'Political Junkie': The Blog

When my weekly Political Junkie column resumed on the NPR Web site back in January of 2004, I stated that my goals for the column were the same as when it ran previously (1998-2001) on the Web site of the Washington Post. It was sharing a love of politics: the campaigns, the candidates, the voters, the process, the history, the trivia, the lore. All of it.

Just as I could never talk about baseball (another passion) without reaching back into the past, I'm the same about politics. That's true whether we're talking about the race for president, the battle for control of Congress, state and national conventions, redistricting, third parties, primaries and caucuses. The confluence of the present with the past. That has been what each Political Junkie has been since Jan. 14, 2004 — encompassing nearly 200 columns, thousands and thousands of questions from readers from all over the world, with each column featuring vintage campaign buttons illustrating the subject(s) of the week.

And something very important happened in the process. It was not a monologue. It was a conversation. I would hear constantly from fellow political junkies from all corners of the globe (are there really corners on a globe?) about what they were seeing, and hearing, and discussing with their friends, neighbors and co-workers. For every fun fact or piece of trivia I included in my column, there were countless tidbits of campaign treasures I received from you. The conversation that went on in this column expanded, first to an appearance each Wednesday on NPR's Talk of the Nation program, and then to a weekly podcast (It's All Politics) with NPR Senior Washington Editor Ron Elving. Both the podcast and the Political Junkie segment on TOTN continue. But now comes a change in this column.

It will no longer be just once a week. As anyone who has been reading this from the beginning knows, it has multiplied in size. The columns were running close to 3,000 words, a bit much to be read online in one sitting. And so, starting today, Political Junkie goes from a once-a-week column to a blog featuring multiple posts each day. The format will be pretty much the same, only spaced out in the course of a week.

In the wake of one of the most intense and exciting presidential campaigns in recent memory, I have found more and more people interested in politics than ever before. This is not just anecdotal; my e-mail "in box" has been filled with far more questions about far more subjects than ever before. I'm hoping the same excitement and interest will carry on into this post-election phase: the transition from Bush to Obama; the new Cabinet and the resulting special elections; the still-undecided contests in Georgia, Minnesota and elsewhere; and the next round of elections in 2009, 2010, and (gasp!) 2012. That's the argument for taking the column to a daily presentation.

I've never had a rooting interest in politics; I'm neither a Democrat nor a Republican. But for as long as I remember, I have had a deep passion about covering it, talking about it, writing about it. I hope the passion you experienced in this most amazing election season will continue as well. Please let me hear from you on this. Tell me what works and what doesn't. I know there are a lot of political blogs out there, and some readers might say the last thing we need is yet another one. They may be right. But unlike others, this is not one that preaches a point of view. It doesn't take sides, nor does it take positions. If it's yelling you want, there are plenty of avenues for you to find that; I'm not a yeller. No yeller journalism here. Above all, what I try to do is to make politics fun.

A tribute for the ages.

One more thing: a huge thank you to Evie Stone, who has been manning (or personning) the Vox Politics blog these past months. She has done a superb job, under trying conditions, and so she gets her very own "button puzzle" — a feature you may see appear now and then in this blog. Her name is spelled out in campaign buttons, something that I'm sure she will agree is far more rewarding than money.

Please see the FAQ if you have any lingering questions about PJ's transition to a blog. And don't ever hesitate to ask any question and offer any suggestion.