His third-annual conference, Netroots Nation, had a star-studded line-up of speakers: Gen. Wesley Clark, now famous for his news conference attacking fellow veteran John McCain, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean. However, let us not forget the surprise guest who sent the attendees over the moon with at least three standing ovations, Al Gore.

Barack Obama attended the conference last year. This year he sent a video of himself and several aides because he was preparing for his world tour of Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East and Europe. Now Moulitsas sits on conference calls with Harry Reid and regularly visits by phone with other Democratic leaders.

The mainstream media have helped give him credibility and legitimacy. He appears on CNN, has written for Newsweek and others. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential Hispanics in the world by People en Español. He ranked third on Forbes' Web Celeb 25 rankings ahead of Matt Drudge. He was listed 26th in PC World's list of the Most Important People on the Web.

Moulitsas was born in 1971 in Chicago of an El Salvadoran mother and father of Greek heritage. He returned to live in El Salvador for a number of years as a child. Returning to the United States, he became a soldier in the U.S. Army before earning a college and law degree. However, becoming a practicing attorney was not for Moulitsas. Instead, he worked for several Web firms and he started his blog in 2002. In 2004, he supported Howard Dean's presidential campaign, and presently lives in Berkeley, Calif.

"Netroots are the crazy political junkies that hang out in blogs," Moulitsas told Newsweek in 2005. "They're people who use technology to participate in politics. They do a lot offline, but they do their organizing online."

These netroots bloggers are the shock troops on which the Obama campaign relies to carry its message and case to America.