That was how DailyKos founder Markos Moulitsas described the nearly 2000 activists gathered in Pittsburgh for the 2009 Netroots Nation convention. Billed on its website as “the most concentrated gathering of progressive bloggers to date,”  this year’s Netroots Nation is the fourth conference of its kind. It began in 2006 as the YearlyKos convention, and adopted a new name in 2008 to reflect its expanding membership and influence beyond the pages of DailyKos. The 2009 conference is the first without a cadre of primary contenders to invite and the first to deal with reality of being a movement billed as the political establishment.

The event regularly attracts progressive power players and up-and-comers alike, with former Vice President Al Gore making a surprise visit last year, while 2007 drew eight major Democratic Presidential candidates for a blogger-moderated debate. This year brought former President Bill Clinton, Governor Howard Dean and Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett as featured speakers – but while the tradition of high-profile politicos in attendance continues, the focus of the conference has definitely taken a turn from its election-driven roots.

Adam Bonin, chairman of the Netroots Nation board of directors, pinpoints the conference’s mission as the biggest change. “I think the key difference between this year’s conference and those in the past is that prior conferences centered around amassing our power to help win elections,” said Bonin, who also regularly contributes to DailyKos’ front page. “This year, there was a conscious shift in focus across our agenda — and certainly among our attendees — towards the steps we need to take to make policy change happen.”

The slate of panels available certainly reflects the change – pundits from the strategy and blogger wings of the movement appeared to instruct attendees on how best to get out the message for a progressive agenda, including a two-hour “Pundit Project” media training session hosted by ThinkProgress.

As aspiring politicos took turns taping practice interviews, Firedoglake founder Jane Hamsher warned about becoming trapped in media narratives unflattering to liberal activists. Nico Pitney – particularly well-known for his work on liveblogging the Iranian elections, and perhaps for a verbal scuffle with Dana Milbank on CNN’s Reliable Sources – instructed attendees on the importance of building a niche of expertise. ThinkProgress managing editor Amanda Terkel warned attendees about the rise of ambush journalism.  (Amanda’s hints: there’s no right strategy, but if you can’t squeak out an Olbermann-inspired ANDREA MAKRIS! then be quick with a camera, or just keep your wits about you and let cooler heads prevail.)

Later in the weekend, New York media trainer Joel Silberman offered some helpful advice as well – when talking into a camera, pretend it’s someone you want to sleep with. Media experts helped activists learn how to make the most of their fifteen minutes and notable bloggers helped hammer out the message, giving their take on the biggest policy battles of the day – Firedoglake blogger and occasional MSNBC guest Marcy Wheeler (emptywheel) gave her take on Wall Street domination, Pam’s House Blend founder Pam Spaulding talked LGBTQI rights, and on the technical side DailyKos’ Greg Dworkin (DemfromCT) moderated a panel featuring Nate Silver and Charlie Cook, among others, on getting the most out of polling data.

But while attendees learned how best to take advantage of their political punch from the best and the brightest of the blogosphere, some notable speakers faced pressing criticism from the left. Former President Bill Clinton faced tough questions from blogger Lane Hudson on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act, raising the spectre of an Administration moving too slowly on gay rights for some activists’ tastes. Governor Howard Dean took questions on advancing progressive goals in the health care debate just days before President Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stumbled over whether or not the public option was necessary. And in her conversation with pundit comedian Baratunde Thurston, Valerie Jarrett faced occasionally boisterous criticism of President Obama’s continuation of some policies of President Bush.

One attendee shouted a question about photographs of detainee abuse President Obama has declined to make public, another yelled to ask why Blackwater (now Xe) was still being paid by the State Department for overseas work, and a table near the stage hissed in frustration at her response. The incident took only a few moments of an hour long talk, but became the focus of a piece by Huffington Post article assigned the headline “Valarie [sic] Jarrett Heckled And Hissed At Netroots Nation.”

The headline raises an interesting issue: when, and how, does a scrappy, rabble-rousing political underdog turn into a gathering of heckling critics?  Moderator Baratunde Thurston of Jack and Jill Politics took issue with the headline assigned to the piece, though he called Sam Stein’s writing a “fair representation of what happened.” Beyond the misspelling of Jarrett’s first name, Thurston said “the headline implies that the only thing that happened was that Jarrett faced tremendous negative responses to being there.”

The headline was later changed to the more accurate “Valarie [sic] Jarrett Heckled By Some At Netroots Nation,” but the question remains – how critical is too critical of a Democratic President, especially for a conference full of Democratic activists?

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