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Clinton Disses Bloggers? Or Is It Just Bad Communication?
Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York appeared to be making some progress in winning over the netroots in her bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination — until Thursday night.
Just as the first day of the YearlyKos convention of bloggers and Internet activists came to a close Thursday night, it was announced that Clinton would not attend a meeting with the activists on Saturday.
The announcement produced a round of boos and hisses from the 1,500 “netroots” who had just heard a speech from Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, the first of several keynote addresses at the convention.
Clinton will still attend the presidential candidates’ forum at the YearlyKos convention on Saturday. But she will be the only one of the candidates who will skip a separate “breakout” meeting with the netroots following the forum. She will send adviser Ann Lewis in her place.
YearlyKos Executive Director Gina Cooper said the Clinton campaign did not snub the “breakout” session. She said Clinton had never committed to it, and that a communications mixup had led to her being listed in the convention program as attending.
Earlier in the day, blogger superstar Markos Moulitsas had praised Clinton’s attempt to reach out to the netroots, who have not been happy with some of her positions, especially her original vote in support of the war in Iraq.
Moulitsas said he was especially impressed by Clinton’s willingness to “listen” to the netroots “when making her decisions.”
The “breakout” session Clinton has decided to skip was intended to be a “listening” session for the candidates.
Moulitsas did not react immediately to Clinton’s decision to skip the session.
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