Before Political Wire there was Political Insider — a very early morning political briefing I put together during the run-up to the 2000 presidential election.
The workflow now feels almost prehistoric.
At 4:00 a.m. my computer would automatically dial the internet through a phone line modem and run a custom script that downloaded dozens of news stories and stored them locally. I’d read them on the commuter train into New York City, sort out what mattered, and assemble a daily roundup with help from my friend and co-author Chris Riback.
The briefing only went live once I reached the office and could reconnect to the internet.
Then, sometime late in 2000 — probably during the Florida recount — I discovered a new piece of software called Greymatter. It ran on a remote server and let you post items directly to a website in reverse chronological order from any web browser, anywhere.
That was the moment the idea for Political Wire clicked.
Shortly after the election I launched the site as a continuously updated stream of the most important political news — not a once-a-day digest, but a running feed that could change all day long.
The backend later evolved from Greymatter to Movable Type and eventually to WordPress, but the core concept never changed: a “living column,” loosely inspired by the Wall Street Journal’s Friday front-page feature, Washington Wire.
And it’s been running continuously ever since.
Interviews with Taegan Goddard
I discussed the early days of Political Wire with Duke University professor Aaron Dinan on the Web Masters podcast:
I was also on the Great Battlefield podcast with Nathaniel Pearlman:
