Chnnelsvault

The online activists are angry with Barack Obama. But only a bit

IT WAS summer and it was Austin, where keeping things weird is a popular civic pastime. But for the 2,000 bloggers and readers at last weekend's Netroots Nation, the mood was more wonkish than wild. The "netroots"--the online version of "grassroots" political activists--spent hours in panels on policy and technology, and kept up running analyses via blogs and Twitter. They allowed themselves to be plied with margaritas of an evening, but made it back for a morning question session with Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House of Representatives, and a surprise visit from Al Gore. Ms Pelosi faced some grumbles; if your Congress has an approval rating of 14%, a friendly face is hard to find. But when a handful of women from the anti-war group Code Pink, wearing superhero costumes, stood up to shout for peace they were quickly escorted from the premises. The tweets on Twitter were swift and stern. "Don't want to disrespect but code pink is so 1960," wrote one.

For many on America's left this has been a month of discontent. Since securing the Democratic nomination in June, Barack Obama has annoyed core supporters at several points. He announced that he would support expanded funding for faith-based initiatives and hemmed and hawed when the Supreme Court overturned the District of Columbia's gun ban. Neither of those should have been a surprise, given that he campaigned on a post-partisan platform. His decision to opt out of public financing was a more egregious flip-flop. But most of the netroots, who pride themselves on raising money for candidates, give him a pass on that one. ...