Book Review: Crashing the GatePaul Hogarthbyline‚ Mar. 23‚ 2006I didn’t know who Markos Moulitsas was when I first met him in June 2003 at a “Howard Dean for President” house party in Berkeley. My co-host Matthew introduced him to me, and told me that he had invited Markos and his wife to attend our event. Markos, he said, was the creator of Daily Kos, a liberal blog (short for “web log”) that tracks national politics, organizes party activists, and raises funds for Dean and other insurgent Democratic candidates. Within a week, Howard Dean’s online-driven donations propelled him into front-runner status. Within a month, I became an obsessive reader of Daily Kos. By collecting underreported stories in the media, newly released public opinion polls, and insightful commentary by dozens of contributors, Daily Kos is always my first stop for reading the latest political news. Today, Daily Kos gets over one million unique visitors each day, and along with blogs like MyDD.com has become a new force in monitoring the media and building the Democratic Party. |