How Newsie spent her caucus night & did she win her caucus pools? (as if you care); takin' on Bill O'Reilly; blind item, media info, ratings, and more below the fold and in the comments...
The Lineup
- MTP: from NH; Sen. John McCain (R-AZ); Dem strategist Steve McMahon and GOP strategist Mike Murphy on caucus results & NH primary & debates
- FTN: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
- This Week: Mitt Romney (R-MA); Mike Huckabee (R-AR); John Edwards (D-NC); roundtable of Cokie Roberts, Sam Donaldson, Donna Brazile and George Will
- FNS: Mitt Romney (R-MA); Mike Huckabee (R-AR)
- Late Edition: Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX); Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM); Mike Huckabee (R-AR); Pakistani Amb. Mahmud Durrani; roundtable of Gloria Borger, John King and Jeffrey Toobin
More TV Alerts (all subject to change)
- Ballot Bowl, CNN, 2-6pm 1/5; 1-3pm, 4-6pm & 7-8pm 1/6
- Political Capital w/ Al Hunt (Bloomberg, repeats throughout weekend): Sen. John McCain (R-AR); a report on NH; analysis by Bob Novak and Margaret Carlson
- Tim Russert Show 1/5-1/6: David Gregory, Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd on caucus results & NH primary
- Conversations w/ Judy Woodruff (Bloomberg, repeats throughout weekend): Vernon Jordan, Dem power player & lawyer
- Chris Matthews Show 1/5-6: Dan Rather, Andrea Mitchell, Patrick Healy, Katty Kay discuss the NH primary.
- Newsmakers (C-SPAN, 10am, Sunday): University of Oklahoma President an fmr Sen. David Boren (D-OK) 1/6
- 60 Minutes (CBS, Sun): Roger Clemens; infamous Boston mob triggerman John Martorano
- Jon Stewart and Dan Rather guest star on The Simpsons, 1/6, Fox
- GOP presidential forum, FNC, 1/6, 8-9:30pm. Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson are participating. (NH GOP has pulled out as a sponsor, though.)
- The Daily Show: returning 1/7
- The Colbert Report: Paul Krugman 1/7; Andrew Sullivan 1/7; Michael Pollan 1/8; Mike Huckabee (R-AR) 1/9; Matt Taibbi 1/9; Muhammad Yunus 1/10
- Letterman: Mike Huckabee (R-AR) 1/7
- Charlie Rose: NYT's David Brooks, NYT's Adam Nagourney, Dem pundit Paul Begala, and Lylah Holmes on IA 1/4; ex-SoS Madeleine Albright 1/7
- Tavis Smiley (PBS): Colin Powell 1/7; Madeleine Albright 1/10
- Today Show: Mike Huckabee (R-AR) 1/4; Mitt Romney (R-MA) 1/4; John Edwards (D-NC) 1/4; Madeleine Albright on "Memo to the President Elect: How We Can Restore America's Reputation and Leadership" 1/8
- GOP debate in SC on Fox News, 1/10/08.
Sunday Talk Ratings for Last Week's Shows
MTP on top once again. Last week's guests here. Ratings for the week before that here.
My Caucus Night
I spent IA caucus night watching the returns at an undisclosed location with some Democratic consultants and a handful of Hill staffers. There were also some people there who I didn't know. We cracked jokes about various news personalities (Chris Matthews was an easy target), booed whenever a Republican appeared on screen, and cheered when Howard Dean came on MSNBC and CNN. All in all, acted a little like the partisans who post here. I had a lot of fun. Where did you watch the caucuses (if you watched them at all)?
Oh, and kudos to Ann Selzer and her polling team. Their DMR poll was pretty much on the money. I got the order of finish for the top 3 Dems correct, but I didn't win either pool I was in though. I missed on the GOP side in one pool, and I had Biden and Richardson flipped for my picks in the other pool.
Flashback: The Daily Show's Invitation to Bush
End of the World
George W. Bush 'sings'
I wasn't as wowed as the person who sent this to me, but I'll post it for y'all anyway.
Presidential Speechmaking
If you really want to understand the role of speeches in campaigning and politics, you must watch Kathleen Hall Jamieson discuss speeches from IA caucus night. She talks about the rhetoric and the visual and how it all goes towards an overall message. She also discusses the role of the media and press... and if you'll notice, she's pointing out how the media oversimplifies things but that it's across the board and not in a "we're going to pick on this guy today" kind of way. KHJ makes understanding political communications really accessible, as her former students can tell you.
