A revolution for the netroots

The netroots have brought their revolution to almost every aspect of the political world - from media to fundraising.  From candidate recruitment to volunteering.  The netroot denizens have muckraked, shone sunlight on scandal and process, and propelled their favorite candidates to victory.

Now, it's time to move into one of the last bastions of the beltway pundits and consultants: the think tank. More details on the flip, but the Draft Obama group has released the "Grasstank" for us all to use to propose and shape ideas for Senator Obama's campaign.

The netroot efforts embodied in the Draft Obama effort has tackled on the stodgy world of the think thank with the Grasstank - melding the grassroots power of the Internet with the idea-generating purpose of the think tank. A community is growing at the Grasstank, already sharing campaign tactics and ideas, commenting and rating proposals to move these ideas toward a finished useful product.

So, navigate over to the Grasstank.  If you like what you see, log-in and dive into the Tank with your own proposals.  Or rate and comment on the other proposals already in the Tank.  Some of Senator Obama's top campaign staff are certainly watching, and hopefully our ideas will be useful to them. The site is a work in progress, and we're actively looking for suggestions on how to improve the site both visually and functionally.  Feel free to make those suggestions either here in this diary's comments or at the Grasstank itself.

Let's tear down that wall between us and the think tanks of yesterday. Dive into the Grasstank!

•  suggestions appreciated!

  by grasstank on Mon Feb 19, 2007 at 12:26:45 PM PDT

•  Quick note.

  If you recall, the Senator posted here once back in 2005, a flame war ensued, and I think he posted one other time about two months later.  He has NOT been engaging with the Netroots, and Sen. Edwards has.  In a race where the majority of this site is decidedly anti-Hillary AND is a site that can raise $$ (Slightly less than 10% of Webb's $$ came from ActBlue donations), it would seem to me that the Senator needs to re-engage.  Someone needs to brief him before-hand, though, and let him know what the preconceived issues are (see David Sirota's posts about the Senator as a Presidential candidate; you can also see Big Tent Democrat's posts over at TalkLeft.  The answer is NOT for the Senator to pull back from the Netroots simply because he feels bruised by his one encounter here.  Frankly, he came into dKos at a time where broad dissatisfaction with the Democrats was rampant, and rightfully so as they couldn't hold particularly the Senate Dem caucus together for either SCOTUS nomination, Patriot Act, etc.  The Senator experienced backlash from that general sentiment in response to a diary he posted in defense of long-time Dems who voted AYE for Roberts, reminding all of us that "Democrats were the minority".

  I guess what I'm saying is this: he won't get support here if he doesn't come over and post here.  Someone has to break that deadlock before you can drive any traffic to Grasstank.

  by RenaRF on Mon Feb 19, 2007 at 03:09:58 PM PDT

•  End the drug war & save money & the constitution

  Grasstank, I like the idea, but I'll be pleasantly surrprised to learn that the powerful are really interested in big solutions like: End the drug war & save money & the constitution.

  Peace!

  by LibertySquirrel on Tue Feb 20, 2007 at 07:43:09 AM PDT