YearlyKos just wrapped up last night, and what a whirlwind it was. If you didn't see the news over the weekend, the convention of Progressive bloggers was all over the place. In particular, unless you were sleeping under a rock, you likely heard of how Sen. Hillary Clinton heard boos and hisses after refusing to disavow taking money from lobbyists. Sen. Barack Obama and John Edwards, sitting on either side of Sen. Clinton, immediately went on the attack, repeating their claims of having not taken special interest money. The L.A. Times' Andrew Malcolm reviewed the debate here.

To me, the debate isn't the core of the real story at YearlyKos, though. The real story was the incredible amount of data that emanated from McCormick Place from the on-site sessions, and the ongoing blurring of the line between "grassroots" and the "netroots" communities.

This is old news for a lot of people, but it was the first time that I really witnessed the crossover firsthand with my own eyes. This was most evident, though, when taking a good look at the McCormick Place Hyatt's hotel bar (newly remodeled and tres chic) at the end of each day. During the day you saw everyone blogging their butts off during and after each session. "Anyone have a laptop?" one friend joked as we walked through the South Building lobby.

After hours, though, you saw the melting pot that is now the Democratic Party. It continuously killed me how often I saw old-line party operatives and activists swapping campaign war stories with the bloggerati at the bar. It started at the People for the American Way's welcome party at The Funky Buddha Lounge downtown on Wednesday night. From minute one you saw a who's who of Chicago activism and politics slapping the backs of people like DailyKOS founder Markos Moulitsas.

I even had a reunion at YearlyKos myself. My longtime friend Jeanni Murray, now with the ACLU, bought me a couple rounds after we did the stereotypical reunion thing on Thursday. Jeanni told me there were a ton of her other former comrades-in-politics from the Dean and Boswell days around as well. From what I saw, after each day's festivities, ours was not a unique experience.

Tons of new connections were forged as well, and that seems to be the best effect of YearlyKos. The power of these connections is building, and has been given partial credit for the Democratic Party's current majority in Congress. As the political alliances on the political left continue to multiply and deepen, without a real equal on the right, the conventional wisdom is that Democrats and Independents will continue to steal real political power away from the Republicans.

We shall see exactly how Progressive bloggers will spin the entire YearlyKos experience. After all, the people who read blogs are mostly activists and other bloggers. Many of the people that would benefit from reading a well-crafted blog are just too darned busy running their lives to pay attention to the detailed nuances of political argument that bloggers reveal with this powerful medium. What is guaranteed, though, is that bloggers and blogging in all its forms, have arrived; and the candidates know that they hold at least part of the key to a victory in the next U.S. presidential election.