Hillaryish: The Sort of Live Blog of HRC Breakout at Yearly Kos

12:11 PM They've been checking the mics for thirty minutes. Totally packed room and am personally in desperate need of Diet Coke. If you are here, and have Diet Coke, please find me.

12:12 PM Blog "grand poobah" Peter Daou announces that when HRC "found out about the mix-up" she "immediately told her staff: Rearrange my schedule, because anyone who signed up to see me, should see me." "Mix up" is new to me, but I assume related to the booing fiasco yesterday when they said she wouldn't be having one of these things.

12:13 PM First laugh: mic goes dead, H calls it a "vast right-wing conspiracy." Also deadpans that "not everyone says nice things about me."

12:15 PM Wishes we had the blogosphere "15 years ago," presumably to drown out Drudge. Blogosphere is now "righting...lefting that balance." Also, "When I said that thing about the 'vast right-wing conspiracy,' I wasn't kidding." Oh.

12:17 PM "Don't tell anybody, but I actually read blogs." Aw. For a crowd that booed her 24 hours ago, there's a lot love in this room.

12:17 PM Fashion police patrol. BRILLIANT turquoise blazer. If the power goes out, we can read by it.

12:18 PM "What if we'd had the blogosphere... back when I was working on heath care?" That is a truly fascinating question. I imagine a lot of the people in this room would say that she didn't go far enough.

12:19 PM Bill O'Reilly ref garners hisses. Drags out Chicago roots: "Cubs, not Sox." Uhm, yeah... Yankees-hat-wearing traitor.

12:21 PM NCLB q. Apparently, "education is an important issue." And not discussed enough! Not entirely kidding that I suspect a plant. Calls admin "incompetent." Amazing that we have reached a stage in nat'l dialog where that kind of statement doesn't even muster a raised eyebrow.

12:23 PM Accountability, track progress, "how well is Mary or Johnny doing" not "the system... I want to track how each individual child is doing... which is like what I'm doing for health care... wants a 'lifetime education record.'" This honestly sort of frightens me. Talk about your "permanent record."

12:25 PM Am totally not kidding about that Diet Coke.

12:26 PM Gets applause for noting that, in addition to reading and writing, history and science are important. And art! And wind sprints! "Sometimes the discipline of a physical education class can turn a child around." This is not plainly not true of a lot of people in this room.

12:28 PM Yes we are still on first question.

12:28 PM Failure starts in kindergarten! Or, you know, in your second administration.

12:29 PM Med school professor from Northwestern. "A regular blog reader." She asks about the military commissions act and Gitmo. Sort of a softball.

12:30 PM There is a man who looks exactly like Dick Cheney standing near the podium, but he does not appear armed.

12:31 PM Close gitmo, reinstate haebus corpus, applause, yay, etc. (Not that I disagree, just, you know, not exactly a real grilling.)

12:32 PM Hi Jerlyn! (From TalkLeft) Hisses for mention of FISA bill. "I know you voted against it" (applause) "What kind of warrantless eavesdropping will you allow" and "how will your attorney general be different from Alberto Gonzales"?

12:33 PM "It would be a breath of fresh air to have an Attorney General who actually believed in the rule of law." Nice.

12:34 PM Bush has "conducted an experiment in extremism." I predict this phrase starts to make some very regular appearances. Gonzales "should be removed or resign." Would be nice to follow-up to see if that means she'd support impeachment proceedings.

12:36 PM Sort of zoned out for a bit, sorry. HRC is for both protecting our country and our civil liberties!

12:37 PM Poobah Peter announced only one more question, slight dismay. May have hallucinated a mention of "Hillary Hub."

12:38 PM Oooooh: Someone compliments her coming out against Don't Ask, Don't Tell then zings her: Would she also come out against DOMA, Welfare reform, telecommunications act and NAFTA?

12:39 PM She pretends that her mic has gone dead, checks watch. Would be funnier if she went on to answer the question. Spends awhile on DADT.

12:39 PM Okay, here she goes... "DOMA performed a very important purpose... drew a 'bright line' to hold back votes... to amend the constitution to enshrine discrimination... DOMA puts the responsibility back in the states back where it belongs." Hmm.

12:41 PM "Telecommunications Act? I dunno, you'll have to ask Al Gore." Also, math is hard! Funny because it's true!

12:42 PM NAFTA. Stimulate job creation... neighbors in the hemisphere... something I'm not really following. Sorry.

12:43 PM Welfare reform benefits have outweighed its costs. Hey, remember when everyone said she was "far left"? Good times.

12:44 PM They have decided to take TWO questions, btw. The second one appears to be about mass transit! HRC notes this is a "timely question." She is totally pro-bridge.

12:46 PM She mentions something about doing something about our both buses "virtual infrastructure." Cyber buses? eTrucks? BUT IT'S NOT A TRUCK, IT'S A SERIES OF TUBES!

12:47 PM Broadband is a national security issue, "we're losing money and time" because of our "traffic issues." Is she talking about the tubes again? Amtrak? Very confused. Need Diet Coke.

12:50 PM She's wrapping up because "they say I have to go to a green room and get ready with the other candidates... I don't know what that's about." This gets a laugh for some reason.

12:50 PM "Every election is about the future." What about the children, war bad, optimistic but realistic about problems, global warming, jobs, cronyism bad, "the old fashioned idea of appointing people who are actually qualified," she loves vigorous debate! I ask a campaign person if she's going to a press avail then. Am answered with laughter.

12:53 PM "I appreciate some of what you're doing... not everything you're doing... I invite you to be partners in our campaign" [HILLARY HUB!] Zoning out...

12:54 PM Applause.

12:55 PM Diet Coke hunt. Will be back for presidential forum.