Obama flip-flopped on FISA even though not caving in to allow telecom issue was pretty much a signature issue for the netroots, and respected liberals opposed it on constitutional grounds. Russ Feingold called the wiretap program “one of the most intrusive government powers imaginable.” As a result, Obama had a minor blog riot on his hands. Jeff Jarvis observed that what followed might be a campaign first, “Barack Obama supporters used his own network to organize a protest against his actions on telecom immunity.”
In order to quell the storm, the Obama campaign released a statement from Barack on the website and made three policy staffers available to answer questions in the comments of the campaign’s official blogs. If you were worried significant numbers of his supporters would hold him accountable for his brazen reversal, here’s the fifth comment in the aforementioned discussion thread:
Thank you Senator Obama for taking the time to respond to the dissent among your supporters. You exceeded my expecations… you continue to inspire me with your frank openness and I’ll happily send another donation today after more fully understanding your position, I tend to agree with you 100%….
Given that kind of backing, I’m going to go ahead and guess Obama’s not too daunted by any potential backlash from his decision to “refine” his position on Iraq withdrawal either.