I may not have made it to Chicago this year, but I’ve learned a few things from the tubes about what the Democratic presidential candidates were up to at YearlyKos:
* Hillary Clinton’s defense of accepting contributions from lobbyists was probably the day’s most controversial comment. She seemed to get to the right answer, but it took a couple of tries.
* John Edwards was in his element today.
* Barack Obama was excellent in his private off-the-record session — so much so that he probably shouldn’t have been speaking off-the-record.
* When Bill Richardson touted his position on the Balanced Budget Amendment and the line-item veto, it may have been “the first fiscal policy booing on record.” (YearlyKos attracts a smart crowd.)
* Clinton learned valuable lessons about healthcare in the early ’90s, and the issue will be her highest domestic policy priority if elected.
* Chris Dodd was clever enough to hit Rupert Murdoch and Bill O’Reilly in a single answer.
* Dave Johnson types quickly enough to live blog a presidential forum really well.
* Mike Gravel seems to realize that this wasn’t the right crowd to pitch a regressive consumption tax.
