Blogosphere: January 2010 Archives

One the blogs I added to my list of favorites last year is The Other McCain. The eponymous author, journalist Robert Stacy McCain, was a long-time writer and editor for The Washington Times, a dead-tree newspaper that began a steep decline about the time of his departure. McCain began blogging, and in less than two years reached 3 million hits.

The Other McCain covers national politics from a conservative perspective. Stacy McCain's approach is aggressive but infused with humor (much of it self-deprecating), and he's willing to burn shoe leather to go after a story. (A couple of examples from the site's previous incarnation on blogspot.com: His on-the-scene reporting from the NY 23rd Congressional District special election and from eastern Kentucky on the census worker suicide staged to look like a hate crime.) There's even something endearing about his relentless rattling of the tip jar. His co-blogger, Smitty, adds incisive comment that goes beyond the news of the day to consider the long-term picture.

Stacy and Smitty have successfully relaunched The Other McCain with its own domain (theothermccain.com) and with an attractive new design. I've added The Other McCain's new feed to the "headlines" page, so you'll always see links to their latest posts there. (Check the BatesLine headlines page several times a day for the latest links from the best blogs.)