61 thoughts on “Happy 7th Birthday, SSP”

  1. Without you, well, I’d just have to find some other less excellent obsession.

    This, however, is pretty excellent. Thank you for your hard work!

  2. In the spring of 2004 when the primary focus was the Presidential election.  Seemed like the population grew significantly in those early months and stayed big into 2005 when the focus shifted to Congressional races.

  3. I found SSP in 2008 looking for results for the TX-22 GOP primary.  As soon as I found not only the results but a whole thread for it I knew I was home.

  4. I love this place, though I lurked a long time before posting.  I enjoy the ‘horse race’ aspect of politics and that’s what makes this place so great.

  5. I joined the site in early 2007 but have been reading it since late 2005 or so. It’s been incredible to see how the site and the community has grown.

    Even with the surge in interest in recent years (since when to you get over 100 comments on posts?), this has consistently remained one of the best destinations on the internet for thoughtful discussion. I attribute a lot of that to David, James, Crisitunity, and Jeff and their leadership.

    I’m looking forward to another seven years, guys. Even when I’m fairly quiet, I’m so glad to be a part of this community.

  6. This site is an invaluable resource to psephologists and political fans. I’ve learned more things than I can count and I still learn every day. Thank you for creating and maintaining this site.

  7. I spent a little time reading the early posts and now the name “Swing State Project” makes sense. So weird to see the comments back then and how much they have changed–although it was nice to know that even in 2004, there were a couple of brave Republicans here!

    What really struck me is that this blog started when I was 12 and knew the names of exactly 3 politicians–George Bush, Mitt Romney, and Ted Kennedy (my president, governor, and senior Senator.) Times have changed, but David and Co. are still here doing amazing work day in and day out.

    It would be interesting to see a history of the site–when did it switch over from exclusively covering Presidential politics to exclusively covering Congressional and gubernatorial elections?  

  8. I love this site to death, and since last year i’ve been a member. Thank you guys for bringing us not only national elections, but downballot ones as well, without the screaming children at Daily Kos screaming about PUMA’s.

  9. You know that this is easily one of the best sites on the entire Internet, right? Besides Wonkette, it’s the only site where I actually look forward to reading the comments (and comedy sites like Wonkette have it much easier).

    Every other site’s commenters either make my blood boil and/or make me despair for humanity….especially the political ones.

    I’d been looking for a site like SSP for awhile so I could follow politics in the media wasteland of LA, and found it only in late 2007/early 2008. I lurked for awhile, joined after the 2008 election. And I’ve been impossible to shut up ever since. 🙂

    So SSP community, I want to thank all of you for putting up with me, as well as for being just incredibly smart, curious, well-informed, detailed, analytical, wry, open-minded, friendly and yes, cool.   … even the Republicans!

    And special thanks, of course, goes to our fearless leaders/editorial staff for wielding the commenter banhammer judiciously and keeping SSP such a consistently-wonderful place to visit.

  10. Congrats on lucky number 7. Clicking on that link made my feet tingle…I was in sixth grade when you guys went live! I’m not sure if I could tell a Bush from a Gore back then.

    Anyhow, here’s to many more years of top-notch reporting from  all of you who run this site. Thanks for putting together a fantastic operation (though I can’t say I’m grateful for getting absurdly addicted to SSP…it’s 3 AM and I have a game theory exam soon!).

  11. I love this blog.  It’s one of my first web visits every day.  The only thing I wish would change is if the main diarists could refrain from all the bad language – it’s embarrassing when someone comes into my office.  But the information provided is priceless.

    Here’s to many years more!

  12. I hope you like my congratulation in basque language. It mean “Congratulations to you” (all the team of SSP).

    This is a very interesting site. And very easy and fast for write and send the posts. Very dinamic. This is an important part of the charm of the site. The kind people is other important part of the charm of the site. Keep all it!

  13.  I have been into politics for awhile, I did not discover this blog until March 2009. I was hanging around on Real Clear (my haunt before here) and I saw a link showing the Presidential results by congressional district. I remember you guys were still waiting for Nassau County’s results. I slowly visited this blog more and more, getting an account in April and posting a diary on Creigh Deeds in June when I thought he would win. I remember flooding swing state in July with redistricting diaries and now I am posting something more like once a month here.  

  14. I had a great job for a couple years, working in a place where politics was a basic part of what we did. I lost that job in the recession, and the day-to-day informed election banter is what I missed the most. At my less-cool new job, I haven’t replaced it. But at lunch, I take my food and laptop down to the Hudson River with SSP already loaded, and read through the day’s posts and comments. For that half hour, I’m back in a community of election junkies – right where I belong.

    That might have been a little bit emo, but I mean it. Heartfelt thanks to the creators, moderators, and the various posters/commenters. As has been said by others, this is one of the few places on the web where the comments represent value-added…I’ve learned so much here from people around the country. And yes, it’s been most reassuring to know that there’s a lot of people like us out there!

  15. Reading it since the election of 2004 (not sure when I registered though).  I don’t comment very often, but I read it loyally.  Thanks so much!

  16. I remember finding this blog. There was a special election for the state senate in KY and I was searching for info and you guys live blogged it and the Houston Mayoral results. We lost the state senate election but I was so lucky to find you guys. I read through your articles and I was amazed, this was the place to be. I lurked for a while before signing up and then lurked some more. I actually remember my first post was a Mass Senate poll from some right wing outlet that got posted a few days ago apparently. I have loved it here ever since. Thanks for all the hard work that gets put into this blog.  

  17. Happy birthday, SSP. Congrats to all the editors and us commenters!

    This blog is really special. Just because I read the daily digests, I’m known as a complete nerd and election expect around school. This is my home page and I get giddy when a new digest pops up or a polling dump.

    Thanks for all your hard work!

  18. I registered with the site around a year ago (august 2009) but as far as I could remember, I was regularly reading this at the very latest near the tail end of the 2008 election.

    This is perhaps the website I visit the most.  Hell, I set up my twitter account to text me when you the SSP account tweets something.  The only other twitter account that gets such a privilege is PPP, because I just can’t get enough of their polls.

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