Redstate

By Erick Posted in Breaking News — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Remember the Horse Race Blogger and its owner, Jay Cost? During the 2004 election cycle, Jay was one of the most widely read blogs about the election. Starting late, Jay's blog grew rapidly and had a large audience. He was quoted in such places as MSNBC, Hugh Hewitt, and National Review.

Jay is getting his graduate degree in American politics at the University of Chicago. Given his study schedule, Jay abandoned his blog after the election -- having called the election and the underlying polling data pretty accurately.

RedState is pleased to announce that Jay will be signing on as an editor. He'll be one more person to put my writing to shame. We extend a RedState welcome to Jay and know he'll be a welcome addition.

Jay has some thoughts on this return to blogging below the fold.

Yes...I am back. This “twitchy overachiever” -- to quote a dear friend -- just can’t resist getting himself involved in political discussion. So, here I am.

Comebacks are a tricky thing. Sometimes they go very well. Everybody was glad when Elvis came back in 1968 with From Elvis in Memphis. Sometimes they don’t go so well. Most people probably wish Pete Townshend hadn’t resurrected the Who after 1982 (I think we all could have done without the 1996 Quadrophenia Tour).

I am optimistic that this will be more like Elvis than the Who. We’ll see. The good folks at Red State have agreed to offer me space on their fine page to post at my leisure, and I plan to make good on the offer.

The plan? Well, obviously things will be a tad different than they were at my page in the Fall. There is not an election to cover. So, rather than going through the day-to-day news and pouring over polling data, I plan to focus my efforts on in-depth news analysis (akin to the state-by-state analysis I did in the Fall). I want to look deeply at a few developments in the political world from time to time, to disentangle all of the conventional wisdom that always seems to preclude quality analysis.

Just as before, my principal goal will be to clarify what is really going on, to break through all of the mindless jibber-jabbering that characterizes the punditocracy.

Just as before, my efforts will usually be focused on purely political happenings. I have almost no expertise in questions of policy. I’m interested in campaigns and elections, political parties, and the political maneuverings in Congress. To varying degrees, I know enough about these subjects to say something which, I hope, you will find worthwhile.

Just as before, the fruits of my labor will be rigorous and thorough. I don’t take anything for granted, and I plan to use my knowledge of the “scholarly literature” of political science to explore the happenings of our polity.

Why Red State? Well, there are two reasons. First, I am planning to write less than I did during the campaign, maybe once a week or thereabouts. That is just too little to support my own blog. Second, I think Red State is the best public blog on the Internet. If I wanted to join a team, where else would I go?

I’ll see you next week. I’m putting the finishing touches on an in-depth article about why the South is solidly red. Some of my conclusions will surprise you. After that, I’m thinking about writing on a few topics: why Republicans should be wary of the political resurrection of Howard Dean, why Hillary is definitely not a “sure thing” in 2008, why 2006 will probably be a ho-hum election year, how the media screwed up campaign 2004, and what Bush is up to with Social Security (and whether he has a snowball’s chance at getting his way). We’ll see how things go -- if you have a suggestion, send it my way.

At any rate, I’ll see you on Monday with “On Dixie and the Democrats.”

Cheers,
Jay Cost

Jay Cost, the creator of The Horserace Blog, is a graduate student in political science at the University of Chicago. He may be reached at jay_cost[-at-]hotmail.com.

[editor's note, by Erick] We'll see if we can upgrade Jay to a Gmail account. We here at RedState recognize the superior nature of Gmail.