Still, I shall be treating the email I get from folks at Playboy Inc. a bit more coolly in the future (you know who you are). And, as a jealous defender of NRO, I’ll just have to be content with the fact that the Corner/NRO has more readers than all of these blogs — except the virtual megachurch the Daily Kos (If Alexa.com rankings are legit, that is). ~Jonah Goldberg

Personally, I would take it as a point of pride that Playboy didn’t select my blog (and, what do you know, they didn’t!).  But simply as a matter of ranking political blogs that produce influential, interesting and (yes) entertaining content, the Playboy list (PDF), which includes the redoutable Ross and Reihan, makes a lot of sense.  NRO has lots of readers, but it is effectively nothing but a glorified chatroom-cum-echo chamber for the NROniks to bat their tired preconceptions back and forth at each other.  Like its opposite number at  New Republic, The Plank, it disseminates some interesting items (though I have found The Plank to be better in many cases for election coverage and news-gathering), but produces very little that serves as anything other than target practice for contrarian paleos such as myself.  Occasionally Derbyshire will say something provocative or interesting, but usually it rarely rises above the level of chit-chat and a lot of link-don’t-think posts.  As a writer of many largely linkless blog entries, I don’t consider putting up links by themselves to be much of a contribution (at least give us more quotes!); it makes their blog into an information clearinghouse, which is fine, but they won’t be winning any awards for it.  In my blogging, I aim for something of a middle ground: I quote a number of news and commentary articles, but I almost always have something substantive to add beyond an, “Oh, look at this!” comment and I try to write some more extensive commentary in other posts. 

Daily Kos’ influence and traffic demand that it take a place on the list, however much we might wish it would all just go away.  Powerline is full of mad Bush lackeys, yes, but they also have a reputation for actual blog-o-journalism that The Corner and other NRO blogs simply don’t.  TPM is a real news source and its election coverage has been far and away superior to the insufficient Sixers.  Greenwald is head and shoulders above everyone at NRO as a blogger; his commentary, while usually fairly predictable, is almost always sharp and incisive.  Hit & Run is generally pretty smart and interesting, and if I can say that about the libertarians there must be something to it.  Can’t say that I’ve ever looked at Tapped, especially since TAP decided that Nyhan was basically persona non grata if he wanted to engage in actual media analysis.  I’ve come across Pandagon, but I can’t say that I’ve paid much attention to it.  As for the Scene, well, isn’t it obviously a first-rate source of commentary and policy analysis from two of the top conservative writers currently on the punditry scene?  Now if only they would post more than once every two days…

What almost all of these blogs share is a sense of fun, a willingness to not take themselves too seriously.  It is therefore puzzling that Sullivan would be included among them, as there is no one more convinced of his own righteous seriousness and importance as a Voice of Reason than Andrew Sullivan; if professional doubters can be called preachy, he is the essence of preachy.  Of all of the blogs on the list, his is the one I can see good arguments for leaving off.  He might make top 25, but not top 10.  For my money, Kevin Drum does better analysis than Sullivan and ought to be taken seriously for a spot on that list.