One thing that immediately becomes apparent when reading the posts today is that some of the articles were spot on, and some less than prophetic. That's part of my interest in reading them: to see what was being said and thought in 2002. I also found that many of the links are now broken, which is unsurprising given that 68 months have passed.
I was fascinated by the people who show up in these posts. Bush, sure, but I wasn't expecting John Edwards, Mitt Romney, and others who are still in the news, still running for political office, and still pretty much the same then as they are now...only better or worse, depending. A lot can happen in 68 months.
Week One
The first day of posting continued with a rush...and a Russian:
Embarrassing tells of the nickname given to Vladimir Putin by President Bush. Markos is doubtless still dreaming "of once again having a grownup running the country."
Anti-Castro sentiments making mess of US Latin American policy is an analysis of the great contradictions in Cuba and Latin American policy, and the politics that cause them.
Iraq invasion loosing steam was penned at a point when it looked like the Bush administration might actually be backing away from their crazy idea of going after Iraq. Would that it had proven true.
Running scared on Bush's eight-month-belated confession that his 9/11 air trip to Nebraska was to "get out of harm's way."
After five posts on that first Sunday, things slowed down on Monday (one post) and Tuesday (two):
'Security' at airports means empty guns relates how National Guard troops standing duty at airports post-9/11 were carrying unloaded weapons.
Are there any blacks in D.C.? discusses the lack of general knowledge and understanding behind Bush's blunder when he asked president Cardoso of Brazil, "Do you have blacks, too?"
Didn't get his nappy time? hits Bush for being tired and cranky...and demonstrating same to the world press.
Wednesday, May 29, was another big-posting day:
Investigations galore talks about the many investigations on Bush administration goings-on gearing up in the nation's capital.
Iraq war losing momentum is more on that optimistic time in late May of 2002, when the National Review Online seemed to be fighting a rearguard action to keep the proposed war alive.
When is Cuba not like China? quotes the Guardian newspaper on Bush's Cuba policy, especially as compared to Bush's China policy.
Edwards playing for real talks about John Edwards and his run for the Presidency. Among other things, Markos says, "I am highly impressed with Edwards as the potential democratic nominee." He also calls for a woman VP candidate, though I imagine he now feels quite differently about the two women he mentioned in that regard, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Dianne Feinstein.
Markos then made one post on Thursday, and then nothing more until Sunday, June 2, the one-week anniversary:
Saving the Everglades, saving brother Gov. points out that while the federal government is buying back drilling rights for offshore and Everglades oil and gas in Florida, where Jeb Bush is governor and up for re-election in the fall, they're not doing squat for California, a Democratic stronghold.
Week Two (Starting June 2)
Pandering to big steel could be costly cites the Wall Street Journal in explaining why Bush's protectionist steel tarriffs are going to hurt the country far more than it helps the steel industry.
Dems chances in Nov. better than pundits admit is an extensive takedown of the SF Chronicle on their assumption of easy Republican election victories in 2002 and 2004.
Halliburton could land Cheney in court notes that the veep might have to testify if a shareholder lawsuit ever makes it before a judge.
Posting was slower for the rest of the second week than it had been the first; I'll note the dates of each post:
Bush's history speech says Bush "is an international joke." June 3.
Cheney's mismanagement of Halliburton being exposed hits the veep again as misreported Halliburton revenue exceeds $100 million. June 3
Historic Latino-Latino NM guv campaign on tap? notes that with Bill Richardson already running, and a likely winner regardless, he could still face a Latino Republican challenger in State Rep. John Sanchez. June 4.
Romney's legitimacy in MA guv campaign questioned relates how it first came out that the Mittster might not have been a seven-year resident of Massachusetts, as required of all gubernatorial candidates. Oopsie. June 5.
Upgrading site informs us that Markos spent the day upgrading the site, and it now looks pretty in addition to being informative. June 6. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a snapshot of the site on the day, but here's one from early August 2. I suspect a number of additional changes were made in the intervening eight weeks...
With the site upgraded, kos got back to the business of posting, with six new ones over the next two days:
Romney admits he lied about MA residency continues the tale of Mitt Romney, Republican gubernatorial candidate in Massachusetts. June 7.
