grassroots lobbying

This past Saturday, President Obama formally announced the formation of "Obama for America," an effort to harness and mobilize the millions of activists who worked on his campaign to help advocate for his legislative agenda. Others, like Patrick Ruffini, have written about this new organization here. The new organization is unprecedented at several levels and carries both potential risks and rewards. It's also a little ironic that a president who consistently criticized the practice of "lobbying" during the campaign is now mobilizing an army of his own grassroots advocates.

I write about these developments in this piece in today's Weekly Standard Online.

I agree with Jon Henke -- who I quote in the article -- that one of Mr. Obama's biggest challenges will be how to bring these activists into the policymaking process and still retain the kind of flexibility necessary to negotiate with Congress.

Anyone interested in the future of grassroots advocacy should watch how "Obama 2.0," as some call it, unfolds.