Howard Dean at Yearly Kos

Howard Dean speaks at Yearly Kos and asks the netroots to lobby to improve voting machines.

Dean: “This is not a one day or one election struggle. This is something we have to do every single day for the rest of our lives… And when we get knocked down, we’re going to stand up again for the core principles of America, because America was knocked down by the far-right wing of the Republican Party in the last eight years. And by God, we’re going to get up and recover and stand up for what we used to stand up for. We are going to regain the moral leadership that made America a great country. And we are going to live again in America and stand up and lead the world to the promised land.”

Dean gets the crowd going talking about forcing Republicans to vote on Iraq.

Update: Jill Filipovic is liveblogging a Q and A session with Democratic presidential candidates at YK.

Update: Jill reports that Mike Gravel's tax plan bombed with the crowd.

Sen. Gravel was just asked about his tax structure, which would eliminate the IRS and institute a 23 percent sales and service tax. Joan asks him how low-income people are going to survive waiting for their rebate check every month.

Gravel responds that “you need to know how politics works.” Everyone hisses. He says not to worry about the Fair Tax, because it will never pass Congress. He discusses the corruption and the structural flaws in Congress. “The answer is with you, the American people, to acquire law-making power. That is where the power lies.”

Gravel's national sales tax program is horrible.

Update: Amanda Marcotte reports that Hillary Clinton got slammed by Edwards and Obama.

Jill and I were sitting together at the Presidential forum, and she liveblogged the whole thing. Check it out. Hillary Clinton got the worst of it, I think, because Edwards and Obama tagged her for taking money from Washington lobbyists and she couldn’t squirm out of it. That said, I felt that her first attempt to answer accusations about taking lobbyist money was honest and reasonable—she feels the system puts you in this situation and that it’s hardly a singular, personal failing. Fair enough, but in the end, she had a hard time convincing the admittedly tough crowd at Yearly Kos that she was sincere in wishing that it could be different. Then she blew it completely by denying that the money lobbyists spend has the amount of influence that it does, giving Edwards and Obama a chance to pounce and point out what’s obvious—lobbyists would not spend billions of dollars if they weren’t buying influence.

It's amazing how Hillary always tries to say something to please everyone and ends up alienating all.

Update: It gets better. Ezra Klein has a great take on the crowd's reaction to Hillary's lobbying money defense. This is comical.

Hillary Clinton on Edwards' challenge to stop taking lobbyist money: "I certainly think thats a position Sen, Edwards has taken." Yes, indeed it is. She then says that "I've been in politics for 35-years, and I think it's silly for anyone to think that money impacts my positions." The crowd laughs at her then boos.

Hillary's a horrible candidate. Having a great campaign staff and famous last name doesn't hide it. There are so many women in the Democratic Party more worthy of the attention Hillary is receiving.