by Mike Memoli

The White House this afternoon released more details of President Obama's scheduled trip to the Gulf of Mexico next week, announcing that he will stop in Gulfport, Mississippi, Theodore, Alabama, and Pensacola, Florida, "to survey the response efforts, visit with gulf residents impacted by the spill, and meet with area officials."

The administration response continues to be debated, as does the president's personal style in handling the crisis.

"I don't always have time to perform for the benefit the cable shows," he said earlier this week in response to a question about his "cool, calm and collected" demeanor.

In advance of his fourth trip, the White House today also offered a rare glimpse at Obama during his last trip to Louisiana a week ago. In footage of a meeting with residents who've been impacted by the spill, the president spoke candidly about what he is able to do.

"Even though I'm president of the United States, my power is not limitless," he is shown saying in the "West Wing Week", a video produced by the administration's new media team each week. "I can't dive down there and plug the hole. I can't suck it up with a straw. All I can do is make sure that I put honest, hard-working, smart people in place like Thad to implement this thing."

by Mike Memoli

In an interview aired Tuesday, President Obama struck a defensive tone when asked about the forcefulness of the administration's response to the BP oil spill.

"I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf," Obama told NBC's Matt Lauer.

Does the media critic-in-chief have a point?

An analysis of news coverage compiled weekly by the Pew Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) shows that it was well over two weeks before the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion emerged as the leading story across all platforms. Only in the past two weeks was it a dominant story.

To say cable news personalities were not paying attention to the disaster may be a stretch, however.

"It's been a story that certainly has generated a significant coverage," said Mark Jurkowitz, associate director of PEJ. But "now there's been a quantum leap" in coverage, particularly on cable news, he added.

by Mark Silva

President-elect Barack Obama concedes that, in light of the economic situation which the nation faces, "not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able do on the pace we had hoped.''

And there will be some "sacrifice'' ahead, he says - "everybody's going to have some skin in the game.''.

Obama's remarks come in an interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos airing Sunday morning. Ever the promoter, Georgeo released excerpts of his talk tonight.

"Our challenge is going to be identifying what works and putting more money into that, eliminating things that don't work, and making things that we have more efficient,'' Obama says in the interview, according to ABC News.. "But I'm not suggesting, George, I want to be realistic here, not everything that we talked about during the campaign are we going to be able to do on the pace we had hoped.''

The host of This Week says he asked the president-elect: "At the end of the day, are you really talking about over the course of your presidency some kind of grand bargain? That you have tax reform, healthcare reform, entitlement reform including Social Security and Medicare, where everybody in the country is going to have to sacrifice something, accept change for the greater good?"

"Yes," Obama tells the interviewer.

"And when will that get done?"

"Well, right now, I'm focused on a pretty heavy lift, which is making sure we get that reinvestment and recovery package in place. But what you described is exactly what we're going to have to do. What we have to do is to take a look at our structural deficit, how are we paying for government? What are we getting for it? And how do we make the system more efficient?"

"And eventually sacrifice from everyone?" the host asks.

"Everybody's going to have (to) give,'' Obama replies. "Everybody's going to have to have some skin (in) the game.''

by Paul Richter

Douglas Frantz, a former managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, has been chosen to be chief investigator for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as it reorganizes under its new chairman, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.)

Frantz was the managing editor of the Times from 2005 to 2007, and has also been an investigative reporter for the Times, the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times, and that paper's Istanbul bureau chief.

The committee, the focus of the Senate's foreign affairs deliberations, will have as its chief of staff David McKean. McKean has been chief of staff in Kerry's personal office since 1999, and helped lay the groundwork for Kerry's presidential run in 2004.

Frederick L. Jones, a career foreign service officer and White House official in the Bush and Clinton administrations, will be the committee's communications director.

The committee's chairmanship came open when former chairman Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) became vice president.

by Mark Silva

None of Roland Burris' "people'' were successful at reaching any of Barack Obama's "people'' -- at least that's what the man appointed to replace the president-elect in the Senate, the former senator who maintains that the governor of Illinois has no business appointing anyone to replace him, says about all this.

Obama has spoken out quite plainly: He agrees with the Senate's Democratic leaders that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, accused by federal authorities of attempting to sell the seat of the former junior senator from Illinois elected to the presidency, should not be attempting to replace Obama. The Senate Democrats say they won't seat Blagojevich's appointee.

Enter Burris, a former state attorney general who ran for governor a few times -- even against Blagojevich -- and helped the governor raise money for his campaign, an official with a long and largely respected record of public service. Obama, the only black member of the Senate before election as the first African-American president, is maintaining in no ununcertain terms that Burris, the first black official elected statewide in Illinois, cannot succeed him -- not because of Burris's own profile, but because of Blagojevich's own problems.

"We certainly tried to reach out to him today,'' Burris said of Obama, during an appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show last night, "but I don't think my people were successful in reaching any of his people.''

Burris maintains that the governor's "problems'' should have no bearing on his own appointment to the Senate.

"All of the rest of this is the side drama of the governor's problems,'' he said in the MSNBC interview. "It has nothing to do with the qualifications of the individual or the dedication or the service of the individual, because I am in no way condoning anything that the governor has done.

"But what I perceive the governor is doing is saying it's his duty and it's really his responsibility, to have two senators representing the great state of Illinois, especially in these difficult times. And so, that was my judgment and decision after I counseled with a few of my supporters and friends, that, yes, should he appoint me, that I should accept it and hope and pray that the powers to be would recognize that there is a distinction between Blagojevich's problems and him carrying out his constitutional and legal duties as governor, which he is still doing.''

Here, courtesy of MSNBC, is a transcript of Maddow's interview with Burris:

by Mark Silva

The ever-impartial folks over at Vanity Fair have rounded up some talking heads for an "oral history'' of the Bush administration.

And they have some fairly rough words for the retiring president.

Larry Wilkerson, the former assistant to Secretary of State Colin Powell who has been outspoken in his criticism of the Bush White House - particularly the hand that Vice President Dick Cheney has played - says former Deputy Secretary Richard Armitage called Cheney's office "the Gestapo,'' and says Powell's task was "cleaning the dog---- off the carpet in the Oval Office.''

This and more can be found in the February issue, with an article prepapred by Todd Purdum and Cullen Murphy, on sale New Year's Eve in New York and Los Angeles and Jan. 6 throughout the rest of the nation:

 John Bellinger III, legal adviser to the National Security Council and later to the secretary of state, says that "one of the great tragedies for this administration has been the damage caused by its detainee policies... The Justice Department really never lived up to its name.... It was often the Department of Litigation Risk."

 Joschka Fischer, German foreign minister and vice-chancellor, talks about how stunned the Germans were that the U.S. used their source (codename: "Curveball"), whom they were unsure about, as the single source for Powell's U.N. presentation about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction: "I was astonished that the Americans used Curveball, really astonished. This was our stuff. But they presented it not in the way we knew it. They presented it as a fact, and not as the way an intelligence assessment is--could be, but could also be a big lie. We don't know."

 Bob Graham, retired Democratic senator from Florida and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says that one of our biggest challenges will be getting the rest of the world to trust the U.S. again: "One of our difficulties now is getting the rest of the world to accept our assessment of the seriousness of an issue, because they say, You screwed it up so badly with Iraq, why would we believe that you're any better today?"

 Mark McKinnon, chief campaign media adviser to Bush, calls the failure of immigration reform Bush's real regret: "Immigration was one of his most heartfelt issues.''

 Matthew Dowd, Bush pollster and chief strategist for the 2004 presidential campaign, contends that Karl Rove's strategy for winning was all about painting one side as good, the other as bad: "Karl wasn't receptive to ideas that would've called the country to certain things and brought them to a common purpose and a sense of shared sacrifice. Karl came from a perspective of: you defeat people in politics by calling one side bad and one side good."

According to Dowd, Vanity Fair reports, "The headline in [Bush's] presidency will be missed opportunity. That is the headline, ultimately. It's missed opportunity, missed opportunity."

by Frank James

Paul Krugman is one of the smartest, most entertaining economists alive which explains why he may the best known too,

The New York Times columnist and Princeton University professor appeared at the National Press Club in Washington Friday, fresh on the heels of receiving his Nobel Prize. And he simultaneously scared the audience out of its wits and left them laughing and wanting more, not a bad achievement for a practitioner of the dismal science.

A few important Krugman points:

The stimulus is going to have to be extremely big to work. It takes about $200 billion of well-spent federal stimulus to drop unemployment one percentage point. He thinks unemployment could hit 10 percent before things turn around. So that argues for a $1 trillion stimulus not over two years but faster.

The problem is, President-elect Obama talks about the money going to shovel-ready infrastructure projects. But the best number Krugman has heard puts the amount of such projects that could be quickly started at something like $150 billion, far short of what's needed. That's a big problem, especially since he argues the stimulus must be done quickly.

Krugman worries about what part of the economy will kick in to take up the slack after the stimulus. That's very unclear.

Krugman believes 2010 will see improved economic conditions as the stimulus workes its way through. But 2009 scares him. And if he's scared, I'm scared too.

by Frank James

One of the best journalistic descriptions of the rescue package for the Detroit Three car makers announced by President Bush yesterday comes from American Public Radio's business and economic news program "Marketplace."

If U.S. automakers were dangling from the ledge of a fifth-story window by one hand yesterday, today they pulled both hands back onto that ledge. Uncle Sam came to the rescue not with a ladder but with an energy drink. And Detroit is still just barely hanging on.

