My Review of Yearly Kos

I had a great time at Yearly Kos this year. Here are some of my personal favorite hits and misses.

Hits (not necessarily in priority order)

1. John Soltz’s introduction of Wesley Clark. He spoke of how we should try to always be generous and gracious to everyone because we never know what burdens they are carrying and how everyone is carrying burdens. He shared is story how people had been kind to him and helped him with his burdens – one person who helped him was General Wesley Clark.
2. Howard Dean. He’s so inspirational and really demonstrates leadership. It made me sad that he didn’t win in 2004 but we’re so lucky to have leading the DNC.
3. The Pacific Northwest Caucus. It was great to meet my neighboring bloggers and two great Congressional candidates from our area: Darcy Burner and George Fearing.
4. The unofficial “Smokers Caucus”. We met all day, every day outside while we smoked and had great conversations.
5. The unofficial “Draft Gore Breakout”: We met at the hotel bar Friday and quite a crowd gathered. The support for Gore was incredible throughout the conference.
6. The “Left Behind by the Right” panel. Each speaker had inspiring stories and each reminded us in their own way that we are not the lunatic fringe but instead what used to be called mainstream – the Right went fanatical. It also reminded me that compromise should never be a tactic for us. They’ll just keep moving the goal posts.
7. John Edwards. He really connected with us in his breakout. He was relaxed, candid, wasn’t afraid to defend the couple of unpopular positions he had, and we really responded!
8. The Teamsters’ Bar-B-Q. Yummy! And I loved chatting with the union folks.
9. Andy Stern. Another great forward thinking leader.
10. The employees of the Convention Center. They were so helpful and nice.
11. The “Live Blogging the Libby Trial” panel. They gave us real behind the scenes glimpses.

Misses

1. The women comedians. Why do women comics have to go so crude? The men were funny and entertaining but the women were offensive.
2. The reason the Congressional guests didn’t show. I was disappointed that Pelosi, Emanuel, Reid, and Schumer didn’t show but I was angry about the reason. FISA amendments should never be rushed -- they should be deliberated and carefully considered. We supported them during the last election with a mandate of change, not capitulation.
3. There was too much to do! I wanted to see all the Brave New Films and do all the DFA Workshops. I wish I could have attended more events. Maybe we need more days.

It was inpirational and I had a great time!