SNIPPETS, our daily collection of short items and comments, is here.

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

Our next subscription drive will be in October.  However, readers are invited to subscribe at any time.  Subscriptions are voluntary, but are critical to keeping us going.  Subscribe in the right-hand column.

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

"Current Question" replies are here.  The new "Current Question" is here, in the right-hand column.

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

URGENT AGENDA is eight months old. Thank you, readers, for making last week our largest week ever, in readership.  We are growing!

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

ADVANCE ALERT:  I'll be appearing again on the Mike Scully Show, broadcast tomorrow, Wednesday, from Westchester, New York, at 10:30 a.m. ET.  If you're in the Westchester/western Connecticut area, it's WVOX, Whitney Radio, 1460 AM.  You can hear it worldwide on the internet at http://WWW.WVOX.com

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

TUESDAY,  SEPTEMBER 9,  2008

UPDATE AT 11:05 P.M. ET:  FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- Listening to Barack Obama, it can seem like Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is the main person standing between him and the White House instead of John McCain.  Obama is putting as much heat on Palin as he is on the man at the top of the GOP ticket, objecting to the Republican Party's portrayal of her as a reformer who can bring change to Washington.

COMMENT:  Obama has fallen into a trap.  He's debating the bottom of the GOP ticket.  He looks smaller, even desperate.  He may have to do this for a time while Missing Persons searches for Joe Biden.

UPDATE AT 10:54 P.M. ET:   WASHINGTON - Republican John McCain has nearly erased Democrat Barack Obama’s national lead and turned the presidential contest into a dead heat, according to the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.  In that poll, Obama holds a narrow one-point lead over McCain (47-46 percent), which is down from his three-point advantage in August (45-42 percent) and six-point edge in July (47-41 percent).

Comment:  This is the only recent poll showing Obama with any kind of lead, and it's only a single point.

UPDATE AT 10:28 P.M. ET:  I have no idea what possessed Barack Obama to make the "pig" statement he did today, but it certainly won't do him any good.  Let me just review.  He was obviously alluding to Sarah Palin's comment that the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom was lipstick.  He claimed she represented failed policies.  He then said, “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig."

True, that's an old cliché, but the circumstances make it politically dangerous.  The GOP is already having a field day.  While the episode may pass in a day, it's another day when Obama appears foolish, and must play defense.  Not good...at least for his side.

DISGRACEFUL

Posted at 6:38 p.m. ET

You'd think the MSM would know by now to show a little restraint in writing about Sarah Palin.  No such luck.  The AP today is out with an obnoxious hit piece that wins today's award for snideness: 

LEBANON, Ohio (AP) -- John McCain took a risk in picking little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a running mate, but now the campaign's playing it safer. She's sticking to a greatest hits version of her convention speech on the campaign trail and steering clear of questions until she's comfortable enough for a hand-picked interviewer later this week.

Hand-picked?  No.  Just about everyone in journalism asked to interview her, and she agreed to a two-day visit from Charlie Gibson of ABC, a thorough professional.  She didn't "hand-pick" him, which implies that she called and asked for him to come.  Gibson is tough, but fair.

Also, Governor Palin has been interviewed many times.  The press coverage is available.  It's understandable that she wants to get up to speed on the national circuit before doing many interviews.

So far, Palin has barely spoken with voters either. Since the convention, she and McCain have breezed through a Wisconsin ice cream shop, a New Mexico restaurant and a Missouri barbecue place, shaking hands with diners but not taking any questions. Photographers and television cameras have been allowed full view while reporters are typically ushered too far away to ask questions or hear most of the conversations.

Say what?  No, she hasn't chatted with voters, but she's appeared before tens of thousands of them, with full TV coverage.  As far as reporters being ushered away, sounds like a page out of the Reagan playbook:  Speak over the heads of the media, and directly to the people.  Good strategy, considering the behavior of the press.

To be sure, all candidates running for office give the same remarks over and over -- Barack Obama's stump speech has hardly changed throughout the campaign, and McCain has been telling familiar stories and jokes for months.

But none of the candidates in this race has been so shielded from the media, so protected from any spontaneous situation...

