Just wanted to make reference to a great collection of truly moderate (and not just trying to appear to be by using the word) and centrist oriented sites with descriptions from The Rise of the Center blog:
Donklephant – Justin Gardner runs this absolute staple for moderates, with the tongue in cheek tag line of “Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable.” Its a great place for some good political chatter, and fun. He’s been around a while and has earned a good following. In full disclosure, I used to post there myself, and may do so in the future.
Uncovered Politics – I really dig what I’ve seen from these guys, since I dug it up a couple months ago. One of the more professionally designed sites. Very newspaper like, in a good way. One of the bloggers there (Austin Cassidy) is a co-founder of Independent Political Report & Third Party Watch.
POLI-TEA – Probably the site out there that is most like mine… so of course I think its great! This is the personal blog of Damon Eris, who posts in several other places, from CAIVN, to Independent Political Report. One of the top voices in the centersphere, his blog is another must read.
Think 3 Institute – This isn’t a think tank, but it might as well be. The design is… not awesome, but they consistently have some of the most intelligent political commentary you can find anywhere. Generally a mix of in depth policy and both national and New York state politics.
The Center Lane – Just like Think 3, The Center Lane is a place you can go and always expect very high quality content. It chooses quality over quantity, but the quality is very very good.
The Pragmatic Center – Nick Goebel, who I’ve chatted with a bit, has his head on straight. His blog is a mix of common sense political talk on national and Michigan state politics.
Independent Political Report – This is the most popular site on this entire list. There is a mix of centrist politics and independent politics (defined generally… including all non major party related news). A good place to keep track of the forces fighting the two party system.
Third Party and Independent Daily – This site doesn’t just stick to centrist type stuff, as any third party groups are discussed, but there is a lot of great coverage of smaller stories you don’t see anywhere else, related to those on the front lines of the war against the two party system. If you really want to keep your finger on what is going around with all the major groups that are trying to pare down the two party duopoly, this is a great place to start, along with IPR.
Outside the Beltway – This moderate conservative (they call themselves classically liberal) blog has been around since 2003, which might explain why the traffic ranking sites list it as the highest traffic site on this list. In general it is probably the most professionally put together site on the list as well.
The Wright and Left Report – This site’s tag line is “Determining fact from lunacy in the circus that is politics”, and from what I’ve seen so far, it does a pretty good job. There seems to be a lean to the left, but certainly no partisan shill.
Independent Rage – As the name would suggest, this puppy is a pit bull. He doesn’t pull punches, doesn’t censor himself, has Nirvana set to play when you load the site, is generally just a riot… and he likes posting pics of scantily clad women, so take all of that in mind. In his own words “Being serious about politics all the time is not everyone’s cup of tea, and so I really do try to mix up my blog with a combination of the fun and the serious.” But look past all that and you see someone who has a pretty interesting, and very honest, perspective.
Mildly Relevant Thoughts – Yet another blogger, this one mostly video blogging (which is a nice change of pace), who I’ve had the pleasure of talking to a bit. Much like Independent Rage, this one is… not exactly serious, and at times downright raunchy, but its all in good spirited fun. Check his site out for reliably funny and biting commentary on the absurd circus that is American politics.
Rebel Yid – This is another blog that I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with the man behind the keyboard, and has become one of my first reads. Sharp commentary, with “Ideas beyond the left/right, red/blue, and liberal/conservative thinking”. Definitely a right lean, but still moderate enough to fit under our big tent here.
All Things Reform – This is a pretty heady site, and isn’t about centrist politics, but most of it is what you might call ‘transpartisan’, that any good intentioned politico would support, and/or want to know about.
The New Moderate – Rick Bayan has been at it since 2007 apparently. I’ve had the pleasure of talking with him a bit by email, and his site has moved into the “First Read” section of my RSS feeds. This site falls into the category of blogs that don’t post all of the time, but when they do, they’re in depth and insightful.
Center Movement – This is one of the best designed sites on the list, and it most notable for the fact that it automatically aggregates content from some of the better moderate and centrists blogs, as well as a bit of original content of its own.
Moderate Voters – This is somewhat like Center Movement, but collects news from all over the web that they see as being related to moderates, not blog posts. Seriously though, they do a heck of a job scouring the news sites for stuff moderates might want to know about. A great resource.
The Hankster – Nancy Hanks is a long time activist in New York Independent Politics. Her blog is a must read, if only for her fairly regular “TODAY’S NEWS HEADLINES for INDEPENDENT VOTERS” updates, that cover an awful lot of what is going on in what I call the “independent groundswell”. She is well connected with the IndependentVoting.org crowd, which would be fairly described as the liberal side of the mainstream independent spectrum. (5.860)
John Avlon – I’m making an exception here. John Avlon doesn’t have a blog per se… although he has a column at what you could consider a professional blogging site, The Daily Beast. He’s written two great books, one on independents and another on the political extremists, is a political analyst for CNN and is probably the best centrist pundit around these days. Click his name for a Google News search for what he’s done lately.
The Future American – Jess Chapman, who cross posts here a few times a week, is a Canadian college student with ambitions of becoming the next John Avlon, a centrist political pundit in the United States. She covers national politics, occasionally mentions Canadian politics, and also some Northern Midwest coverage.
Rise of the Center – You may have heard of this new-ish blog that some guy from Omaha with a weird name runs… he’s quite the political junkie, I hear, and has an acute addiction to twitter, haha. Fastest growing centrist blog around.
