Van Jones Says Leftists Love Affair With Comrade Obama Over

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Washington Post) — Throughout this year’s three-day Netroots Nations conference — as progressive activists have cheered on Elizabeth Warren, held Occupy-style general assemblies and attended seminars on topics ranging from voter ID laws to “Love, Compassion and Outrageous Forms of Activism” — present just below the surface of the discussion has been an undercurrent of dissatisfaction with President Obama.

The polish has come off the turd.

Young progressives attend a seminar at the Netroots Nation 2012 in Providence, R.I., in this handout picture taken June 8, 2012. (Reuters) On Saturday night, that discontent came to the fore.

A series of liberal favorites, culminating with former Obama environmental adviser Van Jones, took to the stage at the Rhode Island Convention Center to rally the Democratic base — and also to make clear that nearly four years after his election, Obama has not lived up to their expectations.

"He stands up for Trayvon; he stands up for gay marriage; we like him,” Jones said of Obama in the keynote speech of the evening. “But we’re not in love with him.”

“We went from having a crush to feeling crushed,” he added, as the convention hall — which at about 1,500 activists was about half-full compared with where it stood during Warren’s address on Friday — responded with cheers and applause.

Jones in September 2009 resigned from his “green czar” post amid a controversy over his past activism, including his signing of a petition suggesting that the Bush administration was responsible for the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

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