Is that a serious statement?  Does the reporter remember back more than two weeks?  I recall months and months when Barack Obama didn't answer questions from the press.  The word "spontaneous" has never been used to describe his campaign.

Another favorite is that story about how she got rid of luxuries in the state Capitol, like a personal driver, chef and luxury jet.

''I put it on eBay,'' she says.

Audiences love this part, but what Palin never adds is that the jet didn't sell on eBay despite numerous attempts. The state eventually hired an aircraft broker to unload it.

She did put it on eBay.  Eventually the state sold it.  The people of Alaska saved millions, and that's the point.

Yuch.

September 9, 2008.      Permalink          

UPDATE AT 6:04 P.M. ET: From Mediabistro:   For quite some time, Sen. Barack Obama has dominated media coverage. So much so that even the Washington Post's ombudsman had to call out her own paper for skewed coverage.  Now, via the Project for Excellence in Journalism, we learn that a shift has occurred, thanks to Sen. John McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin:

For the first time in three months, John McCain generated more coverage than Democratic hopeful Barack Obama last week. But McCain's running mate, Sarah Palin, earned even more attention during Republican National Convention week, according to a new report from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Palin appeared as a significant or dominant factor in 60% of campaign stories the week of Sept.1-7 while McCain registered in 52% of the stories. Obama appeared as a key figure in 22% of election coverage last week. His VP pick, Joe Biden, was a leading newsmaker in 2%.

And that's change we can believe in.

SMEARING SARAH

Posted at 5:33 p.m. ET

The smear campaign against Sarah Palin continues.  Annenberg's excellent FactCheck.org is on the case, documenting the distortions about Governor Palin:

We’ve been flooded for the past few days with queries about dubious Internet postings and mass e-mail messages making claims about McCain’s running mate, Gov. Palin. We find that many are completely false, or misleading.

Palin did not cut funding for special needs education in Alaska by 62 percent. She didn’t cut it at all. In fact, she tripled per-pupil funding over just three years.

She did not demand that books be banned from the Wasilla library. Some of the books on a widely circulated list were not even in print at the time. The librarian has said Palin asked a "What if?" question, but the librarian continued in her job through most of Palin's first term.

She was never a member of the Alaskan Independence Party, a group that wants Alaskans to vote on whether they wish to secede from the United States. She’s been registered as a Republican since May 1982.

Palin never endorsed or supported Pat Buchanan for president. She once wore a Buchanan button as a "courtesy" when he visited Wasilla, but shortly afterward she was appointed to co-chair of the campaign of Steve Forbes in the state.

Palin has not pushed for teaching creationism in Alaska's schools. She has said that students should be allowed to "debate both sides" of the evolution question, but she also said creationism "doesn't have to be part of the curriculum."

This is excellent work.  Annenberg also says:

We'll be looking into other charges in an e-mail by a woman named Anne Kilkenny for a future story.

Some of you may have gotten that e-mail.  I think Annenberg is the only group to track it down.  I hope you read the whole piece.  It's well worth it.

September 9, 2008.      Permalink          

UPDATE AT 4:37 P.M. ET:  RALEIGH (WTVD) -- In an election for President of the United States in North Carolina Tuesday, September 09, Republican John McCain suddenly and breathtakingly surges to a 20-point win over Democrat Barack Obama, 58% to 38%, according to this latest exclusive SurveyUSA election poll conducted for ABC11-WTVD.

UPDATE AT 3:04 P.M. ET:  A Hotline tracking poll just released shows McCain/Palin up one over Obama/Biden.  Yesterday's result showed a tie.  Statistically insignificant change. 

NOTE AT 2:14 P.M. ET:  The new Kennedy Center honorees have just been announced.  They include Barbra Streisand.  Not to be overly sensitive, but her selection this year - the awards will be presented in December - strikes me as tasteless.  She is today known more for her politics than her art, and is a fierce opponent of President Bush.  The president almost always attends the ceremony.  Mr. Bush will be in his last days in office.  Did they have to insult him this way?  Couldn't they have waited a year?  After all, Streisand has been around for more than four decades.

Further, the awards are being presented in a gala on December 7th, another tasteless move.  Pearl Harbor Day has always been honored, except apparently by certain members of the Washington/arts axis.  Such superior people.  So much more important than the country's sensibilities.

