What ever happened to Unity08?

Dear fellow members of Unity08,

One of our principles at the outset of this audacious project was transparency and openness. Too often in our recent political history, what you see is not what you get.

For this reason, we are writing you today to lay out the current status of Unity08 and possible paths going forward.

.

And so reluctantly, especially given the volatility of the present situation, we're forced to scale back - not cease - our operations and suspend our ballot access project. Our website will become less interactive (it takes staff to answer hundreds of e-mails a day) and we can't in good faith make the $5 million commitment necessary to make a serious start on ballot access.

.

Robert Bingham
Angus King
Peter Ackerman
Zach Clayton
Lindsay Ullman
Board of Directors, Unity08

Notice some names missing?

Like many others, when I see a new movement come about I want to investigate it, and see what it was all about. It didn't take long to realize what Unity08 was all about.

Astroturfing: in American English is a neologism for formal public relations campaigns in politics and advertising which seek to create the impression of being spontaneous, grassroots behavior, hence the reference to the artificial grass AstroTurf. The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the efforts of a political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some political entity—a politician, political group, product, service or event. Astroturfers attempt to orchestrate the actions of apparently diverse and geographically distributed individuals, by both overt ("outreach", "awareness", etc.) and covert (disinformation) means. Astroturfing may be undertaken by anything from an individual pushing one's own personal agenda through to highly organized professional groups with financial backing from large corporations, non-profits, or activist organizations.

Unity08 has always been about bipartisanship with a lean toward center-right corporate interests. For those of you who have not yet picked up David Sirota's book "The Uprising", this quote from the inside cover epitomizes what Unity08 was all about:

The uprising, at its core, is a reaction to faux bipartisanship in the nations capital - the bipartisanship whereby Republican and Democratic lawmakers join together in putting the corporate interests above those of ordinary citizens.

Suspension of Activities: In January of 2008, Bailey and Rafshoon announced that they were leaving the organization and were planning to launch a national effort to draft New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for president. Shortly therefter, representatives for Unity08 announced that the organization was scaling back operations and suspending activities, citing lack of adequate funding and disputes with the Federal Election Commission. The representatives added that the organization was not closing down operations entirely.

Good riddance to this foul group of faux 'moderate centrists', they were the enemy of progressive causes and the friend of corporate interests. Please join me in a toast to their quick demise.