Liberal Bloggers to Meet in Las Vegas

Posted on May 28, 2006

A New York Times article says 1,000 liberal bloggers are getting together for a convention in Las Vegas. The event is being called the YearlyKos convention (a name familiar to DailyKos.com readers) and it will be attended by some top Democrats including Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

Las Vegas, as the ad campaign likes to remind us, is a place people go to untether themselves from reality - to become, if only for a weekend, anonymous and uncensored. It's odd, then, that Vegas is about to play host to a gathering of ordinary Americans whose objective is precisely the reverse. Next week, 1,000 devotees of the liberal blogging universe -- people who know one another only as pseudonyms on a screen, connected by only their running commentaries -- will descend on the Riviera Hotel in hopes of affixing names and faces to their online personas. The event has been dubbed the YearlyKos convention, and it is the first-ever corporeal assemblage of the bloggers at the Web site Dailykos.com. These are the people who are said to be changing the very nature of American politics, transforming the old smoke-filled room of insiders into an expansive chat room for anyone who wants in. And so it's not surprising that Democratic luminaries like the party's chairman, Howard Dean, and its leaders in Congress, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, have arranged their schedules to address the convention, along with at least a few 2008 presidential contenders. No small contingent of political professionals and journalists will show up as well. (I myself will sit on a panel about political journalism, which is kind of like being the Dunkin' Donuts spokesman at a cardiologists' convention.)

The Times article also said a few 2008 presidential candidates will also be at the convention. This shows how powerful political blogs have become. If you are cynical you might argue that this shows the power of conventions instead. The convention blog says YealyKos is looking for IT volunteers. The convention will be held June 8-11 in Las Vegas.