TRACKERS

Posted at 1:33 p.m. ET

Both trackers for today are now out.  As reported below, Rasmussen has the race tied among LVs (likely voters).  He had McCain up one yesterday.

Gallup has McCain up five among RVs (registered voters), the same as yesterday's result.

By contrast, Obama had expanded his lead through Tuesday of the week following his convention, the first full day of the Republican conclave.  But, of course, there was not yet anything to compare with, as Sarah hadn't yet made her acceptance speech.  Gallup notes:

While the increased vote share a candidate receives following his convention usually diminishes, candidates who lead after the second convention usually remain the leader a month after the convention. This is based on a review of historical Gallup data since 1964 -- the first year for which Gallup could reliably measure convention bounces.

But we must caution, as do those ads for investments, that past performance is not a guarantee of future results.  This is an unusual race, the conventions were held late, and the internet is a more powerful factor than ever. 

No guarantees here.  Hard work ahead.

Also, I'd like to repeat the admonition given to me by a very experienced news executive, also an Urgent Agenda subscriber:  Be cautious about pollsters interpreting their own polls.  Remember, they have a reputation to defend, and they sometimes have biases. 

We'll be looking at a number of polls, and how they trend over time.

September 9, 2008.        Permalink          

UPDATE AT 1:12 P.M. ET:  From AFP — "More Americans would cast ballots for Republican Sarah Palin than for Democrat Joe Biden if they were able to vote for a vice president independent of their presidential choice, a US poll released Tuesday found."

Actual result from the poll - 53-44, in favor of Palin.  Barack Obama must be celebrating his choice of vice president.

BULLETIN AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  The first tracker for today is out.  Rasmussen reports the race is a tie among likely voters.  He had McCain up one yesterday.  This may be statistical noise, or the normal day-to-day variation.  However, Rasmussen's polls tend to show smaller swings than others, in part because of his methodology.

We await the Gallup tracker this afternoon. 

UPDATE AT 8:52 A.M. ET:  From Gallup, this morning:  "PRINCETON, NJ -- John McCain's 6 percentage-point bounce in voter support spanning the Republican National Convention is largely explained by political independents shifting to him in fairly big numbers, from 40% pre-convention to 52% post-convention in Gallup Poll Daily tracking."

Gallup reports McCain leading among independents, 52-37.

SMALLNESS

Posted at 7:14 a.m. ET

One of the things we start to notice about Barack Obama is his smallness.  Yes, there are many admirable things about him - his struggle, his respect for education, his fine family.  But there is about him a smallness, underlined by his refusal even to consider seriously Hillary Clinton for the second spot on his ticket.

Now we see him debating, in public appearances, Sarah Palin.  Isn't that Biden's job?  When have you ever seen a presidential candidate taking on the opposition's number two?

And whatever happened to Biden?  Is he working?  On vacation?  Does he go outside?

I watched Obama on the O'Reilly Factor.  You can't help but be impressed by his style, his presence.  But I didn't feel I was watching a presidential candidate.  I felt I was watching someone who might run someday.  Same with his interview on ABC on Sunday.  There is the smallness factor again. 

Jack Kennedy had a bit of that problem.  He was a junior senator when he ran.  He looked younger than his 43 years.  His daughter Caroline, now an Obama booster, was younger than are the Obama daughters.  Eleanor Roosevelt publicly questioned his ability to be president.  There was a smallness, especially compared with five-star-General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the man in the White House.  But Kennedy overcame the smallness by putting a larger man than he, Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson, on his ticket.  He overcame it by writing books on history, not on himself.  He had fought in a war, and been wounded.  You felt there was potential, although many voters were hard to convince, and his ultimate victory on election day was razor-thin.

Obama clearly was not prepared for the blowout success of the Republican convention.  No one on in his corner was prepared for Governor Sarah.  The McCain team seems large - a war hero with the wisdom of age at its top, a political phenomenon filling out the ticket.  Obama now seems to exist in the shadow of the other side, and the guy he picked for vice president has all but disappeared.

Now we see, in today's New York Times, that he's having money troubles for the first time in his run for the presidency. 

