HuffPost Takes Over Top Political Blog Spot

(MoneyWatch)  The excitement surrounding this year's election his driving unprecedented growth to the leading political blogs. ComScore says that year over year growth for September was exponential for the likes of the Huffington Post, Politico, RealClearPolitics, DailyKos, Talking Points Memo, and Newsbusters.
In recent months, major news organziations like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, etc., have been more vigorously promoting their in-house blogs in an effort to compete. But it's a difficult game of catch-up for mainstream media.

What distinguishes most of political bloggers is their strong point-of-view. Few play it straight down the middle, as media traditionally has purported to do. Most, like the HuffPost or Drudge are either very leftist or very rightist.

Right, left or center, all of these political players will face an inevitable falloff in traffic post-election. The best ones will implement site improvements and content strategies that keep their fans coming back for more.

Here is ComScore's list of the top dozen political blogs:

Blog Sept. 08 Uniques Percentage Growth

1. HuffingtonPost.com 4,545,000 474
2. Politico.com 2,362,000 344
3. DrudgeReport.com 1,215,000 70
4. RealClearPolitics.com 1,129,000 489
5. FreeRepublic.com 987,000 <3>
6. CapitalAdvantage 959,000 21
7. DailyKos.com 923,000 381
8. TownHall.com 884,000 117
9. NewsBusters.org 732,000 547
10. WorldNetDaily.com 636,000 55
11. TalkingPointsMemo.com 458,000 1321
12. MichelleMalkin.com 247,000 140