvious that some posters have regular connections to some candidates campaigns and sometimes the candidates post here themselves.

I betcha most regular posters here can, off the record, name some DU posters who they suspect are connected to some politician's teams, though officially that can't be speculated on with names. As to the matter of the Public Option and single payer - it is a horse of a different color to directly influence political policy as opposed to indirectly influencing perceptions of the political climate. However I will note that it was reported on widely in the main stream media that large elements of the progressive activist community were up in arms with Obama over his "failure to fight for the public option". You might remember that back in early 2002 Preside3nt Obama was taking some credit for being independent enough to stand up to the Democratic Party base when he felt it was in the best interests of the nation to do so.

As to mere speculation, we are in a political era when pundits are counting up numbers of tweets made and/or google searches started using topical buzz words and phrases, and then integrating that data into the subject of their columns etc..Everyone is trying to get a new angle on the "horse race" aspect of political campaigns, so why would pundits not pay attention to a site like DU where there is constant real time feedback flowing in from around the country about what "the base" is feeling and discussing?

For the record I said 500 door4s,by the way, not 500 Independents. One would have to hit over 5,000 doors to even have hopes of talking to 500 independents. My point wasn't to demean the value of in person politics, just to point out that even the most active among us usually only directly help swing several dozen votes in a nation where tens of millions are cast. Small things matter was my point. Granted, a change in the nature of discussions on DU is of little notencompared to the actual impact of the debate, but I believe it matters and it is one way for us to help counter political narratives that are not helpful for the Democratic Party.