Will He Bring Change.gov We Can Believe In?

That's perhaps the best reason Obama should adopt a connected model of governance: Drawing on an inside-outside alignment may be the only way to accumulate the political power he'll need to deliver transformative change.

Because although Obama's election is a big step, the world hasn't completely changed yet. America's oil and coal and pharmaceutical lobbyists aren't quitting their jobs to become community organizers. And if millions of people rallied this fall under banners of hope and change, these industry groups are rallying hundreds of millions of dollars to promote fear and the status quo.

Nor will the right wing be silent in the fights to come. Moderate Republicans have gone extinct, but that just means Obama must confront a more concentrated and virulent strain of Republicanism.

So if Obama's agenda is to prevail, he needs to draw on a deeply committed, deeply engaged citizenry. No one else can tip the scale.

If Obama strays from this model, it will fall to groups on the outside to do the connecting. That's our job, too -- to make sure people in Washington hear what people outside of Washington think, even when they'd rather not.

Our members -- and most Americans -- are ready to organize. And the world is ready for this kind of governance. Is Obama? We hope the answer is yes.

eli.pariser@moveon.org

Eli Pariser is president of MoveOn.org.