Blogger fest a magnet for liberal politicos

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The second annual gathering of the Daily Kos political blog starts this week in Chicago, and here's all you need to know about how influential the YearlyKos convention has become: Five top presidential candidates are going -- including front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, even though the Kos bloggers don't like her that much.

Analysts say the community of liberal online activists -- the "netroots" -- has become not only a coveted constituency for the left but a legitimate threat to conservatives, who trail Democrats in online campaigning and fundraising.

Another sign of the growing power of the Daily Kos convention is that none of the attending Democratic hopefuls -- including Sens. Barack Obama and Chris Dodd, former Sen. John Edwards and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson -- are scheduled to appear at the Democratic Leadership Council gathering this weekend in Tennessee. The DLC is the moderate organization that former President Bill Clinton led for two years before beginning his successful campaign for the White House in 1992.

"It's hilarious that (Hillary Clinton's) not even attending her own group," said Markos Moulitsas, the Berkeley resident who founded Daily Kos in 2002, and whose nickname, "Kos," supplies the moniker for the blog where 500,000 regularly visit.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/29/KOS.TMP

[aquart]

1. How is Bill's group Hillary's group?

Is this simply an assumption, or has she been out there with them?

[sandnsea]

2. Shes on the Leadership Team

http://www.dlc.org/ndol_ka.cfm?kaid=137

The annual meeting is called a "National Conversation", sound familiar?

It is fucking hysterical that she isn't going to be there.

And I can't for the life of me understand why you're supporting her.

[rodeodance]

3. I am very glad to see so many Dem Candidates attending the conf.

[MaineDem]

4. I believe Dean is speaking at YearlyKos

He may have something to say about the 50-state strategy and how it's working.

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

12. Dean is a keynote speaker

So is Wesley Clark.

[rodeodance]

5. and I am glad to see this happening:

Holding a grudge is energy wasting:


Most liberal bloggers detest Clinton for her 2002 vote authorizing President Bush to pursue military action in Iraq. In Daily Kos' monthly presidential straw polls, "No Freaking Clue" frequently has drawn more votes than Clinton.

Yet Clinton's relationship with liberal bloggers may be starting to thaw. This week, she sent her spokesman to defend the Kos bloggers against attacks made by Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly on JetBlue Airways, the convention's most prominent corporate sponsor. And in the latest Kos straw poll of more than 15,000 voters this week, Clinton edged "No Freaking Clue" -- by three percentage points.

[rodeodance]

6. HA HA---the RNC sent Kos talking points:

..While Democrats flock to Kos, conservatives have ramped up their attacks. Last week on "Fox News Sunday," Bill Kristol, editor of the conservative journal the Weekly Standard, described Moulitsas as "the left-wing blogger who was not respectable three or four years ago. Now the whole party is going to pay court to him and to left-wing blogs." Kristol predicted it would hurt the Democrats.

On Friday, the Republican National Committee sent reporters a set of YearlyKos talking points with a headline that read, "Democrat Candidates Plan Panderfest To 'Liberal Partisans' At YearlyKos Convention."

"These guys (the liberal political bloggers) have power now. They can change elections," said Michael Cornfield, adjunct professor in political management at George Washington University and author of "Politics Moves Online: Campaigning."

In last year's midterm elections, Cornfield pointed to how liberal online activists helped dump incumbent Republican senators in Virginia and Montana, and led the effort to defeat Sen. Joe Lieberman in the Democratic primary in Connecticut (although he won election as an independent).

[Doctor_J]

9. I don't understand why our people don't do this

I would, every day, link every single Repuke with Andy Coulter, Michael weiner, Bill "world's Stupidest Pundit" Kristol, Rev Moon, and the rest of the batshit crazy hate radio mob.

[Oak2004]

10. Unfortunately for the RNC, us "liberal partisans"

are smack-dab in middle of the American mainstream.

Welcome to the new moderates, RNC. Without your fine work wrecking America and politicizing Americans, driving us to the left, us liberal partisan bloggers might not have become nearly so powerful and quite so mainstream so soon.

A big, sarcastic, thank you, RNC.

[IndyOp]

11. I am fascinated at this, "...was not respectable three or four years ago" - does

this mean that Kristol thinks Kos IS respectable now?

What a stupid conservative kind of thing to say -- bloggers were not respectable 3 or 4 years ago so they can never be respectable because change in the social order cannot (be allowed to) occur...?

:wtf:

[formercia]

7. Since when is the DLC a moderate organization?

"The DLC is the moderate organization that former President Bill Clinton led for two years before beginning his successful campaign for the White House in 1992."


You wouldn't know it by their rhetoric.

Picking the wrong 'Sugar Daddy' can come back and bite you in the ass.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Well, I will say this about Hillary Clinton. She is willing to adapt.

And if she changes her p.o.v. and convinces Democrats that she's sincere, she can still walk away with this one.