That's a great visual. Pretty accurate too.

Mark Felt appears on CBS' "Face the Nation" in Washington on Aug. 30, 1976. Felt was the source identified for years only as "Deep Throat" in the Washington Post's reporting on the Watergate scandal. (AP / August 30, 1976)

by Frank James

We're all learning this morning of the death, at age 95, of W. Mark Felt, who as a senior Federal Bureau of Investigation official, served as the shadowy source known as "Deep Throat" to reporter Bob Woodward in his investigation of the Watergate scandal that led to President Nixon's resignation.

As Johanna Neuman writes in a Los Angeles Times piece:

A controversial figure who was later convicted of authorizing illegal activities in pursuit of members of the radical Weather Underground, Felt died of heart failure Thursday at his home in Santa Rosa, Calif., his grandson Rob Jones said.

The reporters continued to keep Felt's name a secret, but in 2005, at the age of 91, Felt told Vanity Fair magazine, "I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat."

by Frank James

It is one of the paradoxes of our age, there's more news to cover than ever in Washington and many more people are reading it because of the Internet but fewer people to cover it.

The New York Times reports on the incredible shrinking news corps in Washington, a function of the advertising revenue crash in the industry which started long before the recession and has only accelerated because of it.

An excerpt:

The times may be news-rich, but newspapers are cash-poor, facing their direst financial straits since the Depression. Racing to cut costs as they lose revenue, most have decided that their future lies in local news, not national or international events. That has put a bull's-eye on expensive Washington bureaus.

Albert R. Hunt, Washington executive editor at Bloomberg News, said he was taken aback by the mood Saturday night at a dinner of the Washington press corps' Gridiron Club. "It was like being at a wake," he said. "Every time you turned around, someone was talking about their bureau being closed or downsized."

by Mark Silva

This one probably wasn't too hard to predict.

President-elect Barack Obama: "Person of the Year.''

So says Time magazine, with that long history of idetifying that person -- once was a "man'' in the old days of male-oriented thinking -- who has had the biggest impact on all of us in the past year.

And indeed, the finalists considered this year say something about how widely Time has expanded its search: The announced runners-up for Person of the Year for 2008:

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Gov. Sarah Palin and Chinese director Zhang Yimou.

Last year: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took the honor.

Past year's winners include Bono, Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton,Jimmy Carter and Lyndon Baines Johnson, Amazon.com CEO and founder Jeff Bezos. In 1972, two shared the honor: President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

And they haven't always been forces of good -- but rather people who have had the greatest impact on us -- such as the Ayatollah Khomeini (1980) and Adolph Hitler, a few times during the 1930s and 40s.

by Mark Silva

Serious words here, from Comedy Central:

"Rod Blagovich,'' blurts Lou Dobbs, the CNN commentator, shown on tape..

"Lou Dobbs cant say a foreign-sounding name, what a surprise,'' Comedy Central's Jon Stewart says, with his Daily Show take on the many accusations facing Gov. Rod Blagojevich, accused in a federal complaint of trying to sell the vacant Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama.

"What isn't he being charged with?'' Stewart asks - for the answer, in the clip above, viewer discretion is advised,

The governor has moved on from being "a sleazy politician,'' Stewart suggests, to something out of a 19th Century German children's fable.

"Sadly,'' Stewart concludes, "graft is nothing new to Illinois.'' - noting that three of the last seven governors have landed in jail.

Comparing the percentage of that record with the numbers of people who are estimated to get away with murder each year, he concludes: "You are more likely to end up in jail if you become governor of Illinois than if you are a murderer.''

by Mark Silva

In the "post-Russert era'' of the Sunday morning news shows, FOX News Sunday's Chris Wallace is settling in for his sixth year in the saddle.

And for this seasoned Sunday-morning newsman, the challenge of preserving the "firewall'' between hard, objective news and the pointed opinions that have come to occupy more of the cable television's universe of news programming remains Job No. 1. He also downplays the notion that traditional news shows now are competing with comedy shows for the primary source of many Americans' news.

There's a big difference between the Sunday morning shows and the daily reporting of news and the evening commentary that kicks in on FOX and MSNBC, for instance.

"I could make a distinction at FOX News between the basic preponderance of our broadcast day'' and the evening commentators, Wallace says, speaking with the Swamp on the occasion of his own anniversary and the shifting lineup of the Sunday morning shows. "I see what we do all day, until 8 pm, as news coverage.''

After 8, when the pointed Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity commentary kicks in, Wallace allows, that's something else altogether. And during the evening hours on MSNBC, the news gives way to the liberal voices of Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow.

"I don't have a problem with Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow,'' Wallace adds. "I like to hear their views...

"The one difference is that FOX created a firewall,'' Wallace says. "We've built this firewall between news and opinion. The biggest difference I see with MSNBC is, they didn't.'' And, for all the philosophical pronouncements in which CNN's Lou Dobbs wraps his own news program, Wallace suggests that CNN too has hewed to the lines.

"I think they're more in our mold of separating news from opinion,'' he says, suggesting that MSNBC has been "egregious'' in blurring the distinction between the two.

Now that David Gregory is taking over at the leading program in the Sunday morning news lineup, and the oldest continuing program on television, NBC News' Meet the Press, Wallace sees a new opportunity to attract viewers who haven't been turning his way. In the months following the surprising death of longtime MTP host Tim Russert, NBC's Tom Brokaw held the chair, but now has handed it over to the younger Gregory.

"I think the post-Russert era begins now,'' Wallace says. "Brokaw was as much a news icon as Russert was.''

by Mark Silva and updated with transcript

President-elect Barack Obama, confronting the question of the beleaguered economy and tense international challenges that he is facing, explained his approaches to both fronts in an interview aired by NBC's Meet the Press this morning.

The interview conducted by moderator Tom Brokaw, his last as he hands over the show to NBC's David Gregory, was taped in Chicago on Saturday.

The world has "gotten considerably worse'' since his election, Brokaw reminded Obama.

"As tough as times are right now, there are nothing compared to what my grandparents went through and the greatest generation went through,'' Obama said. "There is no doubt that Franklin Roosevelt had to recreate an entire economic structure... We've got some strengths he didn't have'' -- while millions are out of work.

"My No. 1 job... is making sure we have an economic recovery program equal to the task,'' said Obama, who is seeking "the largest infrastructure program'' since the building of the interstate highways in the 1950s to give people work.

Obama, who campaigned with a pledge to cut the taxes of 95 percent of all Americans, also proposed to eliminate the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans that President Bush won to help pay for Obama's initiatves. In this interview, Obama said his advisors are looking at whether the best course now is to actually repeal the tax cuts for the wealthiest -- people such as himself and Brokaw who are "making more than a quarter million dollars a year"' -- or to let them lapse when they already are set to expire in 2011.

See excerpts above and below, and see, courtesy of NBC News, a full transcript of the iMeet the Press Brokaw interview with Obama, here in the Swamp:

by Mark Silva

It's official: Tom Brokaw's tenure as interim moderator of NBC News' Meet the Press is ending and the David Gregory era is beginning.

Gregory, a tenacious questioner of presidents and more, will become moderator of the long-running Sunday morning news show "effective immediately,'' NBC announced this morning - on a day in which the influential program will feature President-elect Barack Obama.

Gregory replaces the late, long-time moderator, Tim Russert, whose death surprised colleagues, family and audience alike last summer.

"For 61 years, this program has played a vital role in our nation's political discourse and millions of Americans' Sunday mornings," NBC News President Steve Capus said in a statement issued today. "We lost a legend this summer, and today we hand the program over to someone who has a true appreciation and respect for the 'Meet the Press' legacy, and a keen sense of what it needs to be in the future.

"I'm filled with a great sense of purpose as I join a superb team to cover Washington and the world from a treasured platform in our country,'' the incoming Gregory said. "Above all, I want to make Tim proud."

Meet the Press has been the top-rated Sunday morning public affairs show for nearly 11 consecutive years, the network says, noting that it's also the longest-running program on network television. It started Nov. 6, 1947.

NBC also says this of Gregory (pictured above in NBC photo AP):

by Mark Silva

Oprah Winfrey will be hosting the TV show that goes by her name from Washington, D.C., during the week of President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

Access Hollywood has the scoop on Oprah's traveling inaugural TV show.

"I'm going to break that right here -- that's where I'm going to be," Winfrey told Access Hollywood. "See you there . . . that's the place to be."

The queen of daytime TV has reached out to the Opera House at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts for a stage for The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Winfrey, one of Obama's best-known backers, campaigned for him early in his race for the Democratic presidential nomination, and cried for him on a stranger's shoulder at his acceptance speech in Chicago on Election Night.

"There are not even words to talk about what this night means," Winfrey told Access' Maria Menounos on Election Night. "Everybody keeps using the word historic - there's never been a night like this on the planet Earth...nothing can compare to this."

by Frank James

At the recently completely press conference at which President-elect Barack Obama officially named Gov. Bill Richardson his choice for Commerce Secretary, Obama called on Fox News's White House reporter.

The interchange was interesting for a few reasons. One, some observers had thought that Obama might be freezing out the news channel known for its conservative bent. Ed Schultz, the progressive radio host, said yesterday he hoped Fox never got to ask a question.

But Obama called on Wendell Goler, Fox News's reporter, ending that conspiracy theory.

