Monday, June 12, 2006

Kos on tomorrow's primary

In this space I have written several times that I am pulling for Jim Webb to win tomorrow's Democratic senatorial primary. Casting a vote for Webb might make you feel less grumpy about having to put up with George W. Bush in the White House. Hey, at least you'll have done something other than complain.

Rather than write more words about why Webb seems a better choice for Virginia Democrats than Harris Miller, his opponent, at this time I’ll step aside and allow another voice to speak on behalf of candidate Webb -- a 60-year-old author of bestsellers whose eclectic resume is more than a little unusual for a guy running for office.

Some portion of SLANTblog’s readers already know well who the co-author of “Crashing the Gate” and the creator of the web site Daily Kos, Markos "Kos" Moulitsas, is. Others may not. In short Kos, pictured right, is a Young Turk of the political blogosphere. He’s a major player in the realm of left-of-center political blogs. In this case, Moulitsas writes about why you should vote for Webb. His concise argument, with a few quotes, is persuasive without being vociferous:

“...One of the main knocks against Webb is that he's a former Republican. And, in fact, a former Secretary of the Navy under Ronald Reagan. Far from a bad thing, this is exactly what we want: Republicans realizing that if they truly want a better America they need to switch to the Democrats. Republicans realizing that America's security isn't being strengthened, but weakened by the party of CIA agent outings and the Dubai ports deal.”

For more on the Kos phenomenon, itself, here's this: Writing for Slate, John Dickerson reports on the closing gap between blogging and journalism in The Markos Regime: Why Kos shouldn't believe the hype.

“...With the completion of YearlyKos, the first convention for the 500,000 unique visitors the site claims to get daily, bloggers now face the problem all outsider movements encounter when they go mainstream. Can the astute elements of their critique survive their newfound legitimacy? Or, to put the matter somewhat differently, can the bloggers remain jerks to the press, when the press is busy swooning over them?”
Image: from Slate

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