NetRoots Rising: How a Citizen Army of Bloggers and Online Activists Is Changing American Politics

The 2006 elections will be remembered as the year when the center of power in American politics shifted from traditional top-down central broadcasters to new bottom-up decentralized activists in the blogosphere and netroots. The authors give firsthand accounts of the burgeoning power of the netroots to determine the outcome of political contests, most notably as when the national balance of power was tipped by Jim Webb's rag-tag army of bloggers and netroots activists. They assess the prospects for Netroots 2.0: whether the netroots hordes will crash the party or work out an uneasy cohabitation with the traditional party power elite.

The 2006 elections will be remembered as the year when the center of power in American politics shifted from traditional top-down central broadcasters to new bottom-up decentralized activists in the blogosphere and netroots. The authors give firsthand accounts of the burgeoning power of the netroots to determine the outcome of political contests, most notably as when the national balance of power was tipped by Jim Webb's rag-tag army of bloggers and netroots activists who provoked and exposed the gaffe that proved fatal to George Allen's senatorial bid.

Veteran online campaigners Feld and Wilcox recount and analyze many other political campaigns in which netroots activism was decisive or instructive, including:* U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's downfall. *Tim Kaine's election as Virginia govenor. *Howard Dean's and Wes Clark's presidential campaigns. *Ned Lamont's primary victory over Joe Lieberman. The authors conclude with an assessment of the prospects for Netroots 2.0: Will the netroots hordes crash the party or will they work out an uneasy cohabitation with the traditional party power elite? The foreword is written by Markos (Kos) Moulitsas Zuniga, founding editor of the world's biggest political blog, Daily Kos.

The Internet has empowered citizen activism just as television had weakened it, argue Feld (a political consultant who served as the "netroots" consultant for the 2006 Senatorial campaign of Jim Webb) and Wilcox (a political consultant with the WebStrong Group), citing the MoveOn petition opposing the impeachment of Bill Clinton as an early example of such activism and the "insurgent" presidential campaigns of Howard Dean and Wesley Clark as major milestones in the explosion of "netroots" activism. Here they describe both those campaigns and others with which they were involved as volunteers, consultants, and bloggers. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Veteran online campaigners tell the inside story of the revolutionary challenge to traditional "top-down" broadcast politics being made by "bottom-up" political bloggers and netroots citizen activists.

The 2006 elections will be remembered as the year when the center of power in American politics shifted from traditional "top-down" central broadcasters to new "bottom-up" decentralized activists in the blogosphere and netroots. The authors give firsthand accounts of the burgeoning power of the netroots to determine the outcome of political contests, most notably as when the national balance of power was tipped by Jim Webb's "rag-tag army" of bloggers and netroots activists. They assess the prospects for Netroots 2.0: whether the netroots hordes will "crash the party" or work out an uneasy cohabitation with the traditional party power elite.

LOWELL FELD is a political consultant and netroots specialist. He was the netroots/blogging/online fundraising coordinator for the successful senatorial campaign of James Webb in 2006. He contributes regularly to Raising Kaine, Daily Kos, Blog Talk Radio, and Heading Left Radio. He served for 18 years as an analyst in the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Department of Energy.NATE WILCOX is a political and public affairs consultant with the WebStrong Group advising clients such as Senators John Kerry and Tom Harkin on online strategy. He was online communications director for Governor Mark Warner's Forward Together PAC in 2006. He has pioneered many online political campaign innovations, including podcasting, online video, use of social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, blogger outreach, and aggressive online advertising.

Foreword by Markos Moulitsas Zuniga

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Doing Everything Wrong

2. Howard Dean and the Killer Ds

3. Activists Build a Movement, Insiders Kill It

4. Taking on DeLay, Inc.

5. What a Difference a Year Makes

6. Drafting an American Hero

7. Win One, Lose One

8. Combat Boots vs. Cowboy Boots

9. What's Next for the Netroots?

Blogroll

Bibliography

Index