Wild Wild Web: Dems Court Online Mavens

CHICAGO, Aug. 4, 2007 — -- Call it an overdose of DailyKos as thousands of liberal bloggers have descended upon Chicago for the YearlyKos convention, a gathering that has quickly become the ultimate networking experience for the Netroots community.

Many of the Democratic presidential contenders are here, with hopes that their campaign messages will spread to the fingertips of the political bloggers and online activists who have helped rally a progressive base that Democrats are eager to tap into. For all the blogs that are represented here, there is also constituency represented.

YearlyKos, named after Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, is arguably the most visited blog of the Netroots movement.

Seven of the presidential candidates are in attendance today and the feeling here is that the Netroots have landed a seat at the table and ultimately a louder voice in the democratic process.

Day three of the four-day conference brought the most anticipated event, a forum with all the candidates -- debate style -- but this time the audience isn't asked to keep their applause to the end. The cheers, in fact, became a ratings tool, allowing people to instantly measure who was connecting with the bloggers and who was disappointing.

The first big response from the crowd was elicited by former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., when he challenged his rivals to stop taking money from Washington lobbyists.

"The Democratic Party is the party of the people," said Edwards to a cheering crowd that quickly rose to its feet. "We don't need to wait for a law to be passed. The Democratic Party can decide right now to put an end to the money game in Washington."

When event moderator Matt Bai flat out asked Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., if she would continue taking money from federal lobbyists, she responded that she would.

"A lot of those lobbyists, whether you like it or not, represent real Americans, they actually do," said Clinton, as bloggers booed and hissed.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was greeted with a rendition of "Happy Birthday" by the hometown crowd, but in a serious moment took Clinton to task for comments on lobbyists.

"They have an agenda," said Obama after Clinton argued that lobbyists represent people who have good causes, such as nurses and social workers.

The forum was broken down into three mini-sessions, where the gathered 1,500 bloggers were able to help pick the questions that were thrown at the candidates. With questions ranging from Supreme Court nominees to Musharraf and Pakistan, the candidates quickly found themselves giving elaborate answers instead of the requested quick responses.

Jokingly, Bai gave Obama a little extra time to answer a question, because it was his birthday. By the end, the candidates were begging for just three extra seconds to respond. It was sign of how important it was to be heard in this type of forum.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson commented on why in a previous debate he named conservative Justice Byron White as his pick for a model Supreme Court Justice: "I screwed up on that," he said.

Former Sen. Mike Gravel, D-Alaska, joked about having to follow Edwards' crowd-pleasing performance on lobbyists: "Politicians have an art," he said. "They tell you a problem in a dramatic way so you think they have the answer to it."

Congressman Kucinich inserted himself in the lobbyist brouhaha: "Would Sen. Edwards expand that to be willing to include all Wall Street hedge funds?" he asked.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., commented after Obama praised him for supporting public financing of campaigns: "I go back 15 years," he said. "I'm not a newcomer to this."

What's the one thing that united the 2008 contenders at Yearly Kos? As president, they would all appoint an official White House blogger, they said, a response the pleased the 1,500 potential applicants in the room.