The catagory for this post could have gone either way, Inside Blogball or America's Best. Both apply. I just think I've been abusing the America's Best catagory of late, so Digby is the unfortunate recipient of my trying to make up for that. I will say this, DIGBY IS ONE OF AMERICA'S BEST.
Anyway, Digby has finally come out of the closet, so to speak. She gave a speech at the Take Back America Conference, thus exposing herself as an actual person, as opposed to a pseudonym.
The speech was great. Although, I have to say, it was a little bit of a let down. She is such a good writer that when she decides to put something together for something as momentous as revealing her true identity, you think it's going to be something REALLY amazing. It wasn't. It was good, it just wasn't... I don't know, amazing, I guess.
I think it's a little like the Soprano's finale. David Chase knew that episode was coming for two years. He delivered a good episode, but not a great one.
I'm being really picky here because it's fun to be picky. I LOVE Digby. She and Greenwald are by far the two best writers on the web right now. By FAR. And she said some really cool stuff (see update below) in her speech. It just didn't knock my socks off, like some of her posts have done. A lot of her posts have done, actually.
I guess, given a choice between this unveiling and continued anonymity I would have chosen the latter.
But whatever. There she is, finally getting some actual (well-deserved) applause. Nice to see.
UPDATE: Just watched it again cuz I wanted to transcribe this. Her best line of the night, IMO. This is some delicious Digby...
I'm a blogger/pundit, a role for which I am eminently qualified, since exactly like pundits in television and newspapers, I have opinions, I write them down, and a lot of people read them. Yes, that's all there is to it. Sorry, Mr. Broder.
UPDATE II: At one point, Digby mentioned Al Gore while talking about the internet, and people broke into spontaneous applause. I honestly think that the invocation of Gore would have that effect at just about any liberal gathering. Not Clinton. Not Obama. Not any other Democrat. But if you bring up Al Gore, you're going to get applause. (Well, you're not going to get applause. Gore is.) Speaks volumes about the guy, I think. Sure wish somebody would point it out to him. And I sure as shit wish he would run.
UPDATE III: Watching the speech again, I think I may come off a little harsh here. Digby didn't give a bad speech. The only reason I bring it up at all is because I think she's an important voice, and she regularly knocks me on my ass with her writing. So when she decides to expose herself it's a big deal, and I guess I expected something really extraordinary.
It's kind of like the Last Episode Syndrome (TM BellBusiness, BellCO, subsidiary of KBR, Halliburton). No last episode ever lives up to how good the show was. Seinfeld, MASH, The Sopranos, whatever. They all sucked. It's not a perfect analogy, because this obviously isn't Digby's last episode, but it's sort of the end of an era. She is no longer anonymous. Hopefully this means she'll get out more, maybe appear on some talk shows or whatnot. Democrats have few voices as smart as hers. In fact, I would say this: If on every single talk show it was just Digby representing our side of the aisle we'd be a lot better off. I would take that over the status quo in a second. Obviously, this is a silly proposition, but I'd still take it.