In the 1980 campaign we saw the increasingly shrinking Jimmy Carter, and the growing Ronald Reagan.  We are seeing it again.  Unless Barack Obama can overcome the image of smallness that has now infected his campaign, he will be worse than toast.  He will be the slice you discard because it got burned.  Obama is in the process of getting burned by a man old enough to be his father, and by a firestorm named Sarah.

September 9, 2008.      Permalink               

THE REAL WORLD

Posted at 7:12 a.m. ET

As we focus on our political campaign, we should always remember that there's a real world out there, full of threats.  Thursday marks the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.  The boys in the caves are undoubtedly planning future spectaculars.

We had a mixed day yesterday.  The British trial of those charged with plotting to blow up airliners over the Atlantic ended in some convictions of some of the defendants, but not of others.  And even those convicted were not convicted on the top charge.  Of course, The New York Times put the worst possible face on the outcome in its headline:

No One Convicted of Terror Plot to Bomb Planes

London's Telegraph was considerably more precise:

Airliner bomb trial: Three British Muslims guilty of conspiracy to murder

The New York Times always seems so gleeful when a terror trial doesn't result in a home run for the prosecution.

At the same time, Con Coughlin, one of Britain's best terrorism reporters, reports the latest on the attempts by terror groups to develop a "dirty" nuclear weapon.  This is important:

Islamist terrorists have stepped up their efforts to develop a "dirty" bomb for use against Western targets, senior Western security sources have told The Daily Telegraph.

They are exploiting the political chaos in Pakistan in a bid to acquire nuclear material for a 'spectacular' attack.

At least one plot has been uncovered involving Pakistani-based terrorists planning to use nuclear material against a major European target.

And...

Security chiefs fear the mounting political instability in Pakistan will make it easier for militant Islamist groups to develop a primitive nuclear device.

And...

Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is subject to stringent security safeguards put in place with the help of the American military when Mr Musharraf was in office. But there is mounting concern within Western security circles that Islamic terror groups will gain access to Pakistan's expertise in developing terrorist weapons containing nuclear material.

"Islamist militant groups want to carry out terror attacks on a massive scale, and there is no better way for them to achieve that objective than to develop some form of primitive nuclear device," said a senior U.S. security official.

The most likely terror device using nuclear material is a "dirty bomb", where conventional explosives are fitted with radioactive material.

Security experts believe the detonation of such a device in a city like London would provoke widespread panic and chaos, even though the area of contamination would be relatively small.

The "small" area of contamination might have to be abandoned for some time.  Imagine that happening in New York's financial district, the Capitol area in Washington, which includes the Supreme Court, or even the Mall of America in Minnesota.

Western security officials say they have uncovered evidence that a Pakistani based group was planning to attack a European target with such a device, although details of the planned attack have not been made public.

Finally...

British security officials recently confirmed that they were investigating at least 30 terror plots that originated in Pakistan. "In the past many of the plots have been fairly primitive, but we are seeing a growing level of sophistication. We fear it is only a question of time before the groups based in Pakistan develop some form of nuclear capability."

Now which candidate for president do you think might take this seriously?  Class?

September 9, 2008.       Permalink              

MONDAY,  SEPTEMBER 8,  2008

ALL NEW POLLS RELEASED TODAY SHOW McCAIN EITHER AHEAD OR TIED

UPDATE AT 11:21 P.M. ET:  From The Politico:  Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will speak at her son’s Army deployment ceremony on 9/11 and spend two days with ABC News crews later this week as part of a McCain campaign plan to increase Americans’ comfort with her as a leader.  Campaign and network officials had said on Sunday that her first television interview would be a sit-down with Charles Gibson of ABC’s “World News.”  But it turns out that she is spending much of Thursday and Friday with Gibson — at the ceremony in Fairbanks, Alaska, and at her home in Wasilla, Alaska.

KRISTOL

Posted at 7:24 p.m. ET

Bill Kristol, in today's New York Times, assesses the reaction to the McCain's selection of Sarah Palin, and also provides a very useful history lesson for those concerned about the experience factor.  First, on news coverage of Palin:

Will that coverage continue to be as belittling of Palin as much of it has been so far? Probably. It’s not just that many in the media don’t like her politics and don’t identify with her socially or culturally. They’re offended that McCain picked Palin without, so to speak, consulting them. The establishment media take pride in their role as gatekeeper to our political process and social discourse.

