This is the post formerly known as : Jerome, honey, do you really want to be called "Baby Turdblossom"? Instead become the next Chuck DeFeo. It was edited for the sake of brevity.

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When trying to copy Republicans, go with the guy with the better hairdo and bigger
cowboy boots. You know, good hair ... big feet ...


Honestly with quotes like these you're demeriting yourself among the constituency you claim to represent.

[via American Prospect Online - Hard Sell [1]]:

“Absent Gore, the person people favor is Feingold,” explained Kenneth Bernstein, a.k.a. TeacherKen, a white-bearded social studies instructor at the Eleanor Roosevelt High School in Greenbelt, Md., who also advises congressional candidates on education policy and spoke at the conference. On Sunday morning, Bernstein gathered for a final coffee with MyLeftWing’s Maryscott O’Connor and NYU cultural anthropology professor Jeffrey Feldman, who writes a column he calls Frameshop. The consensus at the table was that Warner had come off all wrong, from his extravagant party to his slick campaign video to his speech, which focused too much on autobiography and not enough on acknowledging the importance of the netroots -- a mistake Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid did not make in his Saturday night address, which heaped praise on the bloggers and their new medium.

[...]

all the griping was clearly having an impact on Warner's internet strategist Jerome Armstrong by Sunday morning, who dismissed the snipers as "ideological" and "pretty left wing."

"It wasn't going to be a love-in to begin with,"Armstrong sighed as the final brunch session of the conference wound down. "This was a great opportunity for bloggers to meet Warner. But also, the whole blogosphere and broader press was focused on this event. Coming here was a no-brainer."

I find it very interesting that you co-authored a book that focuses in part on the scourge of politicals consultants [2] while becoming a political consultant (actually, Online Strategy Director, correct?) for presidential hopeful, Mark Warner [3]. I honestly cannot wrap my head around that one yet.

What I find more fascinating is the way you and your crew at MyDD.com have been streering the blog towards proving : (1) You represent a monolithic constituency called "the Netroots(tm)"; (2) Because you represent this constituency, said Netroots is neither ideological nor left-wing.

Which is why when I coincidentally read the following Karl Rove quote after reading your abovementioned, I just felt sick to my stomach.

[via The Raw Story | Rove: Right use Net to 'broaden our appeal,' while left use it to 'mobilize hate and anger' [4]]:

"... the Internet for the Left of the Democratic Party has served as a way to mobilize hate and anger --hate and anger, first and foremost, at this President and Conservatives, but then also at people within their own party whom they consider to be less than completely loyal to this very narrow, very out-of-the-mainstream, very far Left-wing ideology that they tend to represent ..."

Do you see a pattern?

Since I know the Mark Warner camp reads this blog (Hi Nancy!) I am going to ask them to do you a favor.

I have never seen you at any of the politics and technology conferences I have had the pleasure to be in. In these conference I almost always bump into Chuck Defeo [5]. If you don't know who he is, he was the online political strategist for the Bush-Cheney 2004 campaign and he is now a major player in the new multi-media relaunching of TownHall.com [6]. I am asking, nay, pleading the Warner campaign to give you a budget to tail his ass.

Seriously. Do yourself a favor and become the next Chuck DeFeo [7] and not the next Karl Rove. You are so copying the wrong guy.

Chuck is one of the most intruguing guys out there who knows enough about tech and sociology and psychology and politics and knows how to put them all together into strategies that win elections. And honestly, that's what you ultimately want to do.

Chuck is really into building decentralized communities. And he interestingly enough is pretty hip with the idea that you don't need to alienate your base because, in the end, it's the numbers at the ballot box that count [8]. (Although Brad Friedman [9] has a lot to say about the integrity of those ballot boxes and voting machines). Still, I feel he is one of the most un-ideological Republicans I have spoken to when discussing elections (and probably the reason why I can have a conversation with the man).

So, here, let me throw you a bone : For extra brownie points, you ought to read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point [10] because, and I quote the Chuckster, "it became my bible during the campaign". He also thinks James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds [11] rocks --we listened to the guy talk for an hour at SXSW [12] and it was a mindblowing presentation ... btw, I think Nancy Scola was there (hi Nancy!)

But this bullshit of painting people in the liberal blogosphere that do not agree with you as extremist has got to stop. It really is getting irritating and it's a disservice to a lot of people who happen to want to make the Democratic Party win elections at all levels --geez, even the presidency. And, oh my gosh! Even Mark Warner.

Maryscott O'Connor [13], Teacherken, Jeffrey Feldman [14], these people made Steve Jarding and Dave Saunders' Foxes in the Henhouse : How the Republicans Stole the South and the Heartland and What the Democrats Must Do to Run 'em Out [15], you're going to need a unified Democratic Party and several million Republicans to win the election. With the way you're going you're barely gonna make it past Super Tuesday.

Capisce? Good. Now on to bash some Republican ass.