User:Chrisblask

The Motley Moose is a collaborative progressive political blog, primarily though not solely focused on American politics and issues. "The Moose" was established on Wednesday September 10, 2008 by twenty five regular bloggers who had already been writing at progressive sites like DailyKos and MyDD.

The impetus for founding The Motley Moose was the 2008 US Presidential Democratic Primary, and the "flame wars" that raged on political blogs (most notably MyDD). During the heated contest between candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, many Democratic and progressive blogs ended up aligning with one or the other candidate (TalkLeft, for example was a primarily Hillary Clinton site while DailyKos was primarily a Barack Obama site). After the primaries, a group of the more prolific bloggers for both candidates came together and decided to attempt a new type of collaborative blog with the following properties:

o Tolerant of diverse opinions within a broad definition of political Progressivism

o Founded by a consortium of active bloggers rather than an individual

o Actively moderated

The term "Motely Moose" arises from the definition of the word "Motley" (Having elements of great variety or incongruity) and a reference to the Bull Moose Party.