Hillary And YearlyKos [Updated]

In an announcement Thursday night, organizers of the YearlyKos netroots convention said Hillary Clinton would appear with other presidential candidates at the convention's leadership forum, but would be the only candidate to skip meetings with activists afterward, instead sending Ann Lewis to speak with attendees on her behalf.

UPDATE: While the announcement initially surprised attendees and drew boos, both Clinton and convention staff asserted it was a simple misunderstanding. On Thursday night, a source with knowledge of the Clinton Campaign's plans told me the convention was informed days ago that Clinton was not participating in the activist meeting, and a further announcement from the convention organizers was expected. Early Friday morning, the convention's Executive Director posted a diary on DailyKos to clear things up:

There was a miscommunication between Yearlykos and Senator Clinton's Campaign, which was never under the impression that Senator Clinton would be attending the breakout session due to a scheduling conflict. We regret due to this miscommunication, the announcement was made so belatedly. We are ecstatic she will be attending the forum and that Anne Lewis will be representing her in the breakout session. Anyway it's been a great first day and the Presidential forum is going to be incredible.

The mix-up comes at an odd time for Clinton's netroots outreach strategy, since her campaign recently sent top spokesman Howard Wolfson to defend the convention against attacks from FOX's Bill O'Reilly. DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas praised that effort earlier today, telling reporters at a the convention's opening news conference that he appreciated Clinton's effort to "defend the medium" from "right wing attacks." Moulitsas also said he thought Clinton had started to demonstrate that she would "listen" to the netroots "when making her decisions."

Meanwhile, Senator Chris Dodd picked up where the Clinton Campaign left off, battling Bill O'Reilly on his Thursday show to defend YearlyKos.

-- Ari Melber is covering the YearlyKos convention in Chicago, and he serves on the volunteer advisory committee to the convention's leadership forum. This post has been updated to include new information.

Comments (8)

1. Holy Firstness!

   IS, IS, IS it possible no one, or so few, signed up to meet with Ms. clinton and she just can't be embarassed with super, duper low turnout? You think, Mr. Melbers?

   Posted by is is IS at 08/02/2007 @ 11:29pm

2. Rio did you seriously call Democrats Demoncrats? Does someone need a hug, or perhaps timeout? Way to bring the level of discourse up a notch or two *golfclap*.

   Posted by Tzimisce at 08/03/2007 @ 01:51am

3. Not much to comment on here vis-a-vis Hillary and YearlyKos, or the inanities of IS or Rio.

   Here is a fine selection by Paul Craig Roberts --a former Reagan Treasury official-- from Counterpunch:

   Return of the Robber Barons [counterpunch.org]

   Dovetails nicely with the prognostications of Chalmers Johnson in his wonderful book, "Nemesis".

   Posted by b_kool_66 at 08/03/2007 @ 03:21am

4. non-news.

   TZIM,

   RIO-koresh is a loon. Resident Taliban type. Flying colored horseys will come soon to take him to his very own version of heaven. We hope.

   Posted by crabwalk at 08/03/2007 @ 08:22am

5. Maybe RIO-koresh could answer this; Why is the Iraqi oil sector such a mess after 4 years of American oversight? When Saddam ran it he gamed the system with corruption, but he did produce oil. Chimpies boyz have been in charge since 2003, where are the results? What about Wolfies prognostications ?

   The GAO report says; "Poor security, corruption, and funding constraints continue to impede reconstruction of Iraq's oil sector. The deteriorating security environment places workers and infrastructure at risk while protection efforts have been insufficient. Widespread corruption and smuggling reduce oil revenues. Moreover, Iraq's needs are significant and future funding for the oil sector is uncertain as nearly 80 percent of U.S. funds for the oil sector have been spent. Iraq's contribution has been minimal with the government spending less than 3 percent of the $4.5 billion it approved for oil reconstruction projects in 2006.

   In addition, the State Department's data on Iraq's oil production may be overstated since data from the U.S. Department of Energy show lower production levels -- between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels less per day. Inadequate metering, re-injection, corruption, theft and sabotage account for the discrepancy, which amounts to about $1.8 to $5.5 billion per year. Comprehensive metering of Iraq's oil production has been a long-standing problem and continuing need.

   And what is Hillary going to do to fix it? Nada I would say.

   Posted by crabwalk at 08/03/2007 @ 08:44am

6. Look, the situation is obvious...the "netroots" don't like Hillary.

   From mild suspicion to outright loathing, the Blogosphere thinks Her Nibs is either a "weak Republican-lite" or a "corporatist sell-out"....they know it, and SHE knows it, and she doesn't want to get cornered by them and asked "Why she is friends with Rupert Murdoch?" or "Why she won't support impeachment?" or even a more serious "Why is she supporting Indian outsourcing?".

   She can dodge such things at a group setting with Obama, Edwards, Biden, Dodd, et al...not one-on-one.

   Her game plan from the start has been to keep the liberal base at arm's length...win the nomination...and then tell them "Look, where ya going to go? Nader? And give it to Giuliani or Thompson?"...and she'll be right....IF she wins the nomination.

   But that's the trick, she's got to keep up the shield against the liberal base as long as possible, while maintaining her front-runner status. With Edwards flailing about, looking for ANY issue to jump on her....and Obama in the mist of a "I'm a negotiator...No, I'll bomb the bastards" crises....all she has do do is play rope-a-dope with the "netroots" for another 5 months.

   Posted by Mask at 08/03/2007 @ 08:52am

7. Speaking of Edwards...I see his latest stab at HRC blew up in his face. Turns out HE was taking money from Rupert Murdoch too!

   Posted by Mask at 08/03/2007 @ 08:57am

8. hey sweet thang. So how much did Edwards take from murdock

   Posted by Will C. at 08/04/2007 @ 12:03pm