SFChronicle: Helping Clinton Make Up With the Nutroots of Daily Kos

It is well known that Hillary Clinton is not the most well-liked Democratic candidate with the Nutroots and the kids at the Daily Kos. She is often excoriated for not being enough of an anti-war candidate and many feel she betrayed the "cause." Still, most left leaning Americans assume that she will be the Democrat Party's nominee and some, like the San Francisco Chronicle, are interested in smoothing the differences between the assumed powerful Internet lefties and candidate Hillary Clinton. Today we get the SFChron acting in the role of mediator, trying to get readers to believe that Hillary is seeing a "thaw" in the hate the nutroots has shown her thus far. They sure hope so, anyway, and here is their bid to help that "thaw" along.

On top of hoping to help smooth the waters for Hillary Clinton, the Chron also goes ga ga over the YearlyKos convention being held in Chicago.

The second annual gathering of the Daily Kos political blog starts this week in Chicago, and here's all you need to know about how influential the YearlyKos convention has become: Five top presidential candidates are going -- including front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, even though the Kos bloggers don't like her that much.

Analysts say the community of liberal online activists -- the "netroots" -- has become not only a coveted constituency for the left but a legitimate threat to conservatives, who trail Democrats in online campaigning and fundraising.

I have but one question to ask of how "influential" the nutroots has been: What candidate have they gotten elected by flexing that "influence?"

Answer: So far, no one.

Still, I don't want to gloss over their power to raise money from small donors! We conservatives lag behind the nutroots in political donations and that aspect does, indeed, give them a measure of influence. But it has yet to translate into real, substantive power.

So, what of the Hillary make over the Chronicle is trying to foster?

Most liberal bloggers detest Clinton for her 2002 vote authorizing President Bush to pursue military action in Iraq. ... Yet Clinton's relationship with liberal bloggers may be starting to thaw. This week, she sent her spokesman to defend the Kos bloggers against attacks made by Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly on JetBlue Airways, the convention's most prominent corporate sponsor.

The Chronicle would love this “thaw” to be the case. Fortunately, there is no real evidence that such a thing is taking place except in the Chronicle's fevered imagination.

Naturally, the Chronicle is full of bright and kind things to say about the YearyKos convention taking place in Chicago. It was refreshing, however, that the Chron gave the political right a chance to air their opinion on the leftie blogosphere in this report. Both sides given time like this does not happen very often in the press these days.

The Chron mentioned one thing that, while true as we speak, might not be true much longer...

On the conservative side, A-list speakers assemble at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) -- where Ann Coulter referred to former Sen. John Edwards with an anti-gay slur earlier this year. But CPAC doesn't have an online community.

And conservatives don't have anything quite like the Daily Kos blog, either. There are highly popular conservative blogs, like MichelleMalkin.com and Instapundit.com. But analysts say the Daily Kos functions more like a community, where liberal smack-talk, tips and strategy are traded and underreported stories are tipped.

CPAC is a dead concept, it seems. It always gets the same crew, never growing much and is not launching itself into the new age of the Internet at all. We conservatives are wasting great opportunities to organize and spread the word.

The Chron makes a good point about the higher level of enthusiasm and activity that the left has exhibited thus far. In answer to this, there is one thing for conservative bloggers on the near horizon that will help us catch up with the left's power on the Internet. A new conservative Blogger's convention is coming in October and it promises to be the first in a series of such conventions that will help energize the right like the YearlyKos has energized the left.

The Conservative Leadership Conference is planning Right-toberfest, a large convention to be held in Reno, Nevada on October 12th, 13th and 14th of this year. They promise some high-powered guests, panels and the like to rival a YearlyKos styled event. It promises to be an amazing weekend. Go see more on the Conservative Leadership Conference at:http://www.clc07.com/index.html

I have already made my own plans to be there and I hope to meet some Newsbusters there. Sign up soon because we need to get rollin' folks. We can't let the left beat us with the Internet. I mean, Al Gore may have invented it, but WE should OWN it!