Democrats Quizzed At YearlyKos

Following the YouTube Democratic political debate last month, bloggers had their chance to quiz seven Democratic presidential hopefuls in Chicago.   Their opportunity came at the annual YearlyKos Convention, hosted by the influential liberal blog, Daily Kos. The candidates answered questions and alsoattended individual sessions.   It’s a sign of the growing influence of the Internet on politics, but, perhaps, also the desire of the hopefuls to be ubiquitous, pushing their messages inevery available place.   The convention, now in its second year, was attended by around 1,500 bloggers and 250 journalists, who had their chance to put questions. Of the major candidates, onlyJoe Biden was in attendance.   Some didn’t receive an easy ride. Hillary Clinton was booed when she said she’d continue to acceptcontributions from lobbyists. She defended the action by stating,   “They represent nurses, they represent social workers, yes, they represent corporations that employ a lot of people. Theidea that somehow a contribution is going to influence you – I just ask you to look at my record.”   Clinton impressed some people with her performance, but Daily Kos editor MarkosMoulitsas preferred to see it in broader terms, as a benefit to the Democrats.   “One – they get to hear from us directly about what we think is important and two because we log off ourcomputers and we start making phone calls or we start knocking on doors – the sorts of things that are important to get people elected.”