So the gatekeeper media’s reaction has been: Who is Sarah Palin to suddenly show up on the national stage? We didn’t vet her. And we don’t approve of her.

Having been in journalism, I can report that Kristol is dead on.  Many journalists are frustrated that they lack actual decision-making power.  So they go for the next best thing - influencing the decision makers.  When they're ignored, they pout.

How will the Obama side deal with Sarah Palin?

To the degree they have to address the Palin question, they’ll stick to the argument they made in their first reaction to the Palin announcement: “Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency.”

According to Safire’s Political Dictionary, the “heartbeat away from the presidency” locution may date from 1952, when the Democratic nominee, Adlai Stevenson, attacked the Republican V.P. candidate, the 39-year old Richard Nixon, “who asks you to place him a heartbeat from the presidency.” A half-century before, William McKinley’s campaign manager, Mark Hanna, alarmed by the prospect of the 41-year-old Teddy Roosevelt as the V.P. nominee in 1900, is reported to have warned “that there is only one life between the Vice President and the Chief Magistracy of the nation.”

In neither case were voters moved by the “heartbeat away” concern. McKinley and Eisenhower both won easily.

Kristol presents the record:

Should voters be alarmed by a relatively young or inexperienced vice-presidential candidate? No. Since 1900, five vice presidents have succeeded to the presidency during their term in office: Teddy Roosevelt in 1901, Calvin Coolidge in 1923, Harry Truman in 1945, Lyndon Johnson in 1963, and Gerald Ford in 1974. Teddy Roosevelt took over at age 42, becoming our youngest president, and he’s generally thought to have proved up to the job. Truman was V.P. for less than three months and had been kept in the dark by Franklin Roosevelt about such matters as the atom bomb — and he’s generally thought to have risen to the occasion. Character, judgment and the ability to learn seem to matter more to success as president than the number of years one’s been in Washington.

There is, though, a uniqueness about Sarah Palin:

McCain didn’t just pick a politician who could appeal to Wal-Mart Moms. He picked a Wal-Mart Mom. Indeed, he picked someone who, in 1999, as Wasilla mayor, presided over a wedding of two Wal-Mart associates at the local Wal-Mart. “It was so sweet,” said Palin, according to The Anchorage Daily News. “It was so Wasilla.”

A Wasilla Wal-Mart Mom a heartbeat away? I suspect most voters will say, No problem. And some — perhaps a decisive number — will say, It’s about time.

But be careful of those gatekeepers, the disappointed journalists who weren't consulted, whose Georgetown-party advice was not taken.  In a close race, their coverage can make the difference. 

We'll be watching closely to see whether McCain retains his convention bounce over the next week or two, or whether the race slides back to where it was in August - close, but with Obama leading.  Right now, Obama is playing defense, thrown by the success of the GOP convention, and by the magic of Sarah.  Expect that playbook to change.  Chicago-based politicians don't play defense very long.

September 8, 2008.       Permalink          

BULLETIN AT 6:24 P.M. ET:  A new CBS News poll just released has McCain up two.  CBS News reports:

CBS) Republican presidential nominee John McCain leads Democratic rival Barack Obama 46 percent to 44 percent in the latest CBS News poll, which was taken in the three days following the completion of the parties' nominating conventions.

The poll marks the first time that McCain, whose two-point lead is within the poll's margin of error, has led Obama in CBS News general election polling.

Obama led McCain by three points in a CBS News/New York Times survey released on August 20th, just before the political conventions, and led by 8 points in CBS News polling just after the Democratic National Convention. A CBS News survey conducted last week found the two candidates tied.

More progress.  Much work to do.

BULLETIN AT 6:06 P.M. ET: A new ABC News/Washington Post poll of likely voters has McCain up two.  ABC's The Page reports some internals:

–McCain is winning white women 53 percent to 41 percent.
–Fifty-one percent trust Obama to “bring needed change” while 39 percent trust McCain to do the same.
–Fort-eight percent believe Obama better represents their values while 44 percent believe McCain does.
–McCain leads independents 50 percent to 43 percent.
–McCain leads married women 48 percent to 44 percent.
–McCain leads white Catholics 59 percent to 36 percent.

