Still More About YK and the Dems

"At Vegas blog-fest, it's not politics as usual"-- from MSNBC, with video of Kos on "Meet the Press."

Could this past weekend’s Yearly Kos convention -- the conclave of 900 activists sponsored by the Daily Kos web site -- turn out to be the most significant political gathering of 2006?

Here’s why it might be: The next Democratic presidential nominee will have to go with, or go over, or go around the left-populist-progressive wing of the Democratic Party.

Which 2008 candidate will the Kos universe back? Will next year’s Kos convention -- which Vilsack said will be "hopefully in Des Moines" -- amount to the first primary of the 2008 race?

Warner is working hard and spending lot of money to woo the Kos universe. “Let’s keep dating!” Warner joked as he ended his speech Saturday.

But Rathband (Grass-roots activist Jed Rathband of Portland, Maine, who runs an oil-buying cooperative) and others at Yearly Kos favor Al Gore. “My ‘08 candidate so far is Al Gore, absolutely Al,” Rathband said.

Another favorite of Kos-ites: Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold. Ubiquitous throughout the Kos weekend as he cultivated the bloggers was Trevor Miller, an operative for Feingold's political action committee. (Feingold himself was giving speeches to Democrats in Wisconsin and Minnesota.)

Andrew from Northwest Progressive Institute has "YearlyKos Reflections and Extra," with links to other blogs and the full text of Markos' appearance with Russert.

Here's a taste of post YK commentary from java fiend -

Let me say upfront that I'm still buzzing about the YearlyKos conference and will probably talk about it endlessly for the next month, continue to reference it for the next six and obsess for the following five months until the second YearlyKos conference comes around. After that, I will probably start it all over again... it's a vicious cycle, I tell you.

After the luncheon, my friend, her son and I hung out by the pool with none other than Ambassador Wilson and Larry Johnson. My friend is friends with Ambassador Wilson and initially I declined her invitation to go hang out and have a few drinks, but she talked me into it. I felt like a tool the whole time we were out there, like I was totally out of place. My friend and Ambassador Wilson had a lot to catch up on, but her son and I had like nothing to add to the conversation and largely sat there listening. I mean what do I have to say to somebody like Ambassador Wilson??? I did manage a brief conversation with Larry Johnson, but nothing really in-depth. It's lame. There is so much I would have loved to have discussed with them, talked to them about, but no, I sat there like a tool, quieter than Helen Keller. Yeah, I guess maybe I was a little star-struck and combine that with my natural shyness and yeah... It was surreal sitting there with two people that I admire so much.

There are so many thoughts going through my head. This conference was amazing. It truly was unique and it was magical. I'll write more about it later though. I have to be up early to get back to the ol' salt mines. Yeah, I'm not looking forward to that. Ugh.

The last word (for now) goes to Booman, from his post "Back from Yearly Kos" -

I was concerned about the way the convention became a kind of near endorsement of Mark Warner, and I will probably have more to say on that later. But, by way of a quick clarification, I don't think Warner did anything wrong. I think Jerome Armstrong deserves a doubling in salary for the job he did for Warner. And I don't think Markos did anything wrong, either. I'll get into the details of what concerns me another time. Suffice to say, getting called 'low class' by Markos was something that will have to be revisited. But not now.