Brandon Friedman of VoteVets introduced Wes Clark. You could tell he was very moved by the experience and needless to say when Wes Clark came on stage he got a standing ovation. He thanked us for standing up for him over the John McCain flap, which struck me as funny. I thought he was the one to be thanked. He said:

You'll never get the country to believe Democrats can defend our country until Democrats start standing up to defend other Democrats.

The place went nuts. Jonathan and I bonded over having voted for Clark in 04.

Clark is really about giving praise tonight. He had public servants in the room, from candidates to teachers to health care workers to veterans, stand up and get applause. His reasoning: what it means to be a Democrat:

We're people who believe in public service in general.

He ended by talking about how important bloggers are and thanking us for our passion and our fearlessness in spreading much needed information and ideas.

Update [2008-7-17 21:42:19 by Todd Beeton]:Gina Cooper, Netroots Nation organizer extraordinaire, just spoke about how much progress we have made since 2004.

The event is streaming live on UStream below.

Update [2008-7-17 22:22:45 by Todd Beeton]:Howard Dean just took the stage. "I went to Crawford, Texas today and you know what they want change too...Crawford, Texas is going to become a retirement community." People in the crowd shouted "build a prison."

"American small towns are under siege by Republican economic policies. We can do better and we will do better when Barack Obama is president."

"If it wasn't for the netroots nation, we would not have a Democratic majority in the House, you picked those folks and I thank you for that."

"When Barack Obama is president of the United States, he will be president of all 50 states, not just those that voted for him, he will be president of all Americans, not just those that agree with them." Dean launched his national 50 state registration tour today, first in Crawford and now in Austin. Next he's heading to Louisiana and Mississippi. "We can win everywhere and that's why we're doing this."

"I want to thank Barack Obama. He has embraced the 50 state strategy...Barack Obama has done everything that we pioneered and multiplied it by 10...I want to thank both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for an extraordinary primary campaign. More people voted for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in this year's primary than voted for all the Democratic candidates in 2000 and 2004..Texas is back...Texas is turning blue."

"We are not a group of individuals who hoard voter lists and use them for ourselves, but we are a united team working together to win for all Democrats."

"We're going to change this country by giving everybody a chance to say what's on their mind because we know the corporate media isn't going to say what needs to be said."

"The real change we're going to see is the healing of America and the regaining the moral authority we had since WWI...You can't have moral authority if you stoop to the level of those that attacked us. You can not have torture and you can not have Guantanamo Bay."

"We reach out to evangelical Christians because their top 3 issues are poverty, global warming and Darfur. That sounds like the Democratic Party platform. There is common ground."

"In 2004, our campaign didn't get as far as it did because of the war in Iraq, but because of our message of empowerment...The reason our campaign got as far as it did was because of you...The netroots generation simply goes online to find an affinity group and if there isn't one, you create it...This is up to you. We are passing the torch...This is about passing the torch to a new generation...that's the netroots generation...I thank you for what you have done and I thank you for what you are about to do. It's an extraordinary responsibility but I know you're up for it."

He is the man.