After being called on, Goler thanked the president for calling on him. The reporter then asked one serious and one not-so-serious question.

What would Obama's reaction be if Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. dipped into the second half of the $700 billion bailout funds even before Obama is sworn in? And Goler's light-hearted question directed to Richardson: "What happened to the beard?"

by Andrew Malcolm, writing for the Ticket

Back jn October then-Sen. Barack Obama granted a then-rare campaign interview. That time, not surprisingly, it went to the New York Times Magazine and the candidate reportedly whined to the writer:

"I am convinced that if there were no Fox News, I might be two or three points higher in the polls. If I were watching Fox News, I wouldn't vote for me, right?

"Because the way I'm portrayed 24/7 is as a freak! I am the latte-sipping, New York Times-reading, Volvo-driving, no-gun-owning, effete, politically correct, arrogant liberal. Who wants somebody like that?"

It's not unusual for public figures to feel misportrayed or even abused by media organizations. John McCain and his people expressed some strong concerns several times about the same Times newspaper.

Now that the campaign is over and Obama is president-elect, his reticence to talk with the media is gone.Now, he's eager to spread the impression of abundant pre-oath energy and activity.

by Mark Silva

Suffering from Palin withdrawal?

Miss those daily doseages of hunting caribou, shopping at Neiman Marcus, watching for Russians on the horizon and sorting out the countries of Africa?

The folks at Comedy Central have compiled a Best of Palin series for those who enjoyed the Alaska governor's run on the national stage, as running mate for Sen. John McCain, and want to reminisce about the good times.

by Mark Silva

They don't have Sarah Palin to kick around any more.

So the good-humored folks at Saturday Night Live, who rode a wave of Palinoia to record ratings this fall, have turned their lens on the White House-in-waiting.

That's Rahm Emanuel, the President-elect Barack Obama-designated chief of staff whose mouth precedes him, addressing the nation in this clip from NBC's Saturday Night Live Web-site.

(Okay, it's not really the congressman from Illinois, but you get the picture, as the SNL-designated-chief-of-staff opens up with a humble introduction about all the challenges facing the new administration and his readiness to confront them in a spirit of bipartisanship.)

Never mind all those people who call Emanuel "hyper-partisan.'' The chief nicknamed "Rahmbo'' ala SNL has a coarse warning for anyone who crosses him:

"You will never see it coming...'' And that means you, John Boehner, House minority leader: "I will send you back to Ohio in a ------- box.'' And you, Joe Lieberman, I wouldn't have just stripped you of your chairmanship, SNL's Rahmbo says: "We would strip you naked and send your John McCain-loving ---- back to Connecticut.''

It's good theater. Check it out.

Watch CBS Videos Online

by Frank James

Comedian Stephen Colbert was on CBS's "The Early Show" in which he had some funny things to say about being a "Christmas originalist" and on the "War on Christmas." And check out what he does with the Electoral College map. It's something you'll never see CNN's John King do and thank goodness for that.

by Mark Silva

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Chicago congressman and designated chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama, turned his roaster-oven settings on Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden last night at a charity roast of Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert.

Emanuel on Biden: "Joe's the one who predicted that President-elect Obama will be tested by a crisis in the first six months of his presidency. What he didn't mention: the crisis will no doubt be over something Joe said."

Emanuel on Obama: "Of course, Stephen and I do have our differences. Stephen believes the messiah is Jesus Christ. In my briefing books, that's Barack Obama. ''

The Colbert roasting with Emanuel and others at the podium, as the Huffington Post reports it with a video clip, was part of a charity for the Spina Bifida Association organized every year by Judy Woodruff and Al Hunt.

by Frank James revised

All right, this gets a little confusing so try and stay with me on this.

I had a earlier posting with the headline "Palin deserves an Africa-hoax apology."

The thrust of that posting was that Carl Cameron of Fox News and others, including me, were victims of a hoax that involved a story that Gov. Sarah Palin didn't know Africa was a continent. The earlier posting suggested that it was a hoax that Palin didn't know Africa was a continent.

The posting was based on a story in today's New York Times that reported that reported on a hoax associated with the Palin story. After reading the story, it's easy to come away believing that whole Palin-Africa thing was a hoax.

But the hoax the Times reported on has to do with a prankster, a faux "McCain adviser," popping up and claiming credit for the Africa anecdote.

That "adviser" was fictional. MSNBC on Monday reported that Cameron got his information from the prankster. Once it realized its mistake, it reported that was not the case.

A Fox News spokeswoman tells me that the channel stands by Cameron's report that people associated with the McCain campaign told Fox News that Palin didn't know Africa was a continent.

Cameron never said his source was the hoaxer in the Times story, she said. A journalist colleague has also told me he overheard Cameron say during the campaign that McCain campaign insiders were telling him that Palin wasn't as knowledgeable as one might expect, to put it politely.

So, in other words, the hoax in question was on MSNBC, not Fox.

Unless it can be proven that Cameron was wrong, he and Fox apparently deserve an apology from me for what I wrote earlier.

At this point, I can't tell whether Palin deserves an apology or not on this. My head is starting to hurt.

The original post is below so that you can see the earlier, now dubious version.

-------------------------------------------------------

Who knew you couldn't trust what Fox News Channel reports?

Last week, I wrote that Fox News reporter Carl Cameron reported on air that he heard from a McCain campaign source or sources that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin didn't know that Africa was a continent.

I passed that along because Cameron indicated that a source or sources within the McCain campaign told him or other members of Fox's news team that Palin revealed what would have been a stunning bit of ignorance.

But it appears Cameron was taken in by a hoax which means that anyone who relied on his reporting was misled, myself included.

The New York Times has a story which spells out what happened.

It was among the juicier post-election recriminations: Fox News Channel quoted an unnamed McCain campaign figure as saying that Sarah Palin did not know that Africa was a continent.

Who would say such a thing? On Monday the answer popped up on a blog and popped out of the mouth of David Shuster, an MSNBC anchor. "Turns out it was Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward today to identify himself as the source of the leaks," Mr. Shuster said.

by Mark Silva

If Helen Thomas holds the only chair in the White House press briefing room named for an individual rather than an organization - a front-and-center seat at that - it may have something to do with the barriers that the 88-year-old columnist has broken in her long career.

She has returned to that seat, after recovering from an extended illness, as our versatile colleague Ken Herman of Cox Newspapers notes in this video he made of Helen Thomas' triumphant return to the White House.

From this seat, the Hearst Newspapers columnist has asked some of the toughest questions of the sitting president - "You'll be sorry,'' she once warned President Bush when he called on her in her front-row perch - and she suggests that President-elect Barack Obama won't get much of a honeymoon.

"No way,'' Thomas says. "He asked for it.... He'll get one day, maybe.''

by Frank James

A group of liberal pranksters showed what you can do with some time, some people and some money. They created a fake issue of the New York Times with a four-colum wide headline that blares "Iraq War Ends."

The Times's City Room blog has details:

In an elaborate hoax, pranksters distributed thousands of free copies of a spoof edition of The New York Times on Wednesday morning at busy subway stations around the city, including Grand Central Terminal, Washington and Union Squares, the 14th and 23rd Street stations along Eighth Avenue, and Pacific Street in Brooklyn, among others.

The spurious 14-page papers -- with a headline "IRAQ WAR ENDS" -- surprised commuters, many of whom took the free copies thinking they were legitimate.

by Mark Silva

Sen. John McCain, who made his first appearance on TV since losing the presidential election to Sen. Barack Obama, stepped into a comic's role last night.

"I've been sleeping like a baby,'' McCain told The Tonight Show's Jay Leno last night - "Sleep two hours, wake up and cry, sleep two hours, wake up and cry.''

McCain let out a little faux knee-slap for his well-timed, if well-worn, joke.

Leno asked about the morning after the election - going out to get a cup of coffee. "I didn't read the newspaper,'' McCain said. "I knew what it was going to say.''

Leno also asked his guest why people didn't see more of the comical McCain, well-known for a wry sense of humor, on the campaign trail.

"I frankly don't think... a lot of people wanted a stand-up comic,'' explained McCain, who performed a pretty stand-up appearance on Saturday Night Live before the election. "They wanted to know how we're going to handle the issues.''

by Mark Silva and updated

Sarah Palin, calling the campaign aides spreading rumors about her are "a bunch of jerks,'' told CNN today that it's "not true'' that she didnt know that Africa is a continent.

Palin will get a chance to talk about African geography and anything else that Greta Van Susteren has on her mind when FOX News Channel offers the first "extensive post-election sitdown'' with the governor of Alaska and GOP vice presidential nominee on Monday night.

And Sen. John McCain, the losing Republican presidential nominee, is wasting no time in returning to late-night TV: McCain is slated for the The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on Tuesday night, Veterans' Day.

He'll appear along with musical guests, the Kaiser Chiefs.

FOX's Van Susteren plans to tape her interview with Palin in Wasilla, Alaska, and present Monday night's show at 10 pm EST live from that location. "The whole hour will be devoted to Palin who will speak with Van Susteren about accusations by McCain staffers of dissent within the campaign, the outcome of the election, and her future role in the Republican Party amongst other topics,'' FOX says.

That certainly will include the question of whether Africa is a continent or a country, which, according to FOX's Carl Cameron, Palin didn't know - this was among the accusations coming out of the post-election divided McCain-Palin camp.

