So I spent the better part of last week at the Yearly Kos Convention in Chicago, hanging out with the "progressive netroots".

I thought I'd start my recapping of the event by jumping straight to the bit most people care about most: the various Presidential candidates, and how they fared.

There were two opportunities for attendees to interact with the candidates. First there was the "Presidential Leadership Forum", where all the candidates gathered on stage to take questions together in an informal format. After that, the candidates each held breakout sessions where you could hear from them in more detail individually.

Of course, this meant that you couldn't go to all the breakout sessions, since they were all held at the same time; you had to pick a candidate and see them only.  That was a bummer, but I can understand why they did it.  I chose to go to John Edwards' breakout session. (Were you at YKos? Did you attend one of the other breakouts? Leave your impressions in the comments.)

[ Obligatory Disclaimer: The opinions that follow are mine alone and do not constitute official Change to Win position statements or endorsements, etc. etc. ]

The Presidential Leadership Forum

First, though, was the Presidential Leadership Forum. If you read a story in the newspaper about a "debate" at YKos, this is what they were referring to.

Only it wasn't really a "debate" in the conventional sense. The candidates sat sprawled in chairs rather than standing behind podiums. The questions were informal and not particularly pointed. And the crowd was encouraged to be vocal and applaud things they felt deserved applauding.

Still, there were some good moments that made the event worth attending.  Here's a few of them:

"And the Crowd Goes Wild" moment:

Edwards brought the house down several times.  The guy feeds on positive vibes from a crowd in a way that's positively Clintonian.  (More Clintonian than Hillary Clinton!)

"Did He/She Really Say That?" moment:

Hillary stands up for taking money from lobbyists during a spirited exchange between herself, Edwards and Obama:

"That's Actually a Pretty Thoughtful Answer" moment:

Hillary was asked what she learned from the failed effort in 1993-94 to reform the health care system. I was expecting a sound-bite style answer, but instead she had a pretty thoughtful multi-point response.  I didn't agree with all her points, but it was clear that she has done a lot of thinking about what went wrong back then.

"Best Answer to a Stupid Question" moment:

One of the YearlyKos organizers put forward what may be the most Nerf-covered softball question ever: "If you are elected, will you hire an official White House blogger?" (In a room filled with 1,500 bloggers, you can imagine what the right answer was.)

Most of the candidates raised their hands. But Mike Gravel had the best take on it: if he was elected, he wouldn't hire a blogger, he'd do his own blogging. Which really makes sense, when you think about it: it's not like FDR hired Orson Welles or Jack Benny to do his Fireside Chats for him!

"What a Disappointment" moment:

There wasn't a single question about the widening economic inequality in this country, or about how it's getting harder and harder for working people to achieve the American Dream. That strikes me as a bigger issue than whether the candidates would hire a pet blogger or not.

Breakout Session with John Edwards

After the Forum was over, I went to the John Edwards breakout session.

The room was filled to capacity, and Edwards faced some tough questions, which surprised me -- I was expecting the smaller-scale format to breed more softballs than hardballs (it's hard to diss somebody when they're standing right in front of you). But the hardballs were there, which was good to see.

It was also good to hear Edwards speak about the increasingly bad situation facing working men and women in America. He's clearly passionate on this subject, and it shows. He also identified making it easier for working people to join together in unions as a key requirement for turning things around -- the only time I heard any candidate talk about the importance of empowering people to organize. (I'm told that Obama addressed some of these issues in his breakout session, but since I wasn't there I can't really say.)

Edwards has clearly been sharpening his message. It's become a call to arms for economic justice; on health care, for example, he rejects compromise with the insurance companies and Big Pharma, saying that "we have to take the power from them" before progressive goals can be realized. This is a different (and more starkly confrontational) approach than Clinton and Obama are suggesting.

Your Turn: What Did You Think?

Were you at YKos as well? Did you attend one of the other breakouts? The comment section is there for you to share your thoughts. So get to sharing! :-)

UPDATE (August 7, 2007): Thanks to the kind folks at TPM Veracifier, here's some video from the Hillary Clinton and John Edwards breakout sessions.

Hillary Clinton:

John Edwards:

UPDATE (August 9, 2007): Barack Obama: