People-powered politics is what won this election for the Democratic Party. With this victory, power is returning to where it belongs in a democracy - with the people. Jerome Armstrong, MyDD
As the results of the US mid-term elections are more or less finalised and the Democrats claim victory, contributors to the campaign have started reflecting upon their part in the triumph.
Chris Bowers and Jerome Armstrong discuss the role of the new people-powered progressive movement and the successful role played by the Netroots in the midterm election triumph at Mydd. They both argue that the Netroots played a crucial part in the Democrats victory (see links below), and according to the Nation they did so long before the votes were counted.
However, not everyone shares their view. One of Joe Lieberman’s campaign advisors, former Clinton White House counsel Lanny Davis told The Nation that the fact that Lamont in the end lost the seat to Lieberman "proved the blogosphere is all wind and very little sail."
Others again like John Aravosis of AmericaBlog told the Nation that it is too hard to measure the netroots' impact because:
"It's too hard to define who did what. We could have defined quite easily that John Kerry lost it for us if he had not shut up after two days, but to know whether blogs [had a bigger effect than] unions is like saying was Rahm Emanuel more effective than Howard Dean? I don't know."
The article in the Nation is interesting. It captures different perspectives of what impact the blogosphere had on the mid-term election and it manages to capture what many fail to; the real tactic behind the Netroot campaign:
"...regardless of the remaining results and recounts, the fact is the netroots' favorite candidates did not perform as well as the Democrats targeted by party leaders. And they were never supposed to. Many of the bloggers' picks were aggressive Democrats in long-shot districts who were neglected by the Beltway establishment."
And then further states:
"There is no doubt that bloggers leveraged money and political buzz to make races more competitive and put Republicans on the defensive, but it was simply not the decisive factor in the elections."
These are MyDD links discussing the topic:
The People-Powered Victory for the Democratic Party
Posts discussing the topic published on Mydd earlier in the campaign
The Netroots and The Progressive Movement Are The Difference
Republicans Are Not Losing Because of "Mistakes"
More On The Netroots Difference
The Success of Ned Lamont's Senate Campaign
Worth taking not of as Chris Bowers says:
"The "counter" to the netroots page, "Rightroots" lost every race they endorsed and raised funds for. No wonder they have taken the site down, and no longer list their endorsed candidates".
Update: more links discussing the topic (thanks Paull)