But this isn't fair: Palin has time to study the question.-- for which, as she told CNN today,she already knows the answer.

by Mark Silva

CNN's Campbell Brown has this to say to all the closet campaign critics who are spilling the beans about all the things that Sarah Palin didn't know: "You picked her.''

In a rather blunt and direct shot at the secret sources of the post-election revelations this week that Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, didn't know that Africa is a continent, did a lot more fancy shopping than the GOP has let on and more, the cable-network commentator used her stage on CNN's Cutting Through the Bull Tonight to lambaste the story-tellers.

"I find it so stunning that the very people who introduced us to Sarah Palin ... who told us she would make a great vice president... have now turned on her with a vengeance,'' Brown said.

It appears that Palin's geographic confusion may extend beyond believing Alaska's proximity to Russia lent her foreign policy expertise, as we report this morning on the Chicago Tribune's Talk page and noted here in the Swamp.

According to a FOX News report, the former Republican vice presidential nominee didn't seem to know that Africa is a continent. That's one of a slew of claims now emerging from John McCain's campaign aides, who may be lashing out in anger after the Republican's loss Tuesday to Barack Obama. Palin, for her part, says she isn't commenting on anonymous source's baseless comment.

by Jason George

WASILLA, Alaska -- Stopping for a coffee at the Mocha Moose, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told reporters she's not sure if she'll have a role in national politics if she and Sen. John McCain don't win today's election.

"You know if there is a role in national politics, it won't be so much partisan," she said, 15 minutes after voting at the Wasilla City Hall where she once served as mayor.

"My efforts have always been here in the state of Alaska to get everybody to unite and work together," she added. "It certainly would a uniter type of roll"

Asked if she had any regrets in this campaign, Palin first said wished she had "more hours in the day so we could've gotten around to more areas of our country." She then seemed to find her preferred answer: blaming the media.

Palin said she was disappointed with much of the reporting about her.

"The state of journalism today, the world, for the blogosphere, the 2-3-hour news cycles, where just too much is reported based on gossip and innuendo and things taken out of context," she said.

She then suggested that her next role might be righting the wrongs she sees in journalism.

"I'd like to help in that effort also because I have great respect for the world for journalism."

She then said no more questions and left.

by Frank James

Barbara Lippert, long-time columnist for Adweek, had some doubts before Sen. Barack Obama's infomercial last night but on balance liked what she saw.

Full disclosure: I'm an Obama voter, but going in I had my doubts about the wisdom of running a 30-minute Obamamercial. Sure it was a macho move to buy up all that media time (estimated cost: $3.5-4 million) and roadblock the 8 p.m. hour on CBS, NBC, Fox, Univision and various cable networks.

But it also could come off as manipulative and wasteful, like a steel-tanked political machine rolling over America's living rooms...

by Frank James

It's hard not to notice the disconnect between this ad from Sen. John McCain's campaign and the message McCain has been pounding on the campaign trail.

McCain has spent weeks calling Sen. Barack Obama's character into question through raising the William Ayers issue, the ACORN issue, the Tony Rezko issue and, this week, the Rashid Khalidi issue.

The McCain campaign's argument has been clear, Obama doesn't have the judgment and character to be president. This would seem to be the end of the matter.

But this ad released yesterday, raises the question of experience, then ends with the announcer saying "The fact is, Barack Obama is not ready... yet." Okay, so are we supposed to forget the other stuff the campaign's been saying? If we accepted the McCain camp's prior argument about Obama's character, are we then supposed to turn around and believe it wouldn't matter in four years?

Does this ad make sense to anyone out there? I think it really confuses McCain's argument. Either he believes Obama is unfit to be president or he doesn't.

by Mark Silva

Ahead in the polls, Barack Obama was asked about that so-called "Bradley effect,'' in which polling failed to detect antipathy for a black candidate before the election.

"They've been saying that for a while, but we're still here,'' Obama told Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, with a comical response to a serious question. "I don't think that white voters have gotten this memo about the Bradley effect.''

Obama, campaigning in Florida, hooked up with Comedy Central via satellite, six days out from an election in which polls portray him as the favorite for the presidency in key states that could heavily tip the balance of the electoral vote.

With Obama staking a claim to that potential "swing state'' of Florida - and recent polls supporting his claim - The Daily Show's Stewart allowed, with an audience cheering Obama's remote appearance -- and also that remark about 'the Bradley effect' -- that "clearly our show is no swing show.''.

"So much of this has been about fear of you... a socialist, a Marxist, a witch - that's right, they've been calling you a witch,'' Stewart said, asking if "any of this fear stuff has stuck.''

"It just hasn't think it has,'' Obama said, dismissing all the talk about socialism and the rest.

"I think there's a small segment of hardcore Sean Hannity fans that wouldn't want to go have a beer with me,'' he said, and, repeating his campaign trail joke about being a socialist for sharing his toys with his friends in Kindergarten, Obama, tongue in cheek, told his host: "I would tell you, Jon, that being on your program is further evidence of these tendencies.''

by Mark Silva

Barack Obama is not only buying commercial network airtime Wednesday night, but Obama also will make an appearance on Comedy Central's The Daily Show, the network says.

Favorable forum? "You rock, Barack,'' the audience told Obama the last time he appeared on Jon Stewart's show.

"There's a certain inspirational quality to you,'' Stewart told Obama then. "My question is, is that something that America's really going to go for?''

"We're going to find out,'' Obama said then.

Has the "insanity'' of the process sunk in yet, Stewart asked.

"Everyday,'' Obama said, "it reveals itself in new ways.''

by Mark Silva

Michelle Obama made an appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight Show last night. When the talk show host thanked the candidate's wife, Obama shrugged: "It's the Tonight Show.''

Her two young daughters, however, "could care less'' about all this television and campaign business, she said. "Quite frankly, they could care less,'' she said of the activities of her husband, the Democratic presidential nominee. "When he comes home they're like, you know, let me show you my soccer trophy.''

Recently, she said, with family sitting around the kitchen table he was telling her mother about the all-network, prime-time campaign TV ad buy that his scamapign is making Wednesday evening. "Wednesday he's airing this...'' Michelle Obama said -- not quite sure what to call it. "He's on all the networks, I don't know what they're calling it, but he's all over the place.''

Daughter Malia asked: "You're going to be on all the TV? She says, 'Are you going to interrupt my TV?'''

"He says, 'No, we didn't buy time on Disney,' and she said 'Oh good.' And she got up and walked away. She was just like, 'You don't mess with my TV.'''

by Frank James

If journalism schools ever needed a perfect example to show their students of how an interview should never be conducted, it would be the recent encounter between Sen. Joe Biden and Barbara West, an anchor for WFTV in Orlando, Fla.

Embarrassing and painful are two words that quickly come to mind to describe West's interrogation of Biden last week. It may be the worst interview of a major political figure by a "professional" broadcast journalist I've ever witnessed. It was like something out of the old Soviet Union where propaganda masqueraded as news.

Every question West asked revealed a bias against Sen. Barack Obama that reached the point of outright hostility. She was so outlandish that at one point Biden seemed to be wondering if he might've somehow stumbled into a taping of the Colbert Report. That was especially clear from this exchange.

WEST: You may recognize this famous quote: "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs." That's from Karl Marx. How is Senator Obama not being a Marxist if he intends to spread the wealth around?

WEST: That's a question.

by Mark Silva

That half-hour of prime time TV that Barack Obama is buying midweek gets a preview from the Saturday Night Live crew, which suggests it's time to "play it safe'' and go for a "variety show.''

Featuring Bill Clinton, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and professor Bill Ayers.

Joe Biden's "attempt to blow the election for Sen. Obama'' also is the centerpiece of the SNL skit below - see the video here - and the scripts of both skits on the next page.

Teaser: (Biden: "As sure as I'm standing here today, during his first few weeks in office, this brilliant young President, is going to be tested. Tested by an international crisis, the likes of which this nation has never before seen. A deliberately manufactured crisis, designed to test his mettle... Our military may invade Pakistan. Or surrender to the Chinese. We may sell Hawaii to Saudi Arabia...

"We may cede Florida back to Spain, or Alaska to the Russians. We may blow up every nuclear power plant in the country. We may set fire to Washington D.C.. We may round up all French-Canadians. But don't lose faith. It's all part of a plan. ''

by Mark Silva

NBC News' Brian Williams, joining the Republican candidates campaigning in Ohio, notes his own network's poll showing John McCain 10 points down behind Barack Obama.

In an interview with the Nightly News' Williams, the Republican running mate, Sarah Palin, said she is ready to release her medical records.

"So be it,'' she said. "If that will allow some curiosity seekers perhaps to have one more thing that they can either check the box off that they can find something to criticize perhaps or find something to rest them assured over, fine, I'm healthy, I'm happy.. I've had five kids. That's going to be in the medical records. I've never been seriously ill or hurt. You'll see that in the medical records, if they're released.''

McCain, reminded that he is down in the polls and down in money, was asked how does he "stay up?''

"Down in money down in the polls. We've got 'em just where we want 'em,'' McCain said with a laugh.

"I've always done best when we're running a little behind and have to catch up... We seem to catch fire. Lately, we have seen in the last several days, ever since the debate, we've seen some uptick. We've got about three or four points to go, and we can win this thing.''

Asked about the "test'' that a new president is likely to face from a foreign enemy after election, McCain said: "I've been tested. They know me very well.''

