Politico gets a lot of flack for not breaking outside of the D.C. bubble, but blogger Ben Smith's portion of the site is an inside-politics feast for the rest of us. Once assigned to cover and blog about the Democrats' successful 2008 campaign for the presidency, Smith remains a must-read long after a megawatt election, combining his own reporting with a roundup of the best of political media to produce a cheat sheet for the opinions and news of the moment. It's lucid and comprehensive and, unlike some of Politico's other coverage, manages to move beyond the chattering crowds.