A look at vulnerable Dem Senate seats reviews the state of the race five months out. June 7.
MA Democrats sic lawyers on Romney hits the Massachusetts Democratic Party for making, predicting blowback on the just-filed suit to throw Romney off the Massachusetts ballot for governor, especially since it's far from a sure thing. As it turned out, the suit didn't prosper, and Romney won: in short, everyone suffered. And tonight, he's hoping to win Florida. June 8.
WOT is a quagmire is a meaty post about exactly that. June 8.
The next post is an untitled picture that has long since vanished, but the blurb underneath notes Bush's seven-points-in-a-week drop in the Gallup poll. Still quite high, but below Clinton the day after he was impeached. This is followed up on half an hour later in Bush's downward spiral, which discusses the Bush drop to the 70% level in detail. He did keep falling in popularity, didn't he? June 8.
Then there's one Sunday, June 9th post, finishing the first two weeks of Daily Kos blogging:
White House's view of 2002 Senate races gives Markos's view of the White House senate predictions.
I'd normally close there, but the first post the next day is a follow-up to the May 30 post on Florida vs. California oil/gas leases, Saving brother Jeb, the heck with CA. Interior Secretary Gale Norton screws over California, lying all the way, and kos enumerates the ways. She was later to resign under a cloud—too bad it took another three years and nine months for it to happen.
Comments made to the blog in this period do not seem to have survived. The second post, about Bush and Putin, lists two comments, but none are successfully displayed. The only comments that show up in these posts from late May or early June are from months later or even the year following—one example is the snarky comment in February 2003 on the nine-month-old "losing steam" prediction regarding the Iraq war.
For an early, high-level history of the site from Markos's pen, read A brief history, written August 5, 2004. This and other posts and articles are referenced on the dKosopedia's Daily Kos History page.
~~~~~
As the comments from back then haven't survived, I wouldn't expect to see any mentioned here tonight. Comments from the past 24 hours have survived, all 36,123 of them, and some of the best of them have been emailed to the TopComments mailbox. If you saw any great comments that are not mentioned here, please do link to them in your own comments below. The address of that mailbox:
TopComments AT gmail DOT com
(change " AT " to "@" and " DOT " to ".")
Anyone can submit deserving comments to our address—the direct link to a comment is available from that comment's date/time—as long as they arrive by 9:30pm Eastern Time. Please always include your Daily Kos user name in the body of your message, so we can credit you properly.
From carolita:
SecondComing made me laugh out loud by describing shrub's karma in Meteor Blades's Hallellujah!
earicicle submitted the following:
I nearly spit up (in a good way!) reading what Snud wrote in Dood Abides's excellent diary on drinking games deaths associated with last night's SOTU.
sarahanity sent in this comment link (and sardonyx added a bit of text):
Upon reading the NY NOW letter contained in SusanG's front-page post Ultimate Betrayal Felt by Feminists Everywhere], prodigal gave the perfect [concise summation.
From N in Seattle:
There are quite a few witty and/or snarky comments in Tuesday's brilliant diary by edscan. My nominee for Top Comments was made by citizenx, who perfectly captures the hidden pleasure that is edscan.
CTLiberal sent the following:
This comment by metallel in the first Florida Results Thread made me laugh...
From kath25:
droogie6655321 offers an amusing and spot-on metaphor regarding the "tax rebate" economic stimulus plan. From clammyc's diary Tax rebates are a goddamn farce.
A nomination from emeraldmaiden:
Rich in PA snarkily asks who can we trust? in Maaarrrk's minimal diary, Expose of Kenneth Copeland Ministries On TV Tonight.
A few from sardonyx, your diarist du jour:
Turkana throws a well-deserved elbow into the ribs of the media and their manufactured snubathon.
In SmileySam's diary AG Mukasey Blocking Gonzales Investigation According to LATimes, lightfoot quotes from a Mukasey speech on the Constitution vs. the Bill of Rights.
Meteor Blades reminds us of the celebrations on the day Nixon resigned.
Quite a bit of fun in one of today's snark diaries, pmcmscot's That's it! I'm going with the PB&J, but I wasn't expecting PBJ Diddy to stop by to accept the accolades of the crowd and give a...victory speech?