McCain was asked about Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama, and his criticism for Palin's readiness.

"I know that if Gen. Powell had wanted to meet Gov. Palin, we could have arranged that,'' McCain said. "Obviously Gen. Powell doesn't known Gov. Palin's record. Reform.... 24,000 employees. I believe... Shares my world view.... Has a son who has his life on the line in defense of world freedom... If that's not qualified, tell me what is.''

Palin: "I'm not going to toot my own horn, but I do have more executive experience than even Barack Obama has.... But let's not forget, also, that one endorsement in this process, (while McCain) has received the endorsement of four former secretaries'' of state.

"Five,'' McCain said.

"Five,'' she said.

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin, slowly making her way through the rounds of broadcast and cable television networks for interviews, sat down with CNN on Tuesday.

The interviewer, Drew Griffin, asked Palin about the mockery she has faced in the press, including the National Review's depiction of her as "stupid.'' And Griffin asked the governor of Alaska about that case involving her former brother-in-law on the state police force, in which a legislative investigation concluded that she abused her power.

"Tasergate,'' Palin replied....

"Governor, you've been mocked in the press,'' Griffin asked Palin. "The press has been pretty hard on you, the Democrats have been pretty hard on you, but also some conservatives have been pretty hard on you as well. The National Review had a story saying that, you know, I can't tell if Sarah Palin is incompetent, stupid, unqualified, corrupt or all of the above.

Palin: "Who wrote that one?"

CNN: "That was in the National Review, I don't, have the author."

Palin: "I'd like to talk to that person."

See the Republican vice presidential nominee's responses on Palin's image in the media and on that case she calls Tasergate here:

by Mark Silva, and updated with video and script

It's Saturday Night in New York and Tina Fey is making room for Sarah Palin: The show opens with a simulated C-Span- broadcast press conference, the first official press conference with Sarah Palin, it seems.

Gov. Sarah Palin (Fey).

Fey, really happy to be in front of "the liberal elite media,'' says, "The American people are angry, and John McCain is angry, too... that Barack Obama, if he's angry, I can't tell...(He speaks so well, like an angel whispering in your ear, she says.) "He makes John McCain sound like a garbage truck emptying trash at a landfill.''

As she shifts into some "fancy pageant walking,'' Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels, off-stage, is pictured with the real Sarah Palin, and Mark Wahlberg, talk about cameos.

"He didn't like the impression we did of him on the show,'' Michaels says of Wahlberg. "Tell me about it,'' Palin says.

On walks Alec Baldwin: "What do they call that woman?

"Caribou Barbie,'' Palin says.

"Alec, this is Gov. Palin,'' Michaels says.

Baldwin to Palin: "Forgive me, but I feel I must say this -- you are way hotter in person... ''

Palin: "Why thank you."

"I mean, seriously,'' Baldwin adds of Fey. "I can't believe they let her play you."

Then Baldwin arrives on Fey's set, and replaces her with the Palin. Same red suit, same swept back hair, same fashion eyeglasses.

"I'm not going to take any of your questions,'' the governor of Alaska and Republican nominee for vice president tells the SNL presser. "But I do want to take this opportunity to say, 'Live from New York, it's Saturday Night.''

And so it goes, a little more than two weeks from Election Day - on the late-night show that got a 50-percent ratings boost with its series of Palinpersonations this fall, opening with the Palin whose own ticket apparently stands several points behind in the tracking polls and electoral college count. But, hey, it's Saturday Night.

When, and where, else, could the comedienne Amy Poehler get away with another skit featuring the real Palin in which Poehler raps the lines: "All the mavericks in the house, put your hands up. All the plumbers in the house, pull your pants up.''

Here, courtesy of SNL, are the scripts:

by Mark Silva

Sarah Palin is box office.

That we know.

Comedienne Tina Fey's uncannily perfect portrayals of the Republican nominee for vice president and governor of Alaska - you know, the God is just huggin' us closer global warmin' routine - have boosted the audience for Saturday Night Live this year by 50 percent.

So what does NBC's SNL do for an encore?

Book Palin.

Live, from New York, tonight, it's Republican John McCain's running mate.

"Oh man,'' the real Palin told reporters on the trail Friday. "I'm excited... I have no idea what to expect because I haven't seen any scripts or anything else yet, but it will be fun.

"The opportunity to show American television watchers anyway that you get to have a sense of humor through all of this or even just this really would be wearin', tearin' on you so an opportunity to show that sense of humor and that side of all of this I look forward to it. ''

Tune in here Sunday morning for the reviews.

by Frank James

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) has a new ad that accuses Democratic rival Ronnie Musgrove of getting support from, of all things, liberals. That alone is probably enough to hurt a Senate candidate in Mississippi.

But the ad goes further, depicting gays for instance by using some guys dressed like the Village People. Yes, the Village People.

There's also a creepy guy who represents pro-choice folks and if you look at the people in the background, a woman in a Playboy Bunny outfit and some guys who appear to be wearing orange prison overalls.

That cow suit threw me until I read that when Musgrove was governor, his campaign received campaign donations from a man connected to a failed beef plant, who was convicted for "conspiracy to influence a public official," according to a Clarion Ledger story. Musgrove hasn't been implicated in the wrong doing.

The Wicker ad seems like it goes one stereotype too far with the Village People. True, it's not as outrageous as the Kansas ad we featured yesterday, but we still think it's worth entering in the over-the-top political ad contest.

by Frank James

Jim Slattery, a Kansas Democrat running against Republican Sen. Pat Roberts, wants to get your attention with a new ad called "Hosed." He certainly got mine.

He has an ad in which a Gulliver-sized corporate executive is approached by "Kansans" the size of Lilliputians. As they rail and the giant, he gets angry. Next thing you know, you're looking down at the little people from the giant's perspective and see a yellowish stream of liquid hitting the startled and outraged little people.

The giant lets out a bellowing laugh. Oh my God, this is a political ad that's portraying someone peeing on people! The world's gone crazy, I thought. Now we have pornography in a political ad.

Well, not really. The ad makers only want you to think that's what's going on because that's shocking and riveting stuff straight out of "Shogun." As the camera pulls back, the giant is only pouring gasoline on the little people from a gaz nozzle.

Oh, OK, that's all right, I guess, so long as no one's smoking or the giant doesn't toss a match into the crowd. Actually, the thought of people being drenched in gasoline is pretty disturbing too, no?

What a bizarre ad. Does it get more outlandish than this?

Maybe. We'd like readers of The Swamp to send us links of ads that they found to be either borderline or all the way over-the-top. Send us the links in comments to this post and we'll get as many of them up as we can and try and choose a winner or winners with a poll.

Paul Krugman. (Photo by HO/AFP/Getty Images)

by Frank James

All those Paul Krugman haters out there have one more reason this morning. He's won a Nobel Prize in Economics.

According to the Nobelprize.org site, Krugman, who is better known as a New York Times op-ed columnist than a trail-blazing economist won for "for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity."

Krugman, a Princeton University economics professor, has been one of the Bush Administration's most persistent liberal critics. He's certainly one of the smartest. And one of the most consistently interesting. He's also a rarity these days, a liberal who doesn't shy away from that word.

Congratulations to Krugman. Now that he's won the Nobel, we'd all appreciate it if he would get back to work and brainstorm a way out of the global financial meltdown.

by Frank James

So now we know the genesis of the false Obama-is-a-Muslim rumor.

According to the New York Times, Patient Zero in this particular epidemic which has virally spread around the nation thanks to the Internet is a fellow named Andy Martin, known for filing copious lawsuits that on occasion have contained very anti-Semitic language.

After reading the NYT story that places Martin at the starting point of the unfounded rumor (Obama is a Christian) you come away with the very strong impression that Martin is a man with some serious issues, to say the least.

As the NYT reports:

Until this month, the man who is widely credited with starting the cyberwhisper campaign that still dogs Mr. Obama was a secondary character in news reports, with deep explorations of his background largely confined to liberal blogs.

He is a law school graduate, but his admission to the Illinois bar was blocked in the 1970s after a psychiatric finding of "moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character."

by Mark Silva

Say it ain't so, Joe: Saturday Night Live has the debate down cold, with a little help from Queen Latifah playing Gwen Ifill.

Tina Fey, of course, has become the permanent comedic embodiment of Sarah Palin, and now Jason Sudeikis has taken on Joe Biden. And, for sure, Thursday night's debate of the running mates - which tied for the second-most watched presidential or vice presidential debates of all time - provided plenty of fodder for the cast of Saturday night's show.

"You know, John McCain and I, we're a couple of mavericks,'' says Palin (Fey) "And gosh darnit, we're gonna take that maverick energy right to Washington and we're gonna use it to fix this financial crisis and everything else that's plaguin' this great country of ours."

The moderator asks how they'll solve the crisis.

"You know we're gonna take every aspect of the crisis and look at it and then we're gonna ask ourselves, 'what would a maverick do in this situation?' And then, you know, we'll do that."

And she winks.

The offend-no-one while-attacking-everyone Biden-player tells the moderator: "If I had to spend the rest of my life on a desert island with only one other person it would be John McCain -- no doubt about it. I mean, you should see the way my face lights up when he walks into a room. But the fact is, John McCain has voted with George Bush ninety percent of the time, let me say that again: time."

"Governor Palin, would you like to respond to Senator Biden's comments about Senator McCain?" the moderator asks?

