Hot Air's Ed Morrissey on Not-So-Radical Republicans and Life Outside the Beltway

Along with the anonymous "Allahpundit," Ed Morrissey is the key to the success of Hot Air, one of the biggest commentary and video sites on the glorious system of tubes we call the Internet. Day in and day out, Morrissey, who also hosts a web radio show and has recently started writing for The Week, weighs in on politics and culture from a center-right POV that is, he says, is getting more and libertarian out of deference to reality.

An L.A. ex-pat who landed in Minneapolis, Morrissey's rise to blog stardom exemplifies how new media has leveled the playing field and given everyone a shot at an audience. Earlier in the decade, Morrissey was working as the manager of a call center when he started the blog Captain's Quarters. The success of that site—he was even named The Week's "Blogger of the Year" a few years back—led to a contract with the experimental Blog Talk Radio and, in 2008, the Hot Air gig. Morrissey still dials in from the Midwest, a location he says gives him a different perspective than many commentators in the BosWash corridor.

Morrissey recently talked to Reason's Nick Gillespie while visiting Washington, D.C.

Approximately 8 minutes. Filmed by Jim Epstein and Joshua Swain. Edited by Swain.

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