Jane: 

I don’t know about you, Lizzie, but I have become a political news junkie.  The Internet has created a surge in creatures like myself, the blog-obsessed who can’t go half a day without logging in. Many of us can be traced back to the recent election cycle, which lasted an unprecedented two long years, culminating in the exciting, momentous election of Barrack Obama.  It has been an especially exhilarating time to be online.  

Fed up with typical TV pundits and talking heads, many political wonks turned to online news sites.  Their insatiable appetite still not fed, those news sites spawned blogs.  

If you have an opinion of any flavor, there is a news blog out there that will feed your burning desire to be opinionated, and to see that opinion validated. 

You know if you refer to The Huffington Post as "HuffPo", if you even remotely followed the completely obsessive statistical polling craziness of Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, if you get your news from Salon or Daily Kos, you are a political news junkie who leans to the left.  

I was going to write a comparative paragraph about conservative blogs here, but rather myopically, I don’t know of any right-slanted news blogs off the top of my head.  If one truly feels the need to balance things out, a quick search of Urban Conservative and National Review ought to be of service enough…  Oh and check out this little gem, Jon Swift. (heh heh)  

(sorry, after eight years of Fox News being the propaganda arm of our government, I gave myself the leeway not to seek out opposing view points, they have been everywhere).

In the days leading up to November 4, the tension in the blogosphere was palpable, and could indeed have been sliced with that proverbial knife.  Election night was euphoric, it was moving, it was one of those moments to remember out of a lifetime full of newsworthy moments.  

My experience, laptop by my side, Facebook,  Huffington Post, CNN.com, and MSNBC tabbed and open; watching the latter two news organizations on TV, and of course on the phone with friends and family, was amazing.  The speeches, the coverage, the panning through the crowd shots of those lucky enough to be in Grant Park that night… it was incredible and I will never forget it.  

Then it was November 5. And November 6.  And November 7.  What had been obsessive coverage of the election, turned into Obsessive Barack Watch. Here’s the President-Elect getting into his limo. Now the car is driving away. Now the car is making a left turn.  What are the bipartisan ramifications of the left turn? 

We did not know what to do with ourselves.  Two years of dissecting the primaries, the debates, the stump speeches… Dissecting them into tiny little pieces of over-analyzed non-information. Seriously, how many of us ever followed every Cabinet appointment of a President-Elect before? 

And now it is time for The Inauguration.  Rick Warren is still in, but so is New Hampshire’s Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson.  Bush has declared a state of emergency in D.C., in order to appropriate adequate security and funds; bridges in and out of the city will be closed; huge lines are expected for public transportation; and the crowds are expected to be so enormous that even Snopes.com can’t deny it might clog the cell phone system.  Look here, here and even here (if you must) for event information.  Will Joan and Melissa, or Kathy Griffin be doing red carpet coverage of the gazillion Inaugural Balls being held? 

Which leads me to my next point: what did we do with ourselves online prior to this election?  Well sadly, and with a bit of defensive embarrassment, here is where I must cop to an on and off celebrity gossip, "info-tainment" habit. Perusing the likes of TMZ, and Perez Hilton, in all their tawdry dirty laundry glory. During the worst of it, I even watched E! Entertainment, and read Us Magazine.   

But the election distracted me from all of that.  And that was a very good thing.  Gossip sites lost daily hits during the election, and turned to covering the candidates with their special celebrity angle. (How many times did the Obamas appear on the cover of People?)  I stopped my affair with Perez, and haven’t looked back.  My new and improved News Wonk-itude is above all that.  Besides, if I really need a fix, there is always the "entertainment" section of HuffPo.