"No thank you,'' she says, "but I would like to talk about bein' an outsider. You see while Senator Biden has been in Washington all these years I've been with regular people. Hockey moms and Joe Six-packs I'd also like to give a shout out to the third graders of Gladys Woods Elementary who were so helpful to me in my debate prep.''

Here, courtesy of NBC, are the highlights:

by Frank James

A clearly buoyant Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin sat for an interview with Fox News's Carl Cameron in the wake of her vice presidential debate with Sen. Joe Biden which she survived quite well, especially since the expectations for her were pretty much at sea level.

Palin had great things to say about her first and perhaps last meeting with Biden. Listening to what she told Cameron, last night's debate was definitely good times. Here's an excerpt from the rush transcript provided by Fox News with the time codes. I haven't cleaned it up:

PALIN: 11: 00:10 There was a lot of eye contact and it was pleasant and it was, "Hey you know we're both in this together. We both understand what each other would be going through at this time." 11:00:19 Kinda wondering what's coming next, what Gwen is gonna ask us next. 11:00:23 So that connection, it was some good chemistry, and again at least I had a ball. It was fun.

But while she had good things to say about Biden, she wasn't showing Katie Couric a whole lot of love. Indeed, speaking of herself in the third person, she said the Palin in the Couric interviews was "annoyed" by the way Couric asked questions and followups.

Here's another excerpt:

PALIN: 11:04:41 Ok I'll tell you honestly the Sarah Palin in those interviews is a little bit annoyed because it's like, man, no matter what you say you're going to get clobbered. 11:04:49 If you choose to answer a question you are going to get clobbered on the answer. 11:04:53 If you choose to try and pivot and go on to another subject that you believe that Americans want to hear about you get clobbered for that too. 11:05:00 But in those Katie Couric interviews I did feel that there were a lot of things that she was missing in terms of an opportunity to ask what a V.P. candidate stands for. 11:05:09 What the values are represented in our ticket. I wanted to talk about Barack Obama increasing taxes which would lead to killing jobs. 11:05:18 I wanted to talk about his proprosal to increase government spending by another trillion dolars. Some of his comments that he has made about the war that I think may, in my world disqualifies someone from consideration as the next commander in chief. 11:05:32 Some of his comments about Afghanistan and what we are doing there supposedly -- just air raiding villages and killing civilians. That's reckless. 11:05:41 I wanted to talk about things like that. So I guess I have to apologize about being a little annoyed but that is also an indication of being outside that Washington elite, outside of the media elite also and just wanted to talk to Americans without the filter and let them know what we stand for. 11:05:55"

by Mark Silva

Here is one incredible exchange between the host of a network news commentary program and a member of Congress. Be sure to strap on your helmet and elbow pads before watching this one.

Bill O'Reilly, of FOX's O'Reilly Factor, has called for Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts to step down from his position as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee because of a now-clear failure of oversight of the nation's banking industry.

This doesn't make for the smoothest stage for an interview, like the one O'Reilly conducted of Frank on his show last night.

"Shouldn't everybody in the country be angry with you right now?'' O'Reilly asked Frank, setting the tone for that rough stage.

No, said Frank. "I became chairman of the committee on Jan. 1, 2007,'' he said, taking credit for a "tough'' regulatory bill for the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage enterprise that passed the House in May. From 1995 to 2006, with a Republican-controlled Congress, he said, "we couldn't get that done.''

"That's great,'' O'Reilly said, but then he came out and said "everything was great'' and everyone went out and bought stock and then lost millions of dollars. O'Reilly played a tape of Frank saying not long ago that Fannie and Freddie were basically sound.

No way, said Frank, denying that he had suggested anyone invest money in these sinking enterprises.

"Come on, you coward, say the truth,'' O'Reilly said, accusing Frank of "B.S." and more.

"You start ranting, and the only way to respond is to almost talk as boorish as you,'' Frank said, denying that he had suggested anyone buy stock. ''I'm not going to be bullied by your ranting... You're not going to shut me up.''

The argument devolved into name-calling and insults.

"That's a joke,'' O'Reilly said of Frank's answers.

"A joke is to think I could have a rational discussion with you,'' Frank said. "You don't listen at all.''

"You're the brilliant guy who presided over the biggest financial collapse,'' O'Reilly said. "You're the brilliant guy. I'm the dumb guy.''

Towels, please.

by Mark Silva

Gwen Ifill, moderator of tomorrow night's vice presidential debate, gets a vote of confidence from John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee whose running mate will be on stage.

"I think Gwen Iffil is a professional and I think she will do a completely objective job because she is a highly respected professional,'' McCain says of the PBS News anchor and moderator of the debate between Palin and Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden in St. Louis.

Some aren't as generous about their expectations for a moderator writing a book called The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama, which will be ready on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20.

"I have confidence that Gwen Ifilll will do a professional job,'' McCain said in an interview with Carl Cameron of the FOX News Channel today.

McCain also suggested that, if there is a political price for him to pay in "suspending'' his campaign for a day last week in the midst of federal financial market bailout negotiations on Capitol Hill, so be it.

"I had to do what was right. I knew what was right to do that fashion legislation that would stop this or bring to a halt this serious crisis,'' McCain said. "If it cost me politically, that certainly a penalty I not gladly pay, but I'd willing pay because I've got to do what's right for the country."

His Democratic rival might have to suspend something else, he noted - the tax increases on the wealthiest Americans that Obama proposes for new initiatives such as health care - if the economy doesn't improve soon.

"It's one thing to stop the bleeding and put a tourniquet on, but then you've got to heal the wound,'' McCain said of the economy and the bailout that he views as necessary to revive it. "I've heard Senator Obama say he would suspend his tax increases if the economy is bad. Well I've got news for him, the economy's bad."

by Mark Silva

The beating goes on at Saturday Night Live, where a whole cast of impersonators has turned out to explain the presidential election campaign underway.

That includes the eyebrow-raising interview that Republican Sarah Palin had with CBS News anchor Katie Couric last week. Palin (actually Tina Fey, the SNL impersonator) said she had a great time in New York, Todd and the kids enjoyed the home of the "liberal media elite'' and she particularly enjoyed "that goofy evolution museum.'' The U.N. was great too -- except there were so many "foreigners.''

And it includes a take on the first presidential debate, with Darrell Hammond and Fred Armisen in the hot seats and a return engagement by Chris Parnell as moderator.

SNL's Amy Poehler played Couric, asking what it is about Alaska's proximity to Russia that gives Palin so much foreign policy expertise.

"You got Alaska here, this right here is water, and this is Russia. So, we keep an eye on them,'' Palin (Fey) explained. "Every morning, when Alaskans wake up, one of the first things they do, is look outside to see if there are any Russians hanging around. And if there are, you gotta go up to them and ask, 'What are you doing here?' and if they can't give you a good reason, it's our responsibility to say, you know, 'Shoo! Get back over there!'''

Promising to do everything possible to spread democracy in the world and then pressed about how to do that, Palin (Fey) paused and then begged:

"Katie, I'd like to use one of my lifelines.''

See the clips here, and the transcript below, courtesy of NBC:

by Mark Silva

If you were wondering where Sarah Palin got that accent, wonder no more.

The CBS News interview with the parents of Sarah Palin, coming Monday morning on The Early Show, traces the Republican vice presidential nominee's lingual roots straight to her dad, Chuck Heath.

Asked if the Alaska governor has been getting a fair shake from the national media since Republican presidential nominee John McCain tapped her for his running mate, the governor's father is somewhat predctable:

"That's what I feel. Someone said, 'Well they have to get to know Sarah Palin,' but Sarah Palin -- there is a good side of Sarah Palin and they're digging and digging for the bad side and there is no real bad side. They're fabricating a lot of things that I don't want to go into."

Asked by Early's Harry Smith if Heath's daughter is ready to serve as vice president, good old dad says: "She is ready to do anything she wants to. She perseveres, she works so hard, she learns so fast - yeah, I don't worry about that at all."

The interesting part of the brief excerpts which CBS News' The Early Show has made available in the interest of, well, you know, promotion, is that mom says nothing in these clips.

We'll have to tune in Monday to see Palin's mother's words. Ayep.

by Mark Silva

Access Hollywood, that arbiter of all things political, as long as celebrities are involved - and these days political spouses count -- grabbed an interview with the wives of the Democratic presidential ticket, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.

"You know,'' Michelle Obama said, offering a little personal investment advice about the time she is investing away from the family in the campaign, "there is no investment more important than making sure that Barack and Joe (Biden) get to the White House. That is the greatest gift I can give my girls at this time."

. The three-part interview will air on Access Hollywood, an NBC production, today, Friday and Monday.

Following Access Hollywood's interview with Sen. Obama and his family - one which Obama later suggested had gotten a little too personal for his taste, Access Hollywood's Nancy O'Dell joined up with Michelle Obama and Jill Biden campaigning in Allentown, Pa.

They've become fast friends, they say. "It was just one of those magical moments where we spent a week together and after that week, you know Michelle put her arms around me and I put my arms around her and she said, 'I love you' and I said, 'I love you, too,'" Biden recalls. "We just clicked."

The women also discuss balancing work and the campaign trail with time for their families. "No matter how my kids are doing, I feel like I should be spending more time with them," Obama says. "When I am with them, I'm thinking you know this campaign is so important I should be spending every waking moment out on the campaign trail. I think that is what we as women, as parents, we always feel guilty.

