For 2008 hopefuls, dress code is part of wooing

WASHINGTON - Where the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates chose to speak this past weekend offers a revealing look at whom the parties are wooing — and how very different these groups are.

The Democrats on Saturday were in Chicago at the YearlyKos convention, a gathering of about 1,500 loosely organized liberal bloggers. The convention’s name is derived from the most high-profile of these blogs, Daily Kos.

The Republicans, in contrast, were in the heartland on Sunday in Des Moines, Iowa. They were debating in front of about 700 mostly socially conservative, religious voters in a key early primary state just days before an Iowa straw poll.

The most obvious difference on these two days was one of style.

YearlyKos was funky, eclectic and laid-back with Mac-typing, jeans-wearing activists and bloggers sprawled out in the hallways, sitting on the floor and leaning up against walls. There were no tinfoil hats like last year thanks in part to an organizational memo gently prodding participants to be on their best behavior now that the mainstream media would be watching. Neckties were scarce, never mind suits. The presidential candidates during the forum lounged in leather chairs separated by sleek black end tables.

Meanwhile, the Republican debate at Drake University was buttoned-up and traditional with many more ties, suits and dresses, despite the torrential downpour and tornado watch. Everyone was in their Sunday best. Granted, it was Sunday and it is fair to assume many headed to church later that day. And Iowa is a place that still values Sunday. Almost every shop and eatery was closed. A man tidying up behind the counter of one deli said with a smile, “Sorry, we're closed. It's Sunday.” An organ and pipes loomed large above the spin room.

The left-leaning Kos crowd, viewed by many as the “left wing” of the Democratic Party, is an important bloc for Democrats. They are growing in influence due largely to the unpopularity of the Iraq war. They have lots of activists to offer, and money to raise.

Railing against the Bush administration
At YearlyKos, the candidates made blatant appeals hoping to cull support from the group. They fired away at President Bush and Vice President Cheney, advocated for universal health care, and demanded troops be pulled from Iraq.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, got a standing ovation for calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney, a popular notion with the audience littered with “Impeach Bush, Impeach Cheney” stickers and buttons. Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., repeated his call for the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. He also gave a mea culpa; Richardson originally said Byron “Whizzer” White, who dissented in Roe v. Wade, was the ideal U.S. Supreme Court justice. “I screwed up,” Richardson said.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., also railed against the Bush administration, as she did three days later at the AFL-CIO forum, and called for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to resign. She committed to getting the troops out of Iraq, and repeatedly invoked the “vast right-wing conspiracy” — something she generally refrains from saying on the campaign trail.

Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., again mentioned “wars we should not have authorized.”

Former Sen. John Edwards got a strong response calling for candidates not to take lobbyist money. He even polled the audience to see how many think lobbyists represent them.

The fact that all of the Democratic presidential candidates attended the YearlyKos convention is perhaps a sign of how far the political pendulum has swung. The Democrats chose not to address the centrist Democratic Leadership Council the weekend before.

But Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zuniga dismissed the notion that the presidential contenders were attending the event named after his blog — and not the DLC’s — because the political pendulum has moved.

“If the DLC had a list of 3 million people,” Moulitsas Zuniga said, “they would go to that. It's not that they're centrist.”

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