I just returned from Netroots Nation down in Austin.  Had a great time and met a ton of interesting people.  I definitely plan to make it a regular event.  A few observations:

1.  Despite the poor reputation of the blogger community for balance and thoughtfulness, the ratio of serious, informed, and committed activists to crackpots was extremely high.  Surprisingly so.  As a blogger, I am often dismayed by the comments on my posts — not at bernardfinel.com which is lightly read, but when I post at places like Huffpo and DailyKos or Washington Post, etc.  But I am now more confident that the people who post hateful, uninformed comments are not representative of the broader movement.  And that is a good thing.
2. The Obama campaign was  largely AWOL at Netroots.  Good participation by the DNC, but few Obama surrogates where there and even fewer apparently openly in the surrogate role.  I am not sure what the calculus was there, but I am not sure it was a good idea.
3. The highpoint of the conference — well one of the highpoints — was a surprise appearance by Al Gore.  The place went nuts for him.  Very warm reception.  And yet, it left me with a bittersweet feeling.  See, I could not help but think that a lot of the people in that room were lukewarm on him in 2000 and many I suspect voted for George Bush Ralph Nader.  I have the same worries about 2008.  I am sure Obama will get a great reception at Netroots 2016 after 8 years of a McCain administration caused in part because the Netroots types were too busy bitching about FISA and campaign finance reform to mobilize support for a Democratic candidate.

In any case, it was a fun event — exhausting, but fun.