It's year two of Yearly Kos, and it shows. Gone is the seedy Las Vegas hotel that played host to the inaugural get-together. In its place is the vast -- and well-air-conditioned -- McCormick Convention Center here in the Windy City. Gone is the haphazard scheduling of myriad conferences and caucuses. Instead, a glossy 71-page book meticulously details every event.What has stayed the same is the heart of the gathering -- the 1,500 (or so) bloggers and online activists who represent the leading edge of the "Net roots." (Never heard of the Net roots, you say? It's a loose conglomeration of hyper-involved and politically minded progressives who over a stunningly brief period of time have established themselves as a powerful force within the Democratic Party.)
Named after Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder of the Daily Kos blog and an iconic figure within this subculture, the gathering has greatly expanded and -- dare we say it -- gone mainstream. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (Nev.) addressed the conference Saturday morning and were followed by nearly all of the leading Democratic candidates for president, including the three front-runners: Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Barack Obama (Ill.) and former senator John Edwards (N.C.).
While the party establishment seems to have moved toward the Net roots, the coalition of bloggers remains proudly and defiantly independent of the structures of Washington, including, yes, the media. (One popular panel was titled "Blogs and the [Mainstream Media]: From Clash to Civilization.")
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