TIME.com's First Annual Blog Index

Andrew Sullivan is gay, Roman Catholic, HIV-positive, anti-tax, and no scourge on recreational drug use. In short, he's the perfect commentator in the age of the blog: impossible to categorize by the old rules. The ex-pat Brit (and former TIME blogger and contributor) confounds both the left and the right without necessarily trying to do so. He endorsed George Bush in 2000, John Kerry in 2004, and seems to be leaning toward Barack Obama this year. Oh, and he strongly supported the invasion of Iraq, but now thinks it was a bigger mistake than he ever could have imagined. If Sullivan were a politician, he would be dismissed as a hopeless flip-flopper. But in the blogging world, taking a strong stand and then later admitting you were completely wrong is a rare and precious asset.

Sample Daily Dish Post: (With the Iraq war) I let my hope — the hope that had been vindicated by the fall of the Soviet Union — get the better of my skepticism. There are times when that is a good thing. The Iraq war wasn't one of them.