Maybe the Democrats just aren't that into the netroots. This Self-swiftboating idea reminds me of your third observation in the Overton Window series last year? Back then you said
If you want the Overton Window movement/stretching technique to work, you need not just two, but three groups. You need the "centrists" of course, to pull things together. You need the extreme guys that you want to make mainstream. But, the thing is, you also need some guy even more extreme than those guy are. Why? Because you need someone for the "new moderates" to point at and say "hey, we're not extreme, look at those guys!" They work in concert with the "middle ground" types, because they provide a new benchmark to set it again, with the new moderates closer to the middle.
Obama's as good as saying the netroots are his "extremists," "the protest-happy guys with all the black bean burritos and suchlike" that make him look like a "reasonable compromise." This is why I was arguing against this kind of interpretation back then, because you never know when you'll find yourself on the expendable side of the window.
And to beat that other horse, Lakoff, Lessig is probably a little too quick to dismiss Democrats' understanding of the "You may not like what I say, but at least you know where I stand" phenomenon. Lakoff explains how Obama knows how to use it when it suits him here. I say probably because Lakoff also sees how Obama could be doing it wrong..
cheers,
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