The other day, I was asked if I could provide some insight into some WordPress themes that were politically based that didn't end up looking like crap. The theme must also do a good job displaying photo/video type posts. Here is my SHORT list of political based WordPress themes.
1. Probama
Probama is an elegant two column theme that features a large right-hand sidebar. The sidebar comes with two configured blocks for a featured video as well as recent images uploaded to a specific Flickr account. The only downfall for this theme is that you won't be able to easily remove Mr. Obama from the header. So, this one is for the Obama fans.
2. Political Blog Blue (scroll down the page to find the download link)
Political Blue is a free WordPress theme provided by iThemes. This theme has a nice blue and white feel to it, contains two columns, and has a featured video block built in. iThemes also has an orange flavor of this theme available.
The End:
Welcome to the end of the list. I've been doing my research for the past two days and this is what I came up with. Granted, there are a few free, political based themes out there but they go against the rule of looking like crap. These two themes are the only ones which fit the criteria out of the box.
Bonus Themes:
Two themes which I recommend checking out that are not labeled as political but provide the elements that would easily turn them into one are the Structure WordPress theme and the Options Light theme. Both of these themes would fit the bill nicely as they provide a nice framework from which to display your political views. Both themes provide a way for you to feature Flickr images along with videos. The only downside to both of these themes is that, they are difficult to use if you are not a seasoned WordPress user. However, Justin Tadlock has done a wonderful job providing documentation on each theme should you find yourself in trouble.
Other than the themes I've listed here, there is not much in the way of selection in the WordPress theme world for out of the box political based themes. If you are a theme author, you may want to take a look at this area of theme development as it wouldn't be hard to be king of the mountain.
A 3rd (5th?) theme
While it's not a WordPress theme, I really like Chet Mancini's Patriot theme.
Obama
I actually have this theme on my political blog and I use it as a way to show reader on my blog tips blog how talking about popular things that interest digg readers can give you thousands of visitors.
Obama Masthead
Actually there's a link to the PSD on the download page. So far people have remixed the design in all kinds of ways.
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