More
Condolences to the family of Andrew Olmsted. He was a blogger at Obsidian Wings and for the Rocky Mountain News. He was killed in Iraq. You can read a tribute to him here and more about him here.
Victim's Voice 527 press release reached my inbox. Thanks to the emailer. The anti-Huckabee 527 is here.
Voter ID Court Challenges Expected to Have Big Impact on 2008 Elections
OH SoS Jennifer Brunner (D): Offer Paper Ballots
Here's one way to confront a cheatin' husband. Watch it here.
David Neiwert on racism in Maine and the North.
NJ Assemblyman Michael Patrick Carroll (R) showed his ugly side when talking about a NJ apology for slavery. UGH:
"But, on a current note, if slavery was the price that a modern American's ancestors had to pay in order to make one an American, one should get down on one's knees every single day and thank the Lord that such price was paid," Carroll said.
Media Mix: Ex-NBC newser John Hockenberry explains why news orgs suck ... Most TV news orgs scrambled to get people to Pakistan after Bhutto's death ... 2007 media winners from HuffPo (which is generally good, if incomplete and somewhat inaccurate at times) ... 2007's most reported stories and reporters who were on the air the most ... bad reporting from WSJ? ... a look at McClatchy's Baghdad bureau & Iraq coverage ... Judge: Santa Barbara Paper Illegally Fired Union Backers ... Number Of Journalists Killed Up 244 Percent Over Five Years, Media Watchdog Says ... Buh-bye to CourtTV, hello to truTV ... the business of celebrity pregnancies ... Plagiarism at the Weekly Standard ... interesting inside look at CNN's NY control room on caucus night ... HuffPo's IA caucus media winners and losers (I have a few qualms with the list but it's an interesting read) ...
Ratings & Stats: Syndicated shows like "Entertainment Tonight" and "Access Hollywood" do better in the 25-54 demo than the network news shows ... NBC Nightly News and ABC World News end 2007 neck and neck in the ratings but with World News coming out on top ... Half of U.S. Households Own a Digital TV ... over $45M spent on broadcast ads in IA ... Market value of US newspapers has fallen 42% since 2004 ... Where Americans get their political news ... Album sales plummet ... it's early but Fox Business Network's ratings are not looking so hot, but Fox News tops all cable news channels ... CNBC says it had robust ratings growth in 07 ... cable caucus ratings ...
Remainders
TV Newser asks 10 TV news journos and pundits what their great 08 expectations are. My favorite is CNN's Don Lemon for mentioning New Orleans and his hopes to help kids get a decent education.
Mike Huckabee congratulates Canada on its "national igloo" LOL.
Major names in sports... who donated to whom?
Bickering Scaifes Speak For First Time On Their Messy Divorce
Congrats to CNN's Dana Bash and John King on their engagement.
Get well soon, Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA). He has been diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus.
Jokes
I know the WGA is unhappy with Leno's written monologue and that some hosts have returned w/out their writers, but because the jokesters have an affect on the election, I'm still going to do a sampling whether they're WGA approved or not. Jokes via Hotline.
- Alan Keyes
- Jimmy Kimmel: "And Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, which really is amazing because, I mean, this is Iowa. There are more black people in the Beatles than in Iowa."
- Leno: "Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, one of our guests tonight, has reached what they call 'the top tier' of GOP candidates. That means during the debates he no longer has to wear a nametag."
- Leno: "So I'm just going by the polls in the paper this morning. But Fred Thompson, what happened to him? Oh, my God. He's doing so badly, it's like he's back here on NBC."
- Letterman: "The Writers Guild strike does continue. Fortunately, we've been able to negotiate an agreement but the strike continues. ... Here's what the writers want and you tell me if you don't think this is fair. Here's all they want: The Writers Guild wants a share of Internet revenues and four more years of President Bush."
- Kimmel: "For the Republicans, Mike Huckabee won tonight. Mike Huckabee used to be very fat. He's like the Ricki Lake of politics."
Also of interest,
Top Ten Demands of the Striking Writers.
Bill-O
As you may have heard by now, Bill O'Reilly shoved Obama aide Marvin Nicholson at an Obama event today. The Secret Service had to intervene and get O'Reilly back behind the safety barriers. DailyKos member jhutson was there and took some photos, and from John Dickerson's account of the incident:
A number of people shouted falafel, the word O'Reilly used in a racy set of telephone conversations with a young woman he was trying to seduce as he described a shower they might take together. He meant loofa, which is not a Middle Eastern delicacy but a bath item.
And here's my best Perez Hilton impersonation:
Original photo here.
Somewhere Keith Olbermann is smiling...