Are the Netroots Being Played for Suckers?

A reader to Andrew Sullivan's blog asks a very interesting question. Do you think Karl Rove and the GOP are playing the liberal blogosphere for fools? It's an interesting idea. Barak Obama has been on the campaign trail, steadily giving one skillful speech to the nation after another. He offers policy proposals, real ideas, firm attacks against McCain and eight years of Republican rule, and above all, he keeps his trademark cool under pressure. Surely, these are qualities you would want in a President.

The problem? Look at what we're all rattling on about. McCain, Palin, McCain, Palin. We're obsessing with every nook and cranny of their campaign, which is so terrible it's nearly become parody. We pick apart every nuance, every claim, every sentence from every speech. It's an important job to document the lies, yes, but this has become our reason for being. And while we lament and whine and panic about Obama's seeming disappearance, McCain sits centered in our line of vision.

And yet another precious day goes by, while we all panic in fear of the coming apocalypse. Isn't this a bit much? Calm, resolve, steel. That's Sullivan's advice. That's Kos' advice as well. I think that is good and wise advice. I think we need to have a little faith in our fellow Americans, and faith in Obama to boldly make his case for the Presidency.

Here's a clip from the reader's letter to Daily Dish:

McCain and crew realized early this cycle that they did not have a visible internet presence. So what did they do? They took over the liberal presence, they are manipulating the leading liberal blogs , just as they manipulate the MSM. All to their own advantage. And the blogs have all fallen for this hook, line and sinker. Does no one realize this?

They are all being played.

And Obama, god bless him, he gets it. As does his team. while everyone whines he keeps at it every day with much much class and like a laser focused on the issues. The problem is not Obama, is that no one wants to follow his lead. Instead they are following McCain-Rove and they don't even know it.