McCain/Palin still have work to do on the "change" and "values" issues, but the rest is moving right along.

UPDATE AT 4:14 P.M. ET:  A new PPP poll has Obama up by only one point in the traditionally Democratic state of Michigan.  It is hard to see how Obama can win the election if he can't carry Michigan, and he traditionally polls better than he delivers.  Key question:  This reflects the McCain/Palin convention bounce.  Will it last?  You can be sure the McCain side will pour it on in Michigan.

POLLS

Posted at 2:04 p.m. ET

Both trackers for the day have now been published.  As noted below, Rasmussen gives McCain a one-point lead among likely voters.  (Please read his explanation in our  9:38 a.m. bulletin.)

The Gallup tracker now gives McCain a five-point lead among registered voters.   That contrasts with Obama's eight-point lead six days ago.  That's a decline for Obama of 13 points.

There are two new standard polls up.  CNN has the race tied, as does Hotline.

No poll posted today has Obama with a lead.

We stress again that a poll is a snapshot in time.  The results today reflect the McCain convention bounce and his selection of Sarah Palin.  It remains to be seen whether that bounce will be maintained, grow, or erode.

But it's a good feeling to be making progress.

September 8, 2008.      Permalink          

BULLETIN AT 9:38 A.M. ET:  The first tracker of the day is out.  All the polling was taken after the Republican convention.  Rasmussen reports that McCain has a one-point lead, 48-47, among likely voters.  This may not seem encouraging at first, considering Gallup's report yesterday of a 10-point lead among LVs.  However, Rasmussen explains his methodology this way:

For a variety of reasons, the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll is less volatile than some other polls and always shows a somewhat smaller convention bounce than reported by others. This is primarily because we weight our results by party identification (see methodology). Looking at the data before adjusting for partisan identification, the Republican convention appears to have created a larger surge in party identification than the Democratic convention the week before. If this lasts, it could have a significant impact on Election 2008.

We await the Gallup tracker this afternoon.

UPDATE AT 8:41 A.M. ET:  It was certainly expected, but the New York Post, a mainstay of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, has formally endorsed McCain/Palin.  You can read the endorsement here.

AS OF NOW

Posted at 7:54 a.m. ET

That's an important phrase in following politics - "as of now."  For those of us of a certain persuasion, the last day has been exhilarating.  The standard Gallup Poll has McCain/Palin up ten points among likely voters. 

But please remember that Obama was up eight only six days ago in the Gallup tracker (taken among registered voters).

And think back two weeks, B.P. - before Palin.  It was an entirely different race.  Is it really possible that McCain announced her selection only 10 days ago?

A week is three lifetimes in politics.  We are not, as some commentators say, entering the homestretch of this campaign.  That occurs in October.  We are just beginning the main campaign itself.  There are debates ahead, with their hazards, and their sometimes biased moderators.  There are interviews.  There are potential embarrassing moments, or revelations.  There are international events, including a possible terror attack, that could change everything.  There is the chance that a candidate could fall ill.

So everything we say is "as of now."  We can bask in the success of the last week, but there is hard work ahead, and media misbehavior to battle.

A word about Sarah Palin:  I've been following politics since...well, for a long time.  It was different then, listening to Lincoln and Douglas.  I was the only one in the crowd with a digital camera.

But in all my years, Sarah Palin is the most phenomenal political personality I've seen.  She's being compared to Ronald Reagan, but I think the comparison is wrong.  Reagan was a magnificent speaker, but in a different, more regal way.  The better comparison, I think, is to Franklin D. Roosevelt.  Like Roosevelt, Palin has a way of reaching people, of speaking directly to us, as Roosevelt did in his fireside chats.  Bill Clinton may feel our pain, but Palin has experienced our pain.

There is a famous story about the day Roosevelt died.  A reporter noticed a soldier standing at the White House gate, and crying.  The reporter asked, "Did you know him?"  The soldier replied, "No, but he knew me."  That is the feeling people get with Sarah Palin.  She connects.  She understands.  She is incredibly articulate, one of the clearest, most understandable speakers I've ever heard.  And she has a wonderful, genuine voice.  Many people who speak publicly try to eliminate any regional accent.  She has not done so.  She is from somewhere.  She has roots, a home, a place.  Somewhere real.

