[Just after his keynote speech to the YearlyKos Convention.]

[joined in progress]

Dean: ...certainly isn't the culmination, this is just the beginning. The corporate media world has failed us in many ways. They've become monolithic; profits matter more than product does. So I think the blogs have *enormous* potential to expand their reach. So I would say, this is certainly not the top of the blogosphere, this is just the beginning, and you're gonna see more and more people rely on blogs, not just for some news, but also for participation and discussion about the major issues that are going on in Washington and elsewhere.

...

This is a reform movement. What the blogs are about is the reaction to the corporatization of American values and to the absence of American values in the Bush Administration. People want their country back. They want real values again. They want the kind of moral values that we were raised on-- participation, honesty, respect for each other. That's disappeared under the Bush Administration, and I think what the blogosphere is a reaction to, [and] is an attempt to restore America to its greatness.

...

I think the blogosphere is helpful to reform the party. I'm not sure it's uniting the party, and I'm not sure that's the first thing we want. We want reform, and I think, interestingly, most of the people who run blogs, and who participate in blogs, understand that their job is to push reform as hard as possible, but then to make the right choice at the end. That is, sometimes you don't get the reform candidate that you wanted, but sometimes the non-reform candidate is better than what the Republicans are offering. In fact, I would say that's true about 98% of the time.

So I think the blogosphere is surprisingly and wonderfully mature for an early reform movement. That is, they get that sometimes you can't get everything you want, but they keep pushing for everything you want, and that's a wonderful, wonderful group of folks to have.

So they push the envelope on the party. And that's a very good thing.

Transcribed from the video on YouTube provided by PoliticsTV.