Kos gives Kerry

[Dr Ron]

Most likely it was an oversight, but Kos actually gave Kerry credit for something today. He's listing a number of things Democrats have done which led to the media saying it would be the end for the Democrats. Here's one he included:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/8/10/144740/966

When Kerry filibustered Alito, that was supposed to be the end of Democratic chances in the midterms. Republicans celebrated. Democrats ran for the hills (most notably Joe Lieberman)

[beachmom]

1. Thanks for the link, Ron

I actually thanked Kos (sometimes manners can get you somewhere), and then had to defend against a snarky comment which is kind of toward the end.

Maybe he did read our comments yesterday, and decided to take a step back, so as not to totally alienate a constituency on Kos -- those who either support Kerry for '08 or simply don't like past candidates vilified, especially using Karl Rove talking points. No, I'm not holding my breath, but it does pay for us to engage (and maybe it was Tay's diplomatic comment that opened his eyes more than some of our, er, less diplomatic comments).

[WildEyedLiberal]

2. Well, his book is an entire hit piece on Kerry

So if he doesn't expect people to hit him back, he's in for a rude shock.

I think there is room for both diplomatic and fiery responses - it shows that there is a diverse group of people who take issue with his comments on Kerry and regardless of how they show it, they are all displeased. I think the variety itself is what makes our group special - we're not all unthinking bots programmed to respond a certain way. We all have different personalities and reactions and that reflects in our posts. This is a good thing. BTW I thought your comment struck a really good balance between firm and calm. Nice work.

We just need to keep our eyes on kos and make sure he doesn't get away with spinning as he did in yesterday's blog.

[Dr Ron]

3. Hopefully yesterday had an effect on him

We'll have to see what he has to say about Kerry in the future.

Incidentally, the title was supposed to be Kos Gives Kerry Credit but for some reason the last word didn't come out.

I also have a blog post on this at Liberal Values:

http://liberalvaluesblog.com/?p=21

[beachmom]

4. Yeah -- you're right on the variety

You and me, obviously, were in the less diplomatic corner, but I can tell you I stand by what I said 100% (and I know you do, too). But I can only speculate what affects Kos if anything does. I still think he is one of "us", meaning he's just an ordinary citizen who happened to be good with technology and just had good timing with the blog phenomenon. He's obviously not a brilliant pundit or thinker of our time. He's just one of many, and therefore, I do enjoy engaging and calling him on his bullshit. Like I said before, I really don't think he would ever ban any of us -- that goes against his site's principles, so that's probably why his site is so popular. It's the technology, stupid, not really the ideas. It's up to us to continue to engage with better ideas than Kos and his minions.

Somebody was saying yesterday about how Kos is bad on TV -- you know who is better is Chris Bowers. I mean he still is a jerk, sometimes, too, but he has a look and a cadence to his speaking voice that makes blogs seem . . . cool. That might get more young people interested, and will frankly excite the old pundits, who like everyone else, are attracted to all things young and brand new. I really think Chris should be the guy to be the "blog pundit" on TV -- he should work on speaking on TV, and still stay slightly grungy scruffly (but still clean cut, overall). Then, suddenly it'll be like, oh, it's the Dems who are cool. Just thinking out loud here . . .