Like many of us, I got addicted to election news in 2008 (and 2006 and 2004), and with the proliferation of blogs and websites devoted to the subject, this can be a full-time obsession if not kept under control. Now that the American election is over, I’m taking a breather and paying attention to actual policy, and waiting at least a few months before becoming fluent in the top House and Senate races for 2010.
Because of these addictive tendencies, I’m glad I didn’t find out about Politico.co.il until a few days before the Israeli election. This site (Hebrew only) is a one-stop shop for Israeli election inside baseball. It includes news stories about the campaign (covering parties large, small, and tiny), daily schedules of campaign events, the latest poll results, and tomorrow night it will have election results.
This site is run by Haaretz, and doesn’t appear to have any connection to the American site Politico.com, so those who are concerned about Politico’s bias shouldn’t worry here. They seem to be borrowing the brand name (which I presume is legal because trademarks don’t have international jurisdiction), like Domino’s Pizza in Israel, or Supersol in New York.
In time for the next election (which will be in 2013 if the 18th Knesset serves a full 4-year term, but let’s not kid ourselves), someone has to start fivethirtyeight.co.il (or should that be onetwenty.co.il?)!