It is 3 PM of the first day of the America’s Future Now conference and already I am on overload. There are breakout sessions now, but instead, I’ve headed back to the Bloggers Boulevard to try and make sense out of some of my notes.

Perhaps one of the important storylines of the first day of the conference can be summed up with a comment that Gov. Dean said during a press conference. There is an old debate whenever a new President comes to Washington. Will Washington change the President or will the President change Washington. Most people pick Washington changing the President, and in most cases they are right. It is up to us to make sure that this time they are wrong.

It takes me back to a comment that Robert L. Borosage, the co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, made in his opening remarks. Are progressives with Obama, or are we pushing the President? There is one clear answer to that. Yes. Another person commented on Twitter the way progressives should approach President Obama’s policies is “Support but verify”

Ilyse Hogue, Campaign Director for MoveOn.org, had perhaps the snarkiest comment about this. She noted that the media likes “hot dem-on-dem action” for their tabloid journalism, but it is up to all of us to return the discussion back to what America wants and needs.

What America most needs right now is a public health care option, and this was the topic for a lunchtime press conference. Robert Borosage was joined by Anna Burger of Change to Win, Gov. Howard Dean, Richard Kirsch, national campaign manager for Health Care for America Now, Wade Henderson, President and CEO of Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Celinda Lake of Lake Research Partners. They spoke about their campaign to fight for health care and noted that it was an outside the beltway effort. They noted that research by Lake Research Partners showed that nationwide, non-supervisory workers are more concerned about losing their jobs and health care than other issues. They have moved away from Reaganomics to recognize that the Government can and should play an important role in protecting the American Dream.

All of this will not go on without a struggle, and Lawrence Lessig, a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society spoke about the key issue underlying whether or not we would get meaningful health care reform, any sort of meaningful reform, and perhaps ultimately what is necessary to make sure that Washington does not prevent President Obama from achieving his agenda.

He spoke about the Fair Elections Now Act, which is sponsored by Rep. Larson from Connecticut and co-sponsored by the whole Connecticut Congressional Delegation. There were many other great speakers, including Ethan Nadelmann, the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance who spoke passionately about the need to stop the prison industrial complex and bring about meaningful drug law reform, and Professor Emma Coleman Jordan of Georgetown Law who spoke brilliantly about economic justice in legal theory.

There were plenty of other great speakers, and I’m sure that there are some other great speakers at the breakout sessions that I am missing. But now, I’ve taken my first brain dump. I can walk around for a little bit, clear my brain, and prepare to hear Gov. Dean’s session in about half an hour.