We’re Number Two!

Lost in the shuffle of Saddam’s capture was the conclusion of Wizbang’s Weblog Awards contest. We finished second in the Best Group Blog category and fifth in the Best Overall Blog competition. The contest was marred by, shall we say, voting irregularities, but I don’t think it’s strictly true, as Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs says, that we were robbed. LGF won first place in the “Best Overall Blog” division.
Thanks to all who voted. I hope you stumbled across a previously undiscovered blog or two in the process.
The main impression I came away with is amazement at how far we, and the blogosphere, have come in a very short time. When the Trunk told me, a mere year and a half ago, that “the idea that we could ever have any readers for this thing is a pathetic fantasy,” I had no rational cause to disagree. It is a tribute to the Trunk’s faith, and mine and Deacon’s as well, that we launched Power Line nevertheless.
Opinions differ as to the reach and influence of the blogosphere. Dafydd ab Hugh sent us an email a few days ago which presented an optimistic–unduly so, I think–concept of the blogosphere’s impact. I’ll comment more on that in the next day or two. In the meantime, thanks to all who voted in the Wizbang poll, especially those who voted for us.
BIG TRUNK adds: Our warmest congratulations to the great Hugh Hewitt for crushing the competition for best conservative blog, and to Little Trunk in her Yale Diva alter ego for lapping the field in the competition for Best Ecosystem Level Adorable Rodents Blog. Unlike us, they don’t have to “wait ’til next year.”
DEACON adds: I would also like to thank those who voted for us. When Rocket Man invited me to join Power Line in June of 2002, he said that his model for success was Andrew Sullivan’s blog. To see Power Line competing on even terms with blogs like Sullivan’s (to which I still look up) was truly gratifying.

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