If you're on the Obama campaign email list, by now you've probably received a message alerting you to a special message from President-elect Barack Obama announcing the formation of "Organizing for America," the continuation of the organization that was built during his 2008 campaign.

No president has ever entered office with an organized social movement at his side, with the ability to reach millions of his supporters instantaneously and in as targeted a way as he wants. Nor have we ever been as networked to each other, with the ability to connect laterally by our own interests, as we are today.

It's interesting, then, how Obama's announcement papers over this tension. On the one hand, he says he needs his supporters' "help," that they will "drive" the organization and "must lead the way." Sounds great. On the other hand, he gives no details other than "you'll be receiving more information in the next few days about this organization" and that it will be "partnering" with the DNC. The rest is TBD. More below...

• Patrick Ruffini is on to something. The conservative consultant is sounding an alarm that progressives would rather he'd rather just hush up about: the online right is seriously outgunned when it comes to political blogging happening on the local level...
• In a video that seems to have been filmed in an unfinished Ikea showroom, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe introduces Mitch Stewart as the new director of Organizing for America, a.k.a. Obama for America -- the Next Generation...
• When he was a presidential candidate, Obama's routing around the traditional press had a sticking-it-to-the-man quality that was appealing to many of us. But now that Obama is, categorically, the man, do his networks and projects like Organizing for America raise the specter of an American President let unchecked by a vigilant, watchdog press?...
• And even, if you can believe it, more.

If you stop by our part of the Internet often, you'll know that here on techPres we've been interestedly tracking what would become of the energy, momentum, and -- perhaps most importantly -- the networks of people that drove the historic Obama presidential campaign. Recently, President Obama himself and senior campaign officials provided part of the answer by announcing the creation of Organizing for America, a "grassroots" organization that would continue to seek the change that powered the campaign.

But you can't help but notice something happening -- or rather, not happening -- this week. As Obama faces a major legislative battle over a multibillion dollar package intended to stimulate the struggling economy, his allies are not OFAers but congressional and business leaders. Those grassroots supporters haven't been called on to help craft or pass a bill that will likely shape America's economic future for decades to come. The message coming from Washington is a distinct, "No worries, we'll take care of this." Why is that?

• You'll remember that we've been exploring just how the Organizing for American outfit that evolved out of the Obama campaign is actually going to engage with the nuts-and-bolts of passing the President's legislative agenda. Well, now, a clue on how it might happen...
• Yesterday saw a seven-minute video called "We Are Republican" making its way around the Intertubes. The YouTube piece is a product of Rebuild the Party, a tech-driven effort to reposition the GOP as a modern and networked beast...
• There's a new episode out in our favorite series: "Elizabeth Warren Talks TARP Oversight"...
• And a great deal more.

Esquire Magazine's Lisa Taddeo has just written a 6000-word profile of Obama campaign manager David Plouffe. Here's the key grafs, which you'll find near the end of the long must-read:

• One of the hottest questions in participatory politics right now has to do with the future of Organizing for America, the DNC-housed organization that evolved out of the Obama campaign...
• We've talked in this space about a promise made by the Obama White House to post non-emergency legislation to WhiteHouse.gov for a full five days before presidential signing -- a promise that was broken with the Lilly Ledbetter Act. Attempting to do a better job of it, the White House has posted the Senate-passed version of legislation extending SCHIP. Great, but the posting raises a great many questions...
• Just launched is the new Bush-Cheney Alumni Association website. For servants of a president who made a point of pooh-poohing talk of legacy, the alumni seem awfully eager to write their draft of history...
• The line between friend and ATM can already be awfully fuzzy for a politician, and it's getting even blurrier thanks to Facebook...
• And more.

We will soon know just how big the sleeping giant of American politics, now known as Organizing for America (OFA, for short) actually is.

That's because earlier today, David Plouffe, the group's de-facto boss, sent out an email asking Obama supporters to watch a video of the President defending his economic stimulus plan and urging them to share the video with others. At the same time, OFA has put out a call to its most active volunteers to organize "Economic Recovery House Meetings" for this weekend, and you can search for specifics on nearby meetings on the OFA website.

More details on OFA after the jump...

• As has long been rumored, it does seem that DC CTO Vivek Kundra will be headed to the Obama Administration -- but not as "CTO." Not technically, at least. Do the split e-gov-administrator/OSTP-tech-director posts live up to the spirit and intention of Obama's CTO campaign pledges?...
• It's fascinating to watch Organizing for America quickly evolve, and we have some compelling new details on the evolution...
• Also on the OFA tip, we're reading the tea leaves online turf claims to chart the interaction between this new organization, what's left of Obama campaign organization in Chicago, and the Democratic Party...
• WhiteHouse.gov made about four-fifths good on their pledge to post legislation online with the recent SCHIP bill...
• And even more.

• House Republican leadership is using a bit of transparency jujitsu against their Democratic counterparts. House Dems have been using their desire to embrace President Barack Obama's vision for a new kind of politics as a justification for their approach to passing stimulus legislation. Well, Minority Leader John Boehner and others are saying to Speaker Nancy Pelosi et al today, go whole hog...
• Talk about mesmerizing. Watching this new scrolling Employee Free Choice widget would be enough to soothe the crankiest baby...
• If you spent some time on Twitter yesterday, you may have learned that tax cuts are, in fact "the only way to understand what dolphins r saying to one another"...
• Here's something we think is worth keeping an eye one: emerging sentiment, similar to that expressed in this DailyKos diary, that the new Organizing for America needs to equip allies to do battle in the modern age of the web...
• And even more.

It looks like President Obama's email list still has a lot of punch to it. Yesterday, he sent out a mass email asking people to watch a four-and-a-half minute video addressing the Organizing for America house parties, and so far that video has garnered more than 460,000 views, nearly as many as his first video announcing OFA's launch. Beyond these metrics, it's pretty interesting to listen to how Obama's talks to his base. He doesn't use the word "crowdsourcing," but tell me if you don't hear it in how he describes how he plans to use the web to make sure his recovery plan works.