1,500 bloggers flex here August 3, 2007
BY ABDON M. PALLASCH
"What you have done in the last six years is restore ... the democracy that George Bush and the Republicans have tried to undermine," Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told 1,500 cheering liberal bloggers meeting in Chicago Thursday night.
Many of these bloggers were the "Deaniacs" that nearly propelled the former Vermont governor to the Democratic nomination for president four years ago.
The mushrooming political power of Internet users is the most important development to America's political process "since the invention of the printing press" Dean said.
"It has redemocratized America. There has been a tremendous shift in power."Such is the clout of these Internet-savvy bloggers holding their annual convention in Chicago that all of the current major Democratic candidates for president will address them Saturday. The message will reverberate exponentially as the bloggers post selections online.
The "Yearly Kos" convention at McCormick Place is an outgrowth of the DailyKos weblog, which started just five years ago but has already become a potent force in Democratic politics.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), addressing the crowd from Washington, thanked them for pushing all senators on the war in Iraq, saying, "You gave my Democratic colleagues and me the support to stand up and fight this war."
<>Why do liberals thrive in the blogosphere but not on talk radio, where the right wing reigns? "It takes a lot of money" to start a broadcast, said DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga. "People like me were able to start the DailyKos with $50."
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/495903,CST-NWS-kos03.article