One App for All Your Political News

Political junkies and regular voters from both parties can cross the great aisle of division, and unite around an iPad app that dishes up politics evenly.

Just download the free Washington Post Politics App and leap into the campaign season with gusto.

The app, launched earlier this year, offers terrific photos, graphics, and animation of everything political.  It features news and analysis, interactive maps with state-by-state polls, historical election results, campaign ads and candidate issues at-a-glance. It also contains, my personal favorite -the factchecker.com

It you want to be a part of the political discussion this fall, this app's for you.  Even the novice politico will find this app easy to navigate and interesting.  It contains articles from all the big television networks, both liberal and conservative.

But for the real political junkies who want to follow social media, the new feature called "The Forum" makes this app a real keeper.

The Forum identifies, organizes and presents content from the most influential political voices on Twitter.  The Forum arranges the tweets into six groups: news outlets, campaigns, partisans, prominent office holders, fact checkers and jesters.  Tweeters' names and titles are displayed in addition to Twitter handles, making it simple for users to know exactly who is saying what.

For those who really want to lead the conversation, check out the "Trending Tweets" section of The Forum, where hot issues of the moment are isolated for easy reference.

Readers do not have to have a Twitter account to read these tweets.

"The Forum enables new and experienced Twitter users alike to quickly see what the political experts, office holders and newsmakers are saying without so much as creating a Twitter account, let alone finding, following and organizing hundreds of people," said Beth Jacobs, general manager of mobile, for the Washington Post.

In a true testament to to the app, my husband a political pro and conservative, who usually disagrees with the Washington Post editorials, called the app "for the most part unbiased with good information."

The app, while educational, informational and entertaining, does have a few glitches.  Sometimes ,when I tried to watch a video on my iPad (a first generation iPad), the app would close down.  The engineers at the Post said it's because my iPad version can't handle the high definition videos.  While that's an annoyance, it's certainly not a barrier for use.  The app's free, the information is offered in a straightforward format, it has all range of opinions, and it's educational.

Politics is important.  Even as we tire of the long campaign season, it's essential to remember that we all have a responsibility to vote.  Elections are a privilege of living in a free country and this app is just one vehicle to help us make an informed choice.