I started reading fivethirtyeight.com during the 2008 Presidential campaigns. During this time it was an electoral projection website run by a baseball statistician, and offered numerous posts about polling analysis, state-by-state discussion, and many other things a political junkie might find appealing. Political junkies aren't the only ones who might enjoy the blog's content, as anyone with an affinity for statistics might appreciate 538's scientific approach. Nate Silver, one of the blog's writers, was known for accurately predicting who would end up in baseball's playoffs, and astonishingly predicted the 2008 Presidential race to the exact electoral vote, if my memory serves me correctly. He even provided live coverage of the debates, discussing things such as CNN's favorship gauges and polls before/after each debate.
After the election, fivethirtyeight could no longer do electoral projection, so it became a political blog that analyzes things such as Congressional seat races and the political situation in specific places. It is certainly an interesting read, and the writers try to be objective in their approach, preferring math and statistics to bias and spin. The posts are fleshed out and thoughtfully written, and I consider it to be one of the better political blogs out there in cyberspace at the moment.
I wonder if fivethirtyeight will still exist in 2012, when the next Presidential election will occur. It will certainly be interesting to read Nate's point of view and in-depth analysis on the next big election.
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