Dump Terry McAuliffe comes up with an ideal karmic result for Rudy in today's Florida primary. (Unfortunately, it looks like Rudy got a few too many votes for idealism.)
Christin theorizes about what Nancy Pelosi was reading during the SOTU. Funny; I'm surprised she could get the copy away from Harry Reid.
Dallasdoc points out the big problem Republicans would have running against Obama in Lefty Coaster's diary, "He would be much more difficult for Republicans to handle."
No Top Comments diary would be complete without that day's top comments by number, aka top mojo—those comments which have received the highest number of recommendations from Daily Kos users like you. Today's is supplied by sardonyx, using his revision of cskendrick's mojo-to-Excel magic.
First, Top Mojo excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first diary comments, and Cheers and Jeers comments:
1) Sen. Durbin by GOTV — 169
2) Let me be one of the first to congratulate you. by kidneystones — 120
3) There is plenty of Labeling that needs to stop by America08 — 109
4) My response: by Dallasdoc — 107
5) Virginia. by Granny Doc — 93
6) I am trying to give it to you straight by kid oakland — 91
7) As an Obama supporter by existenz — 83
8) 3 by jetskreemr — 79
9) Gonna be hard to beat the day Nixon... by Meteor Blades — 79
10) I realized something about Bush. by DawnG — 77
11) Welcome aboard. by Adam B — 73
12) Go, Granny!!! Go!!! Go!!! by serrano — 72
13) Unfortunately, stopping him... by Timroff — 70
14) My number one pet peeve by Boston Boomer — 69
15) I was curious too. by LithiumCola — 68
16) Excellent diary, Sarah. by TomP — 68
17) Bummer. by prodigal — 67
18) I hope this election does by cato — 67
19) I'm sticking around with Edwards... by nowheredesign — 66
20) Agreed completely, Tom. by DC Pol Sci — 65
21) Completely agreed. by bawbie — 64
22) Great Diary, Tom by serrano — 64
23) Just got back from a NJ straw poll by Roger Fox — 62
24) Exactly! by jalapeno — 61
25) How could anyone flame this? by ggottlie — 61
26) And great move by Edwards by AJ WI — 61
27) Impeachment hearings by Sagebrush Bob — 58
28) Top 10 Reasons HRC cancelled... by Sharon Jumper — 57
29) Go Monteil! by x — 55
30) Droogie, I'm with you. by DC Pol Sci — 54
Top Mojo with No Exclusions:
1) Damned! I did it. by Granny Doc — 626
2) Tips for ardent supporters all around! by nannyboz — 496
3) okay, accuse me of polluting the site by teacherken — 407
4) Tips/flames by Drewid — 380
5) Tips / Recs? by Cleveland Dem — 348
6) Tip Jar by JohnKWilson — 248
7) Tips for non candidate diary by SmileySam — 242
8) Tips for a New Deal in the 21st Century! by sarahlane — 226
9) Tips/Flames? by Dood Abides — 223
10) Tip Jar by lenzkrafterz — 221
11) Sen. Durbin by GOTV — 169
12) Tips for by TomP — 168
13) He will keep doing this... by RichM — 149
14) tips by LizzyPop — 148
15) For the Fight for the Feb 5th States... by icebergslim — 144
16) Tips??? by aimeeinkc — 136
17) Excellent response by AggieDemocrat — 122
18) tips by jsamuel — 122
19) Tips/Recs for Senator Ted Kennedy.. by icebergslim — 121
20) Let me be one of the first to congratulate you. by kidneystones — 120
21) Thank god for small favors. by Bob Johnson — 113
22) Hey, I'm still a cynic by DH from MD — 110
23) Good for Montel. by Owllwoman — 109
24) There is plenty of Labeling that needs to stop by America08 — 109
25) My response: by Dallasdoc — 107
26) I mean, Paul Berman and Alan Dershowitz can't by Geekesque — 97
27) Embarrassing by Nathaniel Ament Stone — 93
28) Virginia. by Granny Doc — 93
29) I am trying to give it to you straight by kid oakland — 91
30) A moment of silence by twilight falling — 88
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All quotes are the property of the original authors or the websites that held them
