Online group turns sour on Obama

Chicago Tribune

The same Internet-fueled power that led to historic gains in organizing and fundraising for Sen. Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is now providing a platform for fiery dissent in a most unlikely place: his own Web site.

Amid criticism from the left that he has eased toward the center on a number of issues in recent weeks, the presumptive Democratic nominee has angered some of his most ardent supporters while triggering something of an online mutiny. Thousands are using MyBarackObama.com to angrily organize against him because of a changed position on terrorist wiretap legislation that awaits Senate action as early as Wednesday.

The dispute has forced Obama to respond in ways never before seen in a presidential campaign, demonstrating the Internet’s growing role in the democratic process and the live-by-the-click, die-by-the-click potential it holds for politicians.

The controversy centers on modifications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the government’s quest to monitor suspected terrorists that civil libertarians worry could infringe on the privacy rights of others. Obama had pledged earlier this year to oppose — even filibuster against — legislation that would immunize telecommunications companies against lawsuits that challenge cooperation with federal authorities in warrantless wiretapping.

But with that immunity now part of compromise legislation, Obama has softened his stance and suggested that he will back the bill. At a Chicago news conference on June 25, he said the proposal was a “close call” for him.

“The underlying program itself actually is important and useful to American security,” he said. “I felt it was more important for me to go ahead and support this compromise.”

That same day, a new online group named “Senator Obama — Please Vote NO on Telecom Immunity — Get FISA Right” formed on his campaign’s social networking Web site. Now with more than 22,000 members, it is the largest group on MyBarackObama.com.

The online group is flooded with messages of disappointment and disillusionment. Some threaten to ask that their campaign contributions be returned, while others suggest they will simply stay home this fall.

One man even said he had removed his Obama bumper sticker from his car. “It’s the first, and only bumper sticker that I’ve ever put on a vehicle that I owned, so my disappointment felt personal and significant,” he wrote.

Others, meanwhile, are countering that Obama is simply being pragmatic, now that he is in the midst of a general election campaign, and that a single issue should not be used to push supporters away.

“Some people in the group clearly are disillusioned,” said Jon Pincus, a consultant and social networking author from the Seattle area deeply involved with the discussion. “A lot of people are saying, ’Let’s see how real the rhetoric is.”’

Pincus said he is disappointed with Obama’s changed position, but still plans to support him.