September 8, 2008.      Permalink           

UPDATE AT 7:16 A.M. ET:  Last night we reported, via Drudge, that The New York Times was preparing a story on Sarah Palin's new baby.  We feared the worst.  But the story is now up, and it's a reasonable reporting job.  Nothing inflammatory.  Nothing to see here, nothing to see.  There are a few lines that seem to pose questions about Governor Palin's judgment, but they are well within professional bounds.

PERSONNEL NOTES

Posted at 6:58 a.m. ET

Some stories take on a delight of their own.

Apparently, the ruling classes at NBC have finally realized that running a news outlet that raises mental-health questions is not a good idea.  It's especially not a good idea when the outlet is frantically leftist, and it suddenly appears that the left-wing guy may not become president.

There are, therefore, personnel changes at MSNBC.  The New York Times tells the 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.

That experiment appears to be over.

After months of accusations of political bias and simmering animosity between MSNBC and its parent network NBC, the channel decided over the weekend that the NBC News correspondent and MSNBC host David Gregory would anchor news coverage of the coming debates and election night. Mr. Olbermann and Mr. Matthews will remain as analysts during the coverage.

The change — which comes in the home stretch of the long election cycle — is a direct result of tensions associated with the channel’s perceived shift to the political left.

This is the correct move.  Executing it will have to be done carefully so it isn't just cosmetic. 

Executives at the channel’s parent company, NBC Universal, had high hopes for MSNBC’s coverage of the political conventions. Instead, the coverage frequently descended into on-air squabbles between the anchors, embarrassing some workers at NBC’s news division, and quite possibly alienating viewers. Although MSNBC nearly doubled its total audience compared with the 2004 conventions, its competitive position did not improve, as it remained in last place among the broadcast and cable news networks. In prime time, the channel averaged 2.2 million viewers during the Democratic convention and 1.7 million viewers during the Republican convention.

The success of the Fox News Channel in the past decade along with the growth of political blogs have convinced many media companies that provocative commentary attracts viewers and lures Web browsers more than straight news delivered dispassionately.

I was taught a wonderful notion at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism:  "Never underestimate the viewer's intelligence, never overestimate the viewer's knowledge."  MSNBC consistently underestimates the intelligence of viewers.   It became, in recent months particularly, a childlike operation.

In interviews, 10 current and former staff members said that long-simmering tensions between MSNBC and NBC reached a boiling point during the conventions. “MSNBC is behaving like a heroin addict,” one senior staff member observed. “They’re living from fix to fix and swearing they’ll go into rehab the next week.”

That is correct.

Mr. Griffin, MSNBC’s president, denies that it has an ideology. “I think ideology means we think one way, and we don’t,” he said. Rather than label MSNBC’s prime time as left-leaning, he says it has passion and point of view.

That is a ridiculous statement, and thorough disingenuous.  "Passion and point of view"?  What point of view would that be?

Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams, the past and present anchors of “NBC Nightly News,” have told friends and colleagues that they are finding it tougher and tougher to defend the cable arm of the news division, even while they anchored daytime hours of convention coverage on MSNBC and contributed commentary each evening.

I guess they didn't like "passion and point of view."

Just last year, Mr. Olbermann signed a four-year, $4-million-a-year contract with MSNBC. NBC is close to supplementing that contract with Mr. Olbermann, extending his deal through 2013 — and ensuring that he will be on MSNBC through the next election.

Most unfortunate.

Also unfortunate is that the people who run MSNBC don't understand why Fox is so successful.  It does things well, that's why.  Its news broadcasts are straightforward.  It's commentary shows are clearly commentary.  Although considered "conservative" it gives liberals a fair shot.  Its panels during the convention were the best, and kept disciplined.

There are reasons for success.

September 8, 2008.      Permalink          

"What you see is news.  What you know is background.  What you feel is opinion."
    - Lester Markel, late Sunday editor
      of The New York Times.

SUBSCRIPTIONS:

Subscriptions to URGENT AGENDA are voluntary.  Why subscribe to something you're getting free?  To help guarantee that you'll continue to get it at all.  Subscriptions sustain us.  Payments are through PayPal and are secure, but you do