Edwards versus Obama is going to start taking up a lot of time in the progressive blogosphere. This is the first presidential cycle that we are taken seriously by the establishment of the party, and  the mainstream press. In light of this, it seems important that we clear up a few misconceptions in how progressive politics works online: We all seem to take for granted that we know what the netroots are, that the netroots are the progressive base of the party, and that candidates who court the netroots are the true progressives. I think all of the assumptions are wrong at least in some way.

Our idea of the netroots is overly proscribed. Simply put, the blogosphere and the netroots are not the same thing. Additionally, we should be careful to recognize the difference between how we promote our own power, and how we promote our issues. Making "the netroots" kingmakers is not the same as passing progressive legislation. I hope this diary will spark some debate about what exactly constitutes the netroots, and how we should build and project our power.

If the Democrats want to take back the House this year, we need to win two or three races that aren't on the national radar. If I had to bet on one such race, it would be Robert Rodriguez's challenge to Buck McKeon in California's 25th district. I'm not the only one who thinks so, as Robert is starting to gain a lot of coverage on the blogs. You can (virtually) meet Robert today at an online chat on firedoglake,Down With Tyranny and Crooks and Liars from 2 - 5 PM Eastern Time (11 - 1 Pacific Time).

Robert is garnering attention because he is such an inspiring candidate. So inspiring in fact, that he convinced me to give up my summer plan to get an easy gig and party with friends to go work insane campaign hours on his race. Most people who meet Robert have a similar reaction - it's why Matt Stoller of MyDD listed Robert as one of his all-time favorite politicians.

This is going to be a series where we introduce the people who make up the campaign. Every staffer will explain a little about who they are, and why their involved in the campaign. It is cross posted at our campaign blog, and throughout the blogosphere

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Max Berger, and I'm currently working as Web Coordinator for Robert Rodriguez for Congress. I'm a 20 year-old college student dedicating my summer to helping a fantastic candidate (and a good friend) get elected to Congress. I'm what you could consider a "netroots Democrat." I've been a daily blog reader since 2002, took time off school to work full-time for the Dean for America campaign in Burlington, and spent a summer at Media Matters. I want to share the story of how I came to be involved on this campaign, and why it matters so much to me.

In the coming weeks, we will hear much more of the Kristolean pissing and moaning about why the Plame scandal is not important. To counteract this bullshit campaign before it starts, I would like to share a letter I wrote to my NeoCon friend (at Reed College no less), that I hope gives historical context to the scandal. With the intense focus on who knew what when, we may have forgotten what the leak was about in the first place. The leak was intended to suppress the release of other information that could have shown that the government was making false claims about the threat that Iraq posed.

I include the text of my letter below the break

I am very excited by the post Kos has made on the front page about our core values. This is exactly the type of discussion we need to be having. The republicans have been successful because they are able to reach beyond single issues to communicate a broad vision of how, and why. Their values inform their answers to why things are the way they are, and how to make them better. There allegience to these espoused values may be total horseshit, but they resonate with voters because the values they communicate are recognizable to John Q. Public.

As Kos states, the issue goes beyond mere Lakoffian framing. Linguistic gymnastics aside, we need to get used to discussing our vision for America in terms that connote our core values. As its been said, before you can do the framing you need to know what goes in the picture. To communicate our core values, we need to learn how to speak progressive. Much More below the flip...

Hello Kosmopolitians,

I am looking for your help in choosing where I might want to work for the upcoming election. I am a college student taking time off to work for the 21st Century Dems as a field organizer, and have been asked to list my preferences as to where I could work. There are campaign jobs, and jobs with a project called the Young Voter Project, which is registering and turning out young voters in swing states. If there are Kossians out there able to give some input about these races, and the areas they are being held (In addition to being politically involved, I'm still a kid trying to have a good time), I would be tremendously grateful.

The house races are:

Allyson Schwartz - PA-13
Stephanie Herseth - SD-1
Tim Bishop - NY-1
Paul Babbitt - AZ-1
Richard Romero - NM-1
Don Barbieri - WA-5
Jon Jennings - IN-8
Kalyn Free - OK-2 (primary and general)
Emanuel Cleaver - MO-5 (primary)
Lois Murphy - PA-6

The Senate races are:

Obama
Salazaar

The Swing states for the young voter project are:

Oregon
Minnesota
Nevada (viva las vegas)
Ohio

Thanks for any and all comments!

Hey Kossaks. I am trying to get together a conference titled "the crisis of american democracy" at the University of Vermont. We are going to solicit speakers and fundraising, but first we need to set up a nonprofit organization to accept donations. Does anyone know what type of organization we need to set up, how we should go about doing it, and what limits it will have? Any knowledge on the subject would be greatly appreciated.