Chuck Todd and his MSNBC "First Read" colleagues nail it on the Netroots Rising:
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** ObamaNation's power: Curious of what the bitterness and anger could look like if Obama is somehow denied the Democratic nomination? Check out the reaction from the ObamaNation over Wednesday's debate. To put it simply, ABC was under siege yesterday. This may only be a taste of how the ObamaNation would react to a Clinton nomination. If MoveOn is motivated to do a petition campaign against the media over a debate, imagine what Clinton delegates and undecided superdelegates would face this summer if there is doubt. And as the Politico's Ben Smith pointed out yesterday, it's also what the GOP would face in the general election, especially if Obama is nominee. The level of devotion among Obama's supporters rivals what Bush had with his flock in 2004. The left-wing blogosphere is MUCH more powerful than what you see on the right this cycle and it reminds us of the advantage Bush had in '04. While we all know about that so-called right-wing voice machine, don't forget that there is now a left-wing noise machine (on the internet) as well. And it has found its voice.
Just to provide some idea about how much the progressive netroots have grown, check out these monthly stats for March 2008 courtesy of Sitemeter (for selected sites that use Sitemeter):
DailyKos: 32,200,486
Crooks and Liars: 4,703,387
AmericaBlog: 2,778,490
Eschaton: 2,710,324
MyDD: 2,302,217
Firedoglake: 1,849,132
OpenLeft: 634,042
And that doesn't even count the Huffington Post, Ezra Klein, Matthew Yglesias, and many more national progressive blogs, not to mention the hundreds of state and local progressive blogs. Not bad at all, considering that the progressive political blogosphere really didn't get going until 2003/2004, just 4 years ago. That's warp speed in terms of penetration, adoption and growth of a new technology. "Netroots Rising," indeed.