In the last year, according to comScore.com, The Huffington Post was the most-visited “Political Blog and News Site,” gathering as many “unique visitors” as the two runner-ups—Politico and the Drudge Report—combined. In early October, President Michael Roth joined Huffington’s swelling army of (mostly celebrity) bloggers, and has since logged four entries on the election.

Although Roth reads The New York Times and The L.A. Times and has written reviews for the latter, he had heard about The Huffington Post’s popularity and became interested in contributing.

“I wrote an op-ed on Yom Kippur because I thought I shouldn’t grade papers while I was fasting,” he said. “I sent it to [The Huffington Post] and got a note right back from Arianna Huffington saying she would love to have it.”

In his posts, Roth has oscillated between the stances of a nonpartisan observer and a left-leaning pragmatist. He often explains his philosophy on leadership, providing a look into his own administrative style.

In a pointed entry on Oct. 20 (“In Praise of Poise”), Roth offered a sharp rebuke to a recent David Brooks column in The New York Times that called President-elect Barack Obama “boring.”

“We are entering a period of our history in which even the most thoughtful of our leaders are likely to be severely tested,” Roth wrote. “Unlike David Brooks, I don’t worry about our next president being boring. Instead, I look for poise, and its complement, tact, when judging the candidates.”

Although Roth praised Obama’s “poise” and general leadership qualities, he never explicitly endorsed Obama or his policies. In an interview with The Argus, Roth would not endorse a specific candidate.

At the same time, though he tends to avoid party allegiances, Roth says that he is willing to share some of his political positions.

“I don’t want to pretend I don’t have political views,” Roth said. “It’s important for a university president to [express views] in a way that doesn’t exclude people at the university that don’t agree with that position.”

In his first post (“’Trust’ in the Economy and Electoral Politics,” Oct. 10, 2008), Roth wrote about an American “crisis of confidence” in which trust in national economic and political institutions has deeply eroded. Suggesting collective participation as a solution, he criticized Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Governor Sarah Palin (R-AK) for using attack politics as well as Obama for calling his Republican opponent “hot-headed.”

“The problem with the politics of attack that the Rovesque McCain-Palin ticket is now employing, and the problem with Obama’s defense through recrimination, is that both strategies erode trust in democracy itself,” Roth wrote.

Although most comments to Roth’s entries have been positive, several readers, such as one “Boadicea,” took issue with his argument.

“I think your inclusion of Obama in your criticism is what people are now calling ’false equivalency,’” Boadicea wrote. “An attempt at even-handedness that actually tells a lie.”

In the interview, Roth defended what he wrote, characterizing his approach as “nonpartisan.”

“The first piece was much less partisan than they usually get on the HuffPost,” he said. “I’m used to writing in a rather non-partisan way because of my position.”

Roth also looks forward to writing more on issues of education now that the election is over. Already, he has discussed Wesleyan in his Huffington Post blog, even describing the impromptu Usdan dance-party held on Tuesday night that he attended.

“In the euphoria [of] the Election night victory, I watched our Wesleyan students celebrating the victory of a man whom they had embraced and in whom they had invested their hopes,” he wrote in his Thursday entry, “Bringing the Story Together.” “It was a raucous party, and the celebrations took place in a context of political and social stability unburdened by fear. I trust that in the months and years ahead we will remember our strong feelings of solidarity on Election night even as we disagree about policies and governmental tactics.”

Indeed, Roth has also mentioned the Wesleyan College Republicans, a group that he has publicly called attention to before. In introducing journalist Juan Williams on Homecoming Weekend, Roth mentioned the College Republicans’ presence on campus, describing the Republican column as the longest in The Argus.

“The Wesleyan Republicans, a small but determined group, has been successful in airing its point of view, and in raising tough questions concerning the assumptions of more liberal students,” he wrote in an Oct. 31 post, “Participation as Education.” “Our campus is not an island unto itself, but instead an incubator of ideas and a forum for debate.”

Roth holds a nuanced view of The Huffington Post, which he sees as a new form of journalism that harkens back to an older, more partisan, form in the history of media.

“They clearly provide a way for some people to get the kind of news they think they want,” he said. “Whether that gets people the news they need, I do not know. I think it goes back to an older form of journalism where you buy a newspaper because you know what you’re going to get.”

Although Roth occasionally strays into political territory in his posts, he reveals more in his discussions of character and leadership. Whether he supports Obama or not, Roth’s blogs make clear that he admires the man who is now the first African American president.

“Some observers have taken Obama’s poise in the face of the relentless attacks and the tumult of events as a sign of aloofness, or elitism,” he wrote on Oct. 20. “When others around you are freaking out, people exemplify poise when they maintain an ability to think clearly, to make judgments thoughtfully, to stay balanced. These are some of the qualities that make for strong leadership because we have confidence in people who are able to keep their wits about them even when those around them are losing control.”