Is Obama under-estimating the NDAA & PIPA reactions?

There's a little bit of inside-baseball in this post, so forgive me. But I think there's an important and under-appreciated point.

I follow post stats at AMERICAblog pretty closely. Google, which owns Blogger thanks to one of its many buying runs, provides several statistics tables — among them, 10 best posts of the day (the "BOD" list), 10 best posts of the week (BOW list), and 10 best posts of the month (BOM list). What's measured is individual "views" for a given post, the number of people who actually click on a post to read it and its comments.

Normally, a "good" post does well in the BOD list, maybe moves to the BOW list, and fades. The process lasts a few days at most. A "very good" post moves to the BOM list fairly quickly, climbs in number of views, then peaks and disappears as it's replaced in the list. That takes no more than a week.

So that's my measurable — the life-cycle in days of "good" and "very good" posts, and when their peaks appear. Time moves on; interest passes to other newer subjects; the rhythm is almost boring in its predictability.

Now contrast that with this:

■ Our primary PIPA post, from November, is at the top of the BOD list — today. That's a shock; no post that old gets that high on that list. It also re-entered the BOW list last week and hasn't left it.

■ Our primary NDAA post, from mid-December, entered the BOM list almost immediately and has never stopped adding views. The total number of views is staggering. Every day it adds hundreds, as new viewers come to the post. It's on the BOD list today, despite its age, despite the holidays. It should have peaked and faded before Christmas.

■ We have a mortgage fraud post about an anti-bank whistleblower who died without suicide insurance, also from November. That post faded at the right time, but now has new life — it's on both the BOD and BOW lists, today.

I've never seen his behavior before. What does it mean?

1. There's an interest in these subjects (NDAA, PIPA, & mortgage fraud) that's deep and persistent. All of our site's regulars have weighed with their "views" a long time ago. As near as I can tell, the driver to all three posts is Google (search terms: PIPA, NDAA, "whistleblower found dead") as new people search on these subjects. If so, Google is telling us something.

2. Message for the left — If this really is a clue to the mind of left-leaning voters, it would be smart to hit these subjects hard, starting now. There are far more listeners, I suspect, for whom the PIPA, NDAA, and mortgage fraud messages resonate, than anyone appreciates.

I'd suggest taking advantage of this opportunity. If our small indicators are right, the time to plant seeds is now, not months from now. The soil is ready, so to speak. Let's not lose the chance.

3. Note to Obama & his merry band — I would not underestimate the extent to which these issues, especially NDAA, are a bridge too far for your base. It seems you've been playing a game of "how low can we go" — how far can we stoop to the demands of the money-soaked property rights and national security establishments and not lose our dependable triangulated base.

You act like you're bullet-proof, ballot-wise. Team We Dare You To Quit Us has been playing chicken with progressives and assuming victory at every step.

Dear Team: That may not be a safe assumption. There is always a bridge too far. These issues — especially NDAA, with its Indefinite Detention provisions — may be on it. Tread lightly; some things even a Wall Street billion can't buy.

Just my thoughts on a midweek holiday day. For what they're worth.

GP