How to win the Florida ‘netroots’

October 11, 2009 · Posted in Blogging, Florida

Kendrick Meek How do you get nominated for five “netroots” awards when before this year, you have never actually been associated with the “netroots?” How do you get to be the best Twitter user in the bunch when as this blogger points out, you only managed to “tweet” five times in a month? And how does a guy who was on the wrong side (also known as the Diaz Balart side...) of net neutrality suddenly become the “netroots candidate of the year” (beating a guy who was simultaneously inducted intop the “progressive hall of fame”) … and the darling of liberal Florida bloggers everywhere? Simple: hire Kenneth Quinnell.

[Flashback: remember when a member of Kenneth's Florida Progressive Coalition said this about said neutrality?....

You might want to consider voting against those who voted against Net Neutrality...]

I wonder if that guy is a Kendrick fan now, like so much of the rest of the (non-Black) Florida netroots, which is nothing if not down for the party cause. BTW as a caveat, I really respect Kenneth. He is clearly one of the most significant members of the Florida Netroots (plus he was a big help to me when this blog was hit by spammers.) So actually, Kendrick (who’s also a very nice fellow) deserves an award just for being savvy enough to hire him. Hell, if I were a little known Congressman with a slim legislative footprint who pissed off the black base last year by rejecting Barack Obama during the presidential primary, refused to campaign for three Democratic Congressional candidates because the Republican incumbents are his pals, and who not long ago was considered anything but a candidate liberals could love, particularly when compared to his short term rival, the revered Dan Gelber (before the fix came in and Gelber got out) … I’d hire Kenneth too (although I’d probably also try to keep Steve Hildebrand…)

Bottom line: if you really believe that Kendrick Meek has run a better online campaign than the Obama for America juggernaut, or that his use of social media is superior to that of the Florida for Obama campaign (full disclosure, I briefly worked for them at the end of the campaign,) than you’re probably a good party person, focused on winning in 2010. Which of course, is what you should be. So go ahead and go with that. But just for a second, let’s keep it real.

That said, congratulations to all the winners of the 2009 “Netroots Awards (Kendrick included), and especially to Alan Grayson, who won a special award for political courage. Now THAT”s what I call a netroots candidate.

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Tags: 2010, awards, Blogging, Florida, Florida netroots, Kendrick Meek, net neutrality, netroots, News and politics

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2 Responses to “How to win the Florida ‘netroots’”

TampaBLAB » Blog Archive » 2009 Netroots Awards: The Good, the Bad and the Undeserved on October 11th, 2009 9:19 pm

[...] record and dwarfing the 100 or so who voted in the inaugural Awards competition in 2007. (Update: The Reid Report shares some of my opinion that Kendrick Meek did not deserve all of the hardware he won.)Without [...]
Some Comments on the 2009 Florida Netroots Awards » Florida Progressive Coalition Blog - on October 12th, 2009 12:35 am

[...] The Reid Report – How to win the Florida ‘netroots’ [...]

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