"You there is no investment more important than making sure that Barack and Joe get to the White House. That is the greatest gift I can give my girls at this time."

Asked about Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin being "shielded from the press and treated as a delicate flower'' - Access Hollywood's words - Obama says, "I try not to focus any amount of time on the other side. I think that they are making the choices that they think are best for their candidates."

by Frank James

OK, so I'm late to the party on Chris Rock's appearance on David Letterman Monday night in which the comedian took out after former President Bill Clinton for not doing enough to promote Sen. Barack Obama's presidential candidacy. I only caught up with it today.

But I'm sure others haven't seen it, so that's my excuse for putting up today.

Anyway, the former president spent many minutes lauding Sen. Joe Biden and, of course, threw his wife's name in the conversation fairly frequently. He did say he supported Obama and that he thought in the end Obama would win because of the general desire for change.

But he definitely didn't do as much drum banging for Obama as he could have which Rock pointed out.

"Is that me or did he not want to say the name Barack Obama?" Rock asked Letterman.

He also has a great Sarah Palin-Michael Vick joke.

For those who've already seen this, good for you. But for those who haven't, I bet you'll get a laugh out of it.

Rock, who in the 1990s starred on Comedy Central's "Politically Incorrect," conceptual predecessor to the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Show, definitely keeps alive the spirit of that old show.

by Mark Silva

In the third of the national television network interviews that Republican Sarah Palin has faced, CBS News anchor Katie Couric asks the vice presidential nominee if Congress failing to act on the financial bailout that the Bush administration is proposing could risk another Great Depression.

"If this doesn't pass, do you think there's a risk of another Great Depression?'' the CBS anchor asks the candidate in an interview airing on the CBS Evening News.

"Unfortunately, that is the road that America may find itself on,'' Palin replied.

"Not necessarily this as it's been proposed has to pass or we're gonna find ourselves in another Great Depression,'' she said. "But there has got to be action taken, bipartisan effort-- Congress not pointing fingers at this point at...one another but.. finding the solution to this... taking action, and being serious about the reforms on Wall Street that are needed.''

by Mark Silva

Campbell Brown, the CNN anchor, is calling the McCain campaign out for sexism in its treatment of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

"Bear with me for a short rant," Brown said at the start of a blistering editorial Tuesday, before demanding that the McCain campaign "free (Palin) from the chauvinistic chains you're binding her with."

The Top of the Ticket's Katie Linthicum notes that: "Brown said the way the campaign has limited reporters' access to Palin -- the Republican vice presidential candidate has yet to hold a news conference -- was evidence of paternalism and chauvinism.

"Tonight, I call on the McCain campaign to stop treating Sarah Palin like she is a delicate flower that will wilt at any moment . . . By treating Sarah Palin different from the other candidates in this race, you're not showing her the respect she deserves."

When asked to respond to Brown's biting critique Tuesday evening, McCain campaign spokesman Brian Rogers had no comment.

Palin, however, will be making another network TV appearance this week -- her third interview with a network, after ABC and FOX -- as CBS News anchor Katie Couric interviews her for the evening news airing this evening.

Brown delivered her tirade after John McCain campaign aides tried to ban reporters from covering Palin's much-touted meetings in New York with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the Ticket notes, and as the Swamp reported on Palin's media-free zone as well.
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"Allow her to face down those pesky reporters, just like Barack Obama did today, just like John McCain did today, just like Joe Biden has done on numerous occasions," Brown said, suggesting that Palin can hold her own against tough-minded reporters.

"This woman is from Alaska, for crying out loud," she said. "She is strong. She is tough. She is confident. And you claim she's ready to be one heartbeat away from the presidency. If that is the case, then end this chauvinistic treatment of her now."

It's too soon to tell whether Brown will suffer repercussions for her comments. In early September, after the anchor clashed with McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds over Palin's foreign policy credentials, the campaign cancelled McCain's planned interview with Larry King, whose show also broadcasts on CNN. At the time, aides complained that Brown had gone "over the line" in her grilling of Bounds.

by Mark Silva

That media-free zone around Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin was starting to get a little tighter as the Alaskan governor faced her first meetings with world leaders in New York - Palin never had met any before, she conceded in one of the two network TV news interviews the McCain campaign has allowed for its running mate.

As Palin made her way around the United Nations sessions in New York this week, CBS News - which will get the third network interview with Palin soon - reported on its Web-site that last night, the campaign had provided the sites of meetings with world leaders and with Henry Kissinger to a network TV producer, who was assigned to provide editorial content on the meetings for the five networks.

"The reporter was not going to be allowed to sit in on the private meetings, but would be permitted to be on hand as still and video photographers took pictures at the beginning of each meeting, CBS reports. But then, "a little more than an hour before Palin's first meeting was set to begin, 'the pool producer was notified that he would not be allowed in to the photo spray. This means that the McCain/Palin campaign would get the benefit of free pictures of Palin's meeting with world leaders without having to face the possibility that the candidate might have to answer a question from the media.''

Today, the follow-up goes, "after media outlets complained to the McCain/Palin campaign about its attempt to prevent an editorial presence at Gov. Palin's first meeting of the day, a pool producer was allowed in to the photo spray with Palin and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.''

We're not hearing about any questions answered, however.

Television networks, including CBS News, have a policy that, if prevented from having an editorial presence at an event, they will not allow their cameras to shoot it. "The McCain/Palin campaign's effort to stifle editorial coverage of the candidate's meetings with world leaders comes a week after CBS News asked Palin an impromptu question about the AIG bailout, while Palin made an off-the-record stop at a Cleveland diner.

"After the Cleveland event, a Palin staffer told CBS News that questions "weren't allowed."

Palin, picked by Republican John McCain as his running mate at the end of August, has not held a press conference yet. We hear, however, that Palin may become available for more news media interviews after the televised debate between the vice presidential candidates, Palin and Democratic Sen. Joe Biden, on Oct. 2.

by Frank James

George Will, the nation's best-known conservative columnist and Chicago Cubs fan, may not be cutting an ad for Sen. Barack Obama but in his column today, he sure does seem to be expressing more confidence in the Democratic presidential nominee than in the Republican one, fellow conservative Sen. John McCain.

In his column today, Will repeated the criticism he made on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" that McCain's attack last week on Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Chris Cox was unpresidential and unbecoming.

Will attributes McCain's call to fire Cox, to McCain's personality which the columnist clearly doesn't believe is the most even-tempered, to say the least:

In any case, McCain's smear -- that Cox "betrayed the public's trust" -- is a harbinger of a McCain presidency. For McCain, politics is always operatic, pitting people who agree with him against those who are "corrupt" or "betray the public's trust," two categories that seem to be exhaustive -- there are no other people. McCain's Manichaean worldview drove him to his signature legislative achievement, the McCain-Feingold law's restrictions on campaigning. Today, his campaign is creatively finding interstices in laws intended to restrict campaign giving and spending.

A "smear" as "harbinger of a McCain presidency?" With those words, Will certainly isn't giving the McCain campaign anything it can use in an ad. That's pretty caustic stuff.

Will ends his column with these words:

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?

While the columnist doesn't answer that question, he makes it pretty clear what side he comes down on.

Meanwhile, he indicates that Obama's defect--his relative lack of experience in national and foreign policy--is remediable by time. Not a full-throated endorsement but still rather striking coming from one of the nation's leading conservative writers.

by Mark Silva

Senor Limbaugh esta hablando en espanol hoy.

Rush, on the radio, in Spanish?

Andrew Malcolm, our Top of the Ticket colleague, explains that the Mouth of the South has had it with attacks from Democrat Barack Obama, who has aired campaign ads spotlighting some of Limbaugh's more incendiary intercultural comments and tried to tie them to John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee. Obama took those Mexican-baiting comments out of context, Limbaugh insists.

Some time ago, Limbaugh aired the "Limbaugh Laws,'' as Malcolm reminds us -- "a series of restrictions that should be imposed on immigrants, including required work and language skills, no welfare and social benefits, required savings to immigrate, restrictions on what land they can buy, no demonstrations or foreign-flag waving, etc.

The kicker that day was that all these laws are already in place -- on immigrants into Mexico.''

The Obama campaign lifted one line: "Shut your mouth or get out!"

So Limbaugh is rebroadcasting today exactly what he really said, in Spanish. He has a few other tricks up his Spanish-language sleeve too: Lambasting Obama for, in Limbaugh's view, inflaming racial hatred and using a two-tier campaign approach -- "Chicago tactics behind the scenes, new politics imagery in front of the cameras."

"That, too, en espanol,'' Malcolm notes.

by Mark Silva

Stephen Colbert has fun at other people's expense each night with "Tonight's Word.''

The word one night this week: "Powerless.''

He drew it from White House Press Secretary Dana Perino's recent response when asked how the president explains, at the seventh anniversary of 9/11, the failure to find Osama bin Laden.

"There are human limitations,'' Perino replied. "We don't have super-powers.''

Good point, said Comedy Central's Colbert, host of The Colbert Report -noting that the Republicans wish that Bush were "invisible.'' He doesn't have super-powers, Colbert said, "just extraordinary ordinary powers'' like unfetered war powers, executive privilege and signing statements that override the law.

"Get off the president's case,'' Colbert concluded. "We now know that Bush hasn't failed to catch bin Laden because of errors in judgement or policy decisions...

