Last month, it was the YouTube crowd. This weekend, it's the bloggers.

Unlike the YouTube/CNN debate for Democratic hopefuls, which was a first for its video questions submitted by users of the popular Web site, the YearlyKos convention for bloggers is in Chicago and in its second year.

A handful of presidential contenders including Gov. Bill Richardson will be hanging out at the events today. For the record, Richardson was there last year, too.

Bloggers are the in crowd these days, says University of New Mexico political science professor Lonna Atkeson, in the same way MTV watchers were when Bill Clinton in 1992 was the first candidate to appear on that network.

"We're always expanding the way we use media," Atkeson said.

"This represents another expansion of that trend."

Used to be, White House would-bes didn't do comedy shows. Now, they're a must. Going to a blogger convention is kind of like that, Atkeson said.

"Presidential candidates never went on Letterman or Leno," she said. "Now, it's like the standard that they make at least one appearance."

The gathering, which gets its name from the DailyKos blog, is for the "Netroots," people who use the Internet as their primary means of expressing themselves on political issues.

That's a lot of people, apparently. The press credentials part of the convention's Web site says it is "at capacity" and no longer accepting applications from reporters.