"I want you all to know that I’m reading your many comments. My wife Teresa reads blogs passionately, and I follow blogs too, and I’m glad I can be a part of this – and frankly I’m not worried about taking some slings and arrows along the way. I’ve faced worse! So keep the comments coming -- good, bad, hopefully not indifferent."

With those words, former Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry ended his first diary post on DailyKos.com, the top political blog on the web. His topic: ostensibly it's cable TV's Chris Matthews' saying that Osama bin Laden sounded liked Michael Moore, which is getting all kinds of protest online. But his real point is to criticize President Bush for failing to kill bin Laden in Tora Bora in 2001, and to press the media to cover that issue instead of whether Osama is getting his talking points from Moore.

Kerry's post went up late Friday afternoon, but Kos has kept it at the top of the "recommended diaries" section of his site, with the result that more than 650 comments have been logged--probably more than ever appeared on Kerry's campaign website in 2004. A lot of comments are respectful, but so many were skeptical that the diary was really from Kerry that Kos stepped in to confirm it.

Quite a change from April 2004, when the Kerry campaign took DailyKos off its blogroll, huh?

Is Kerry really listening to comments? Only time will tell, I guess.

Citizens Media
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