I'm not usually given to expressions of my personal feelings around here, so I hope you'll indulge me.
I have always thought that the people who accuse Kos of "bias" were dead wrong. Bias implies some kind of hidden agenda. The right word is "preference", and Kos never made his preference hidden. In fact, he was quite up-front about it. I think this is something we value - it's why many of us now prefer to get our news from blogs, where we know the authors' preferences, rather than from newspapers, which try to hide theirs behind some phony veneer of "neutrality."
Yet despite his obvious preferences, I think Kos has always been scrupulously fair. Those of you who followed the cattle calls from their earliest days know that Kos never ranked Dean high until July, for instance.
But in spite of all this, I now understand where those people who complained about this site were coming from, even if their critiques were misguided. I've been part of the Dean crowd since last January, and this site felt like a natural home. The "clubby" atmosphere which some decry was actually a welcoming refuge in the early months of the Dean campaign, when no one had heard of him and people thought you were crazy to support him. (One woman I handed flyers to in February of last year sneered at me, "Running for president of what?") And when Dean finally hit the big-time during the summer, DKos was a place we could express our feelings of vindication. (Even if some of us did go overboard at times.)
But now with Kos (and Tom) declaring Dean to be badly on the ropes, I feel the way a lot of those Edwards and Gephardt and Kucinich supporters must have felt all along: On the outs. And I feel this rather more acutely, because DKos really was the political home for Deaniacs for the past year. It was here before BFA was even a twinkle in Trippi's eye, and it'll be here long after BFA is gone.
I still support Dean, and I think he still has a shot, albeit a long one. Dean has always been a long-shot, to say the least, so this is something I can accomodate myself to. But I don't understand why Kos has so confidently pronounced Dean to be so far gone. (I think Kos saying that Dean is "in need of a miracle" makes this a fair description.) I surely wish he hadn't, especially since his pronouncements will be read by 80,000 people.
As I walked home from watching the results, I was disappointed, but I felt some hope. When I logged on to Kos and saw that he was all but writing off Dean's chances, I admit I felt crushed. And even though this site hasn't "picked" another guy, again I say, I feel on the outside.
It's a weird feeling that's hard to describe - it's like you've walked into your favorite bar, but everything about it looks different, even though it's the same guy behind the counter and the same folks hanging out. Maybe the main difference is that the Edwards folks (there are no Kerry folks, it seems) are crowded around the bar, at the center of attention, while the Deaniacs are now scattered desultorily at the booths. For a long time, of course, it was the other way around.
I'm sure I'll get over this feeling, and if the nominee is not Dean, you can be sure I will "fall in line" (after having "fallen in love"). But this is an odd - and unexpected - experience, to say the least.