''Political Wire'' is an American political blog. It was founded in 1999 and published by Taegan () Goddard, a former policy adviser to Democratic U.S. Senator

Donald Riegle Donald Wayne Riegle Jr. (born February 4, 1938) is an American politician, author, and businessman from Michigan. He served for five terms as a United States House of Representatives, Representative and for three terms as a United States Senate, ...

and Independent Governor

Lowell Weicker Lowell Palmer Weicker Jr. (; born May 16, 1931) is an American politician who served as a U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the 85th Governor of Connecticut. He unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination for president in 1980. He wa ...

, and the co-author of the 1998 political management book ''You Won: Now What? How Americans Can Make Democracy Work from City Hall to the White House'' with political commentator Chris Riback.

History

As the son of a lawyer, teacher and writer, Goddard grew up in a household that regularly discussed politics and the role of journalists in communicating the behind the scenes workings of the government. He further cultivated that interest at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

and the

Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, public ...

. He was inspired to create Political Wire by a print Wall Street Journal column called Washington Wire. In an interview with ''

PR Week ''PRWeek'' is a trade magazine for the public relations industry. The original UK edition was the brainchild of the late Geoffrey Lace who at the time worked for Haymarket. After failing to interest Haymarket in his idea he left to launch it on ...

'', called ''Making it in the Political Blogosphere'' Goddard explained why he created the site: "I do it for the same people who, going back a dozen years, always wanted that political page. So, in a practical sense, it’s for people who’re very similar to me, who like politics to the same degree that I do and also enjoy it almost as a game. While some people might read the sports page first every day, there’s a whole group of people who read Political Wire first every day, because that’s something that gets them going in the morning. Those people, I find, are professionally employed in politics or public affairs. They work either in political offices or on campaigns, or are elected and appointed officials themselves. In many cases they’re journalists who cover politics and, obviously, there are also the political junkies out there who just find it interesting." Blog topics are typically drawn from a curated list of writers rather than websites although left and right sources including the Democratic forum

Daily Kos Daily Kos ( ) is a group blog and internet forum focused on the U.S. Democratic Party and liberal American politics. The site includes glossaries and other content. It is sometimes considered an example of "netroots" activism. Daily Kos was f ...

and the conservative blog

Hot Air ''Hot Air'' is a conservative American political blog. It is written by the pseudonymous Allahpundit, Ed Morrissey, John Sexton, and Jazz Shaw. Hot Air was founded by Michelle Malkin, a conservative author and blogger, in 2006, taking over ''h ...

provide additional perspectives.

Readership

''Political Wire'' is officially non-partisan. Goddard described his website as "a place where you want to start your day and then return various times a day to find out what's going on in the world of politics... the people who read ''Political Wire'' tend to be the political insiders and political junkies, the lawmakers and their staffs, journalists, and people who make a living in the world of public affairs." It is a subscription service with a nominal fee for membership. By 2016, it was attracting upwards of ten million readers per month. Goddard told Fishbowl DC that people sometimes get confused by his politics because he's fiercely independent in his views and "not a joiner by nature."

In the media

In 2006, Goddard formed a content partnership with ''

Congressional Quarterly Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is part of a privately owned publishing company called CQ Roll Call that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress. CQ was acquired by the Economist Group and combined ...

''. The partnership was expanded in early 2009 so that ''CQ'' sold all advertising on ''Political Wire''. The agreement expired in 2013 and the site is still owned and published by Goddard. During the 2008 presidential election, ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

'' named ''Political Wire'' one of the 20 best political web sites of 2008. In 2012, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' named @politicalwire as one of the top Twitter 140 Twitter feeds. Political Wire's Twitter site has also received acclaim outside the country and was named one of the "Top 50 US Politics Twitter Accounts to Follow." The site has also been praised by political analysts such as

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and

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. Goddard has appeared as a guest to discuss political headlines on

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. It was founded in 2008. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief from 2018 to 2021. In a 20 ...

and MSNBC. He has been a panelist for numerous political roundtables.

Related sites

Goddard also created ''Taegan Goddard's Wonk Wire'', a site focused on the latest public policy news, ''Taegan Goddard's Political Dictionary'', which explores the language of politics, as well as ''Taegan Goddard's Political Job Hunt'', which helps people interested in working in politics and public affairs. On January 13, 2013, Goddard agreed to maintain a daily blog for

The Week ''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...

, titled ''The Cloakroom.'' One of Goddard's newest projects has been a new portal for examining possible future Presidential election outcomes called Electoral Vote Map.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Political WirePolitical DictionaryPolitical Job HuntWonk Wire
American political blogs American political websites Internet properties established in 1999