David Brooks writes that the Democratic left is losing its war for control of the party:
The fact is, many Democratic politicians privately detest the netroots' self-righteousness and bullying. They also know their party has a historic opportunity to pick up disaffected Republicans and moderates, so long as they don't blow it by drifting into cuckoo land. They also know that a Democratic president is going to face challenges from Iran and elsewhere that are going to require hard-line, hawkish responses.
If that's the case, then why do the Netroots garner so much attention? It must have something to do with the Netroots's ability to influence the media. Journalists, like bloggers, spend a lot of time in front of a computer, and political journalists spend a lot of time in front of a computer . . . reading about politics. They read about politics on political blogs like Daily Kos or wherever. They write about what they read on these blogs. And thus the importance of what these blogs say is magnified. Thanks to the political media, the Netroots's megaphone is significantly larger than that possessed by the high-school-educated women who, as Brooks suggests, are most likely to determine the winner of the 2008 Democratic primary.