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Thu 25 Sep, 2008 10:22 am
Hi all
I'm following the US elections rather closely (if that wasnt obvious). It's addictive. And I'm always looking for new sources that provide interesting day-to-day options.
I'm looking for something specific now though. As the campaign has heated up more and more, several of the blogs I was following have become very, well, passionate. But I have plenty of partisan passion and feelings of outrage over the Republicans' evil ways myself already, I dont need a blog to fan that further.
I dont mind partisan. While I enjoy looking into conservative sites, both to test my views to opposing ones and get a sense of what the other camp is feeling or thinking, I do of course get more from analyses that are written from a roughly comparable sense of priorities as mine. I dont need to agree with everything I read, but, say, for example - a blog that's written from the perspective that the role of government is inherently bad and taxes should always go down will in the end not include a whole many items that are interesting for me, just because I dont share that focus. So I dont mind partisan.
But I've kind of had it with reading Talking Points Memo, for example, or the new bloggers at the Washington Monthly, or even one of my favourite sites, Cogitamusblog. I know what they are going to say before they've said it, and the continuous boiling point of scandalised indignation just makes me tired. There's differences: Hilzoy at the Washington Monthly always does a great, scrupulous job at gathering all the data, quotes etc, while TPM is really more of a campaign tool, selectively sampling those quotes, data and records that will have maximum partisan effect. But in the end both just make me tired, and both only acquaint me with the perspectives and interpretations of hardy liberals whose take I can already guess anyway.
So I'm looking for blogs that are still roughly Democratic/liberal/progressive/wahetever in outlook, or that are completely neutral/objective, but in either case just offer level-headed, cool-minded analysis. Not the breathless stuff. But stuff that helps me take a step back from things and reconsider them.
I dont mean the Broder/Brooks kind of "centrist" bloviation, by the way -- they may not be hardy conservatives or liberals, but I can still just about predict what they are going to say, and it's going to be all opinion and speculation anyway, basically a kind of non-partisan blowhardry. That's columns for you.
I mean more like ... I like Ezra Klein. I liked Kevin Drum before his blog moved to the Mother Jones site, which is unreadable design-wise. I've been starting to follow campaigndiaries.com, which has great analysis - topical but not like you're reading one or the other's campaign material. I like the political science blog The Monkey Cage. I liked Brian Schaffner's posts on the blog of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies (CCPS), before he stopped in July. I like pollster.com of course (more than the partisan fivethirtyeight.com), but that's just about polls. I also like TNR's blogs The Plank and The Stump, because they are a little more dispassionate and/or sceptical than the Kos/TPM type sites, and because their readers won't hesitate to massively turn against their own blogger if they think a post was silly or hyped.
So I'm looking for new sources like that. I dont mind something less liberal either, or something more out on the actual left, just as long as the posts are dispassionate observations and news analyses rather than breathless dissections of the opponent's latest wrongness.
So recommend me some new blogs -- and you will earn a slice of eternal gratitude!
@nimh,
1. I don't think the A2k gods would appreciate us referring you to other sites.
2. There are probably hundreds of sites out there that share your views and wouldn't bother you with a lot or maybe any conservative stuff, but to expect one that exclusively follows your guidelines of how things are properly expressed is probably a bit much to ask.
3. I have begged A2K liberals to provide a rationale for why they hold a particular position or view. So far, with only a few exceptions, I have gotten mostly Bush and/or conservative and/or Republican and/or Foxfyre bashing or those canned talking points that you deplore. I have also observed this phenomenon on other sites that I frequent. So I don't know if there are enough liberals out there who are adequately informed AND can competently articulate a rationale for their convictions to meet your expectations. I wish there were. It would make participation in the heavier subjects on these boards much more informative and enjoyable.
Disclaimer: Yes there are conservative members who also use the sound bites and slogans rather than articulate their rationale and some who deal in schoolyard insults and taunts. But we also have quite a few members who can articulate their rationale clearly and competently too.
@Foxfyre,
Quote:I have gotten mostly Bush and/or conservative and/or Republican and/or Foxfyre bashing
pretty much everyone on a2k does some bashing, apparently you think you're special by all the whining you do.
It was just this morning when I read a post by primitivo calling Nancy Pelosi a "****."
