That is, among those attending the YearlyKos conference anyway.

Last month, a straw poll was also conducted on DailyKos that shows John Edwards rising to the top of the heap, with a clear lead over Barack Obama.

Hillary Clinton lags way behind in all the Kos polls, in part due to her unclear and overly nuanced approach to ending the occupation of Iraq.

Many bloggers are still dissatisfied with her lack of apology for voting to give Bush permission to invade Iraq in the first place.

I still remember how she was booed at the Washington conference of Campaign for America's Future in 2006. It wasn't what she said that bothered me (about her unwillingness to set a "date certain" for leaving Iraq) is was more how she said it. To some, HIllary sounded (and may still sound) condescending, parental, and uncompromising at times. And, this may be Hillary's bigger problem, bigger than her stance on Iraq. Some folks may not like her attitude or her delivery, even if they view her as experienced and capable.

In truth, though, in the Dem debates and polls, she's running pretty neck-in-neck with Barack Obama. USA Election Polls shows that while in January her ABC News poll figures were at 41%, in July they had slid to only 39%. Perhaps the greatest drop is seen in the Cook Political Report poll which shifted from 47% in February to only 32.3% in June. Time Magazine sees a similar drop from 47.5% in January to only 33% in April. While some polls show increases in her popularity, such as the CNN poll that reports a span from 36.9% in January to 39% in June, the question that remains is whether these number are sufficient to beat back the competition.

Who has been attending YearlyKos in Chicago? The majority of attendees (about 1,500) are bloggers and the rest (about 250) are from mainstream media. Candidates and their campaign teams are there is droves, including congressional, senatorial and presidential candidates.

Since Chicago is Obama's home base, he's capitalizing on the opportunity by hosting two events, a Volunteer Headquarters Open House and a Campaign Headquarters Tour on Monday. Republicans (as if they really even "get" Democrats) have said the candidates' decision to attend the blogging convention rather than the more centrist Democratic Leadership Council, held earlier this week, shows a "swing to the left."

That's not what it shows, despite the raucous accusations of Bill O'Reilly, who has been crusading against DailyKos, which he calls a "hate site," on his FoxNews show. (For a great and entertaining video compilation of the Fox attacks, see this previous post on EverydayCitizen.com). E.J. Dionne, in his blog, says that O'Reilly's criticism of bloggers is elevating blogger appeal.

This past Thursday, presidential hopeful Chris Dodd appeared on O'Reilly's show and mounted a vigorous defense not only of bloggers, the blogosphere, and DailyKos, but also defended the candidates' decisions to attend the blogging conference rather than make appearances at at the Democratic Leadership Council.

The bloggers are the new grassroots. Some call us netroots but I prefer to be just called a blogging citizen. Blogging citizens have proven that we have a great ability to raise funds, raise issues, swing votes and resurrect troubled campaigns.

In short, the bloggers are true political and organizing force - and the candidates know it.

That's the real reason that the candidates are at YearlyKos rather than at the Democratic Leadership Council. While they may not represent or be representative of the American electorate, they have the tools to mobilize the grassroots.

There may only be 1,500 bloggers attending the conference this weekend, but, DailyKos, the parent site of YearlyKos, attracts as many as 500,000 hits a day (according to Dodd). It's just and understandable simple math. Bloggers have the "troops on the ground" and access to the best read campaign media - bytes on the Internet.

And DailyKos is not the only blogsite represented by activist bloggers. Thousands of sites, like EverydayCitizen, will continue to have a broader impact on each of the forthcoming elections.

Evidently, the presidential candidates are also trying to incorporate blogging into their campaigns with some limited success. A story in the Politico offers this rundown, although I don't necessarily agree with the slant:

Edwards has been particularly attentive, taking his cues from the blogs on issues ranging from Internet regulation to troop withdrawal from Iraq -- and drawing fire from the right for putting on payroll two feminist bloggers who had made controversial statements. He has also focused on a key issue of the online left: criticism of the mainstream media.

His wife, Elizabeth Edwards, is also the rare public figure with an organic relationship with liberal blogs, on which she has been reading and writing for years.

Dodd, meanwhile, has hired well-regarded liberal bloggers, including Tim Tagaris, who had been a blogger for Connecticut insurgent candidate Ned Lamont.

Clinton, meanwhile, hired one of the senior statesmen of the blogosphere, Peter Daou, to head her Internet campaign, and brought on board as her research director the author of the Center for American Progress's Progress Report blog, Judd Legum.

Obama, alone among the Democratic candidates, hasn't hired high-profile bloggers or engaged his campaign in their fights -- a move consistent with his strategy of avoiding traditional Democratic constituency politics, and of delivering a similar, universal message to a variety of constituencies.

Instead, Obama has channeled the energy around his campaign to creating an alternative online base of support on BarackObama.com. Obama still remains popular among the site's rank and file, who are in other ways typical Obama voters -- younger and more educated than your average Democrat. But his persistence in casting himself as a bipartisan figure, and of reaching out to Republicans, has limited his appeal to the leaders of the liberal blogosphere.

Seven of the candidates went to the YearlyKos this weekend, while only one actually went to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council's annual "conversation," a formerly high-profile Democratic campaign stop, in Nashville this past weekend. Here's how the two events compare:

Maybe next time I'll offer a blog on the Republican candidates and their horse race, but, I must say the Democratic candidates are offering the excitement, the new ideas and the hope. For info about Crashing the Gate, a book by Daily Kos founder Moulitsas, click here.