Wednesday Politics

There’s nobody who can’t serve. Nobody who can’t help somebody else.

President Obama, January 16, 2012

I’ve been complaining loud and long in this blog about the especially poor quality of political reporting this season. I mentioned how the roll of political blogs I’m tracking this year had shrunk to a handful:

Talking Points Memo

Five Thirty Eight

Daily Kos

Frontloading HQ

Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball

Today I’d like to add a few more. The students in USC's Annenberg School of Journalism demonstrate daily that predictions of the end of journalism are premature. They have a broad, smart blog called Neon Tommy. The blog covers politics and everything else you’d expect in a good daily newspaper, with the snappy tone of young people living in LA: Neon Tommy

Vote Smart is an encyclopedia of detail about current politics, covering state-level and national people and issues. It’s a great place to look up a voting record or find out how someone measures up on current topics and controversies. The background of the blog is bipartisan, but I’d characterize it as mildly progressive in bias: Vote Smart

Dirigo is Maine's state motto: Latin for "My kiester is cold."

People who follow politics in Maine know about Dirigo Blue. Aside from detailing statewide politics from the Democratic viewpoint, it lists sources of good information about Maine politics. For those of you outside Maine (my condolences), Dirigo Blue’s national blogroll is concise and practical, one-stop shopping: Dirigo Blue