My new report on the first year of Organizing for America is yielding some interesting responses, including notes from politicos who want to remain anonymous. Here is an email from a seasoned Democrat that suggests a broader context for Internet politics, and argues Obama's political operation has undercut its own ability to innovate:

Since OFA is a coherent organization, one can point to it and say 'this is unprecedented, and they are doing a great/good/bad job', but a post-Presidential period has happened before, forty something times.

It would be interesting to informally benchmark what's happening now against previous Presidential campaigns and what came out of them. There were a lot of important spinoffs of the Goldwater and Reagan campaigns on the right, not just generations of talent but new organization models like corporate PACs, direct mail, and New Right structures. In 2004, a lot of progressive activists on the various Dean, Clark, and Kerry bandwagons came into politics with a very specific set of initial searing experiences. And the people who ran the Obama campaign at the top came out of various campaigns from the 1980s and onward. Some campaigns held onto talent long-term, some didn't. Some had highly charged electoral energy, some didn't. Some were centralized, some weren't.

On the difficult question of is it astroturf?, Organizing for America has its take. The field arm of the Democratic National Committee is framing the anti-health reform protesters popping up at local townhalls as an extension of the same bought-and-paid special interests that oppose the reform push back in DC. Organizing for America's New York state director, reports Politico's Jonathan Martin, is firing up the organization's massive list with an email arguing that Democratic members of Congress are "under attack by Washington insiders, insurance companies, and well-financed special interests who don't go a day without spreading lies and stirring up fear."

The email goes on. "We need to show that we're sick and tired of it, and that we're ready for real change, this year." Supporters are urged to turn up for meetings and "make sure that the most powerful voices in this debate are those calling for real reform, not angrily clamoring for the status quo." Organizing for America has also put together a printable PDF placard for supporters to wave at local events. One the front it reads "Standing Together for Health Insurance Reform." The flip side reads a simple "Thank You."

UPDATE: OFA national is echoing the same message. Executive Director Mitch Stewart emails: "It's up to us to show Congress that those loudly opposing reform are a tiny minority being stirred up by special interests, and that a huge majority strongly supports enacting real health insurance reform in 2009."

Our goal for this panel is to spur some cross-partisan discussion of what it's like to organize online and gain traction for your issues when your side is in power and when your side is not in power.

OFA launched a new email and petition drive on Tuesday afternoon, ratcheting up pressure on Congress to pass the President's health care plan. Huffington Post's Nico Pitney reports on the move's political significance:

A first shot, of sorts, is being fired in the Obama-era battle for health care reform. Organizing for America, President Obama's political arm, is blasting out an email to its massive list of supporters urging them to join an "Organizing for Health Care" campaign.

A DNC official says the message is significant because it is "the first email" that is "going out from the OFA and DNC lists organizing for health care." The declaration drive will culminate, the official added, in a supporter list that organizers "can deliver to members of Congress." But there are some problems here.

It is early, but so far, these OFA legislative "organizing" efforts run the risk of being boring, vague and redundant.

Organizing for America is suddenly getting lots of attention. It almost feels like the traditional press discovered Obama's post-campaign organizing effort this month, even though there have been national gatherings and communications ever since the transition. It is worth noting, however, that many reporters are responding to a recent press offensive by OFA staff.

• To some extent, this weekend was the semester's first exam for Organizing for America. So, how'd the new organization, an outgrowth of the Obama campaign, perform? Depends who you ask...
• The White House's nameless, faceless blogger responds to criticisms about the new administration's breaking of its five-day legislative review period pledge. In short, the message is 'We're working on it'...
• As a supposed fix for "viruses and malware," the Maryland General Assembly has taken to blocking Facebook and My Space...
• Audio cuts of some of the more, um, colloquial passages from Obama's recording of his "Dreams From My Father" are now bopping around the web...
• And more.

• As has long been rumored, it does seem that DC CTO Vivek Kundra will be headed to the Obama Administration -- but not as "CTO." Not technically, at least. Do the split e-gov-administrator/OSTP-tech-director posts live up to the spirit and intention of Obama's CTO campaign pledges?...
• It's fascinating to watch Organizing for America quickly evolve, and we have some compelling new details on the evolution...
• Also on the OFA tip, we're reading the tea leaves online turf claims to chart the interaction between this new organization, what's left of Obama campaign organization in Chicago, and the Democratic Party...
• WhiteHouse.gov made about four-fifths good on their pledge to post legislation online with the recent SCHIP bill...
• And even more.

• Patrick Ruffini is on to something. The conservative consultant is sounding an alarm that progressives would rather he'd rather just hush up about: the online right is seriously outgunned when it comes to political blogging happening on the local level...
• In a video that seems to have been filmed in an unfinished Ikea showroom, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe introduces Mitch Stewart as the new director of Organizing for America, a.k.a. Obama for America -- the Next Generation...
• When he was a presidential candidate, Obama's routing around the traditional press had a sticking-it-to-the-man quality that was appealing to many of us. But now that Obama is, categorically, the man, do his networks and projects like Organizing for America raise the specter of an American President let unchecked by a vigilant, watchdog press?...
• And even, if you can believe it, more.

If you're on the Obama campaign email list, by now you've probably received a message alerting you to a special message from President-elect Barack Obama announcing the formation of "Organizing for America," the continuation of the organization that was built during his 2008 campaign.

No president has ever entered office with an organized social movement at his side, with the ability to reach millions of his supporters instantaneously and in as targeted a way as he wants. Nor have we ever been as networked to each other, with the ability to connect laterally by our own interests, as we are today.

It's interesting, then, how Obama's announcement papers over this tension. On the one hand, he says he needs his supporters' "help," that they will "drive" the organization and "must lead the way." Sounds great. On the other hand, he gives no details other than "you'll be receiving more information in the next few days about this organization" and that it will be "partnering" with the DNC. The rest is TBD. More below...