And then there are some like Dys who have not said a civil word to me in four years but no doubt consider themselves paragons of virtue as well as having superior insights and moral integrity. But you're not going to get away from that kind of stuff on any other site either.
And here I thought Nimh just wanted websites to go look at; and I doubt that anyone who runs A2K would care if we listed them off.
Nimh, Openleft has a lot of great posters there, not all of whom are as breathless as Bowers and Stoller who run the place.
If you want a more dispassionate analysis from the Conservative side, with a legal and economic bent, try Volokh Conspiracy.
Cycloptichorn
@Foxfyre,
Foxfyre wrote:
2. There are probably hundreds of sites out there that share your views and wouldn't bother you with a lot or maybe any conservative stuff, but to expect one that exclusively follows your guidelines of how things are properly expressed is probably a bit much to ask.
I very much doubt he's looking for agreement.
@roger,
No, nor did I suggest that he did. But he did specify he wanted a progressive site where the conversation would be to his standards. Do you think such a thing exists?
Edit: Okay that sounded snotty and I didn't mean for it to. But as I tried to explain, I haven't found any progressive sites that don't deal mostly in the kinds of cliched sound bites he says he wants to get away from.
@nimh,
I like the Swamp (Chi Tribune) and First Read for information that's pretty coolly relayed.
Lynn Sweet is often interesting.
You must know about Marc Ambinder -- I find him one of the more dispassionate ones, but he also often has really good info.
I've gotten used to Kevin Drum's new format.
(I adore hilzoy, though you mention her already. After I again was analyzing the campaigns for my mom, she was pushing me to start my own blog, and I said "Hilzoy already occupies the me niche, but she has way more time.")
@sozobe,
Oh and I've been pretty impressed with Politico. They get het up occasionally but usually good info.
Jake Tapper, too.
@sozobe,
Just found some Hilzoy stuff on your recommendation. Very good, thanks.
@engineer,
You'd make a good blogger of the type nimh wants to read!
Hey, how about if you, me, nimh and FreeDuck join forces and start our own blog -- doing 25% of the work sounds less daunting than all of it, and we can riff off of each other. What say you?
(Robert said something about A2K hosting blogs at some point but I don't think he's there yet... well except for the announcement one...)
@sozobe,
That's a blog I'd love to read. I'd even set it up and host it if ya guys want!
@Robert Gentel,
Hey now!
I'd love to get old europe in on it too but I know he's even busier than the rest of us...
@nimh,
I can help you if you explain your wordings in the title.
What is level-headed?
Cool-minded ?
Political blogs are aplenty in Internet.
The visitor or perusor should seek his subject with cool-minded analytical observation.
I read all the news and views.
But I have my own level-headed critical views..
@Cycloptichorn,
Cycloptichorn wrote:
yglesias?
How about the Politico?
Slate?
Openleft has a lot of great posters there, not all of whom are as breathless as Bowers and Stoller who run the place.
If you want a more dispassionate analysis from the Conservative side, with a legal and economic bent, try Volokh Conspiracy.
Hey, thanks.
Yglesias is pretty much everything I'm trying to avoid. I like how he's independent-minded and sometimes takes positions that go way against the liberal consensus, but I really dont like the breathless/scandalised/bloviating parts of his style.
I come across Politico articles haphazardly, but I havent really followed it per se. Since you and Soz both recommend it, I'll start doing that more now, thanks.
I'll check OpenLeft - and the Volokh thing definitely sounds promising, thanks.
@Foxfyre,
Foxfyre wrote:
But as I tried to explain, I haven't found any progressive sites that don't deal mostly in the kinds of cliched sound bites he says he wants to get away from.
You should try the ones I recommended in my opening posts. Try the campaigndiaries.com site and the Monkey Cage, those are most void of the liberal talk you wont like.
@nimh,
nimh wrote:
Foxfyre wrote:
But as I tried to explain, I haven't found any progressive sites that don't deal mostly in the kinds of cliched sound bites he says he wants to get away from.
You should try the ones I recommended in my opening posts. Try the campaigndiaries.com site and the Monkey Cage, those are most void of the liberal talk you wont like.
But if you like those, why are you seeking something else?
(The only 'liberal talk' I don't like is that which has no basis other than being against non-liberals.)
@sozobe,
Sounds like a serious winner.
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