Nothing wrong with enthusiasm

Alex Norris is tired and upset with all the organic pro-Obama content on the web.

Even if I were a diehard Clinton supporter, I would totally oppose this line of thinking.

We should be happy that our candidates are so compelling that people willingly take time off of their busy schedules to spontaneously create candidate-related content. It reflects well on how invested people are in their candidate, certainly, but more importantly, it’s a shift in culture from the TV-centric, big-media driven campaigns of the past. People are taking ownership of the campaign and participating more in the election process. As progressives, as decent human beings, we want more citizen participation in government, and Obama Is Your New Bicycle is part of that.

Alex, if you find Amigos de Obama so annoying, no one is forcing you to click that link.

edit: Turns out I misunderstood Alex after all. Whoops. Amigos de Obama is still really fun though.

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5 thoughts on “Nothing wrong with enthusiasm”

  1. I realize my original comment may have been interpreted to think Obama is my Bicycle is serious, which of course it is not. Corrected as such!

  2. whoops, something got screwed up there, the last sentence should read “In fact, the only thing that makes me ‘tired and upset’ is when I am attacked on views I do not possess.”

  3. Thank you Loki, but the truth is both of you misconstrue what I was trying to say. Maybe I wasn’t clear, but I think these sites are what they are supposed to be–funny. Barack Obama is your new bicycle is not a serious site, it’s making fun of the Obama fervor on the internet. So Sahar, I’m sorry if you got the wrong impression, but maybe if you had read the article I’d linked to, you would understand that I was giving those two sites as examples of the internet backlash–making fun of Obama’s celebrity status. In fact, the only I am attacked on views I do not possess.

    Thank you.

  4. Sahar, I think you are misconstruing what Alex is trying to say in his post. It seems to me that rather than being upset with the netroots support Obama has received, he is sometimes exasperated with the somewhat ridiculous, non-substantive enthusiasm he has received from some people. Some sites idolize the man without really paying attention to the candidate.

    There is a point where enthusiasm turns into a sort of celebrity worship, a dangerous attitude to hold towards politicians. Such worship not only makes one lose credibility in the eyes of more substantive thinkers, but makes it difficult for oneself to look critically at potential flaws in a candidate.

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