Progressive Nation

Issue date: 10/1/06 Section: US News

You might have thought the Democratic National Convention was coming two years early: a big convention in a big city featuring keynote speakers from the highest echelon of the Democratic Party. Sitting politicians included big names like Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer, and Howard Dean and probable 2008 Presidential candidates like Governors Mark Warner, Tom Vilsack, and Bill Richardson. The usual suspects of the political press - the Washington Post, CNN, the New York Times, and Time Magazine - were also there in full force to cover the event. The reason, however, that all of these influential Democrats converged on Las Vegas during the second weekend in June was not to select the next Democratic hopeful to lead the free world, but instead for the first annual bloggers' convention.

"YearlyKos," named after the popular progressive blog portal DailyKos, attracted more than 1,000 bloggers and even more "traditional" journalists to cover the story of their meetings. But why all the hype for a meeting of progressive internet pundits? DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas perhaps put it best during his appearance on Meet the Press when he stated: "I think the role [of blogs is] going to get bigger and bigger as the movement grows. I mean, we saw how powerful the movement was back in 2003 during the Howard Dean rise. And, at the time, the blog world was about a twentieth of the size it is today. So it's going to be influential." But the $40,000 question echoing not only through the political netroots but also throughout Washington is what importance the blog community currently has, how it will manifest itself in the upcoming midterm elections and perhaps most importantly, whether the Blogosphere will be the difference in who is elected president in 2008.

Even among those who think that blogs are over-hyped, the recent successes which they have had thus far is hard to deny. The surprising primary victory of anti-war candidate Ned Lamont over incumbent senator and former Vice Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman, which Mr. Moulitsas predicted in his opening address at YearlyKos in the Democratic Connecticut primary, was a major victory for the netroots community. Unlike the rise and fall of then maverick Governor Howard Dean in 2003, Lamont's candidacy was not just a hype but an actual success in which a "netroots" candidate was able to earn the endorsement of an establishment newspaper, The New York Times, andeventually overcome what began as 40-plus point deficit.

Continued...

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