"It is bcause he doesn't have super-powers, and he has never claimed to be anything but a human being - chosen by God to fight an axis of evil and defeat a mortal danger to all humanity.''

by Frank James

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama will be on the cover of October's Field & Stream magazine. ("McCain vs Obama: We question the candidates on guns and conservation" the teaser on the front tells us.)

I think I can guess which candidate most of Field & Stream's readers, those people in deer-hunting country clinging to their guns and religion, would tend towards. It'd be the one who picked a running mate who knows how to field dress a moose, but again that's only an educated guess.

I love the cover's main headline, "Find Your Bull." It obviously isn't meant to apply to the 2008 presidential campaign but could. And on a few different levels.

by Mark Silva

John McCain, "the original maverick'' in campaign ads, faced a few pointed questions in person today on The View.

"You used to be more of the maverick,'' Joy Behar told McCain to his face, "then you sort of turned.''

"In what way?'' McCain asked, seated on the sofa, hands folded, with his hosts on the ABC daytime show.

"You became much more lockstep, I think, with your party, with George Bush's policies,'' Behar told him. "I don't see the old John McCain who used to really buck the system as much....

"I understand why,'' she said, "you want to get elected...''

The audience and McCain alike laughed.

"I've been through this litany before,'' McCain said. "When I say, 'OK, what specific area have I quote changed, nobody can name it. I am the same person I always was.... I am the same person and I have the same principles, and I have the same issues, whether it be spending, whether it be climate change, whether it be the conduct of the war in Iraq, whether it be torture of prisonsers... no matter what it is...

"I'm the same guy,'' McCain said.

by Mark Silva

Now that Sarah Palin has broken the national media ice with a run of ABC interviews -- in which she demonstrated a lot of self confidence and a little uncertainty about matters such a "the Bush Doctrine'' in her talks with anchor Charlie Gibson -- the Republican nominee for vice president will be moving on to FOX's Sean Hannity.

FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes will air the first cable news interview with the governor of Alaska and running mate of Sen. John McCain. It will air in two parts on Tuesday, Sept. 16, and Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 9 pm EDT.

Hannity will conduct the interview.

This ought to be a friendly forum for Palin. Hannity is the go-to cable guy for such figures as Vice President Dick Cheney, who gave a telephone interview to Hannity in April in which Cheney's views on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were solicited.

"I'm a McCain man,'' Cheney said.

"Mr. Vice President, it's always good to talk to you,'' Hannity said in the closing of that interview. "All the best, and I bet there's going to be a lot of fishing going on in Wyoming come January of next year.''

"Well, you got to wait til June,'' Cheney replied. "It's a little cold out there in January, but there will be. ''

FOX says "an array of topics will be discussed in the interview including being the vice presidential nominee, her role in the McCain campaign, Iraq and foreign policy.''

by Mark Silva

Scarlett Johansson is on the list.

So is Barack Obama.

George W. Bush is on it, and Vladimir Putin is as well.

But John McCain is not.

It's Esquire magazine's list of the 75 most influential people of the 21st Century, so far. It includes not only Obama, but also some who are associated with him - such as Samantha Power, the national security expert who had to leave Obama's campaign over untoward and later-regretted remarks about Hillary Clinton ("monster") -- who also is on the list. Oprah Winfrey, the datyime television empress, made it.: Esquire.pdf

"At least in America, or at least in the mythology that attends it, transformational figures are ordinary folks propelled by happy accident,'' states Charles Pierce's article on Obama, ranked No. 47, and listed as a politician. "Obama deliberately cast himself as a transformational figure.''

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heckuva lot easier,'' Bush is quoted as saying, pre-presidency but post Election 2000, in the Esquire article penned by Ron Suskind, a critic of the administration. "Just so long as I'm the dictator.'' Bush also is listed at No. 76, which must be another sort of statement.

Steve Jobs, of the ever-reinventing-the-apple Apple, is on the list.

As are both Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Actor George Clooney made it.

No word about Paris Hilton or Britney Spears, but the McCain campaign may be smelling a celebrity fest here.

by Mark Silva

In the serialized interview of Sen. Barack Obama by Bill O'Reilly, the host of FOX News Channel's The O'Reilly Factor offers in tonight's third installment some insight into Obama's views about the fiery pastors whom he has known.

But bottom line, O'Reilly wants to know in this, the third night of the four-night broadcast of the Obama-O'Reilly encounter, why should any of O'Reilly's voters vote for Obama?

"They should be able to identify with me because my story is your story,'' Obama says.

On his affiliation with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, longtime and former pastor of the church, Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, which Obama left this year amid controversy over Wright's more incendiary comments from the pulpit:

"I joined a church to worship God and not a pastor,'' Obama tells O'Reilly in tonight's installment, airing at 8 pm EDT. "I had not heard him make the offensive comments...The relationship was ruptured, I'm not a member of the church."

On the Rev. Michael Pflager, the outspoken Catholic priest who has spoken out about social issues at Obama's former church and many other places: "I haven't seen the guy in a year and half.

"I come to Chicago. He's working with Mayor Richard Daley, not know to be a radical,'' Obama says. "So he and I know each other as a consequence of work he's doing on education. That is not an endorsement of his views.... This guy is not part of my campaign...he's not some advisor of mine."

by Mark Silva

As Sarah Palin's exciting media adventure approaches - that vaunted interview later this week with ABC News' Charlie Gibson in Alaska - people are asking themselves what kinds of questions they'd like to see posed for the GOP's vice presidential nominee.

Some say Palin has no business wasting her time on the questions of media hounds - though, truly, the answers to any questions will make for a better-informed voting public. Some say the hounds will be asking questions that are of interest only to the hounds - and, truly, sometimes television news interviewers come up with questions that leave TV viewers scratching their heads.

So the best of all possible worlds, perhaps, is open questioning from the press and public alike. In that spirit, the folks over at National Public Radio today put out a call to listeners on Day to Day asking for suggestions for Gibson. Their comment board at "DayDreaming,'' their blog, is running long and deep.

A lot of people want to know about that "bridge to nowhere,'' many want to know about attempts at censorship at the Wasilla, Alaska, library. Many want to know about creationism and the separation of church and state. One listener wants to know if Palin believes in torture. Another wants to know if she has ever shot anyone in the face.

We'll be happy to field some suggested Palin questions here.

Among the many suggested Palin questions over at NPR:

by Frank James

Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews are being bounced from their MSNBC election-night anchor chairs, according to the New York Times.

But before bashers of the so-called liberal media celebrate too much, they should keep in mind David Gregory, another frequent target of conservatives, will be serving in that role.

Here's the top of the NY Times story:

MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel's coverage of the election.

"The most disappointing shift is to see the partisan attitude move from prime time into what's supposed to be straight news programming," said Davidson Goldin, formerly the editorial director of MSNBC and a co-founder of the reputation management firm DolceGoldin.

by Mark Silva

Not since Spiro Agnew took on the "nattering nabobs of negativism'' has a presidential running mate stood so ready to wage a media war.

Sarah Palin, with her shots across the bow of the mainstream media in her hugely popular acceptance speech in St. Paul this week, has opened a floodgate of media-bashing. At the same time, her initial reluctance to field questions from the media raises questions of how insular a vice presidential nominee can possibly remain

"I'm not a member of the permanent political establishment.,'' Palin told the delegates of the Republican National Convention and a national television audience of 37 milliion people -- just a notch behind the viewership that Republican John McCain and Barack Obama drew for their acceptance speeches. "And I've learned quickly these last few days that if you're not a member in good standing of the Washington elite, then some in the media consider a candidate unqualified for that reason alone.''

(Boo, reads the transcript).

"Now here's a little news flash,'' Palin added. "Here's a little news flash for those reporters and commentators: I'm not going to Washington to seek their good opinion. I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this great country.

(Cheers, applause, chanting, transcript reads.)

"Americans expect us to go to Washington for the right reason,'' Palin said, "and not just to mingle with the right people.''

Now, it's not so much a question of mingling with the media powers as it is answering their questions. On this forum alone, we've seen comments today suggesting that nobody cares if Palin talks to the media. But it isn't the media to whom she is talking when she answers reporters' questions. It is the public whom she is addressing.

And we've seen before a candidate's fortunes sink when he couldn't answer the simplest of questions: When retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former European supreme allied commander, took to the presidential campaign trail in 2004, he was foiled by a few reporters asking him what he would have done on the use of military force in iraq.

Game over.

At some point, certainly, Palin will answer reporters' questions, and the public will be the better-informed for it.

In the meantime, a candidate can hide behind speechwriters, as Agnew was doing when he addressed the California Republican state convention in San Diego in 1970. He said, "In the United States today, we have more than our share of the nattering nabobs of negativism. They have formed their own 4-H Club -- the 'hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history.'"

The words came from a wordsmith, William Safire, later columnist for The New York Times, then a speechwriter for President Richard Nixon and Agnew.

Palin's words this week came from other wordsmiths, and she delivered them powerfully. Still, at some point, a candidate must find her own words.

by Mark Silva

ST. PAUL, MIinn. - Now you know the story's moving.

Katie Couric is leaving town.

And Charles Gibson. Brian Williams, too.

Anderson Cooper, he of "360:'' Making a 180 for New Orleans.

FOX's Shep Smith? Heading South.

With a curtailed Republican National Convention, reduced to nothing but procedural business on its opening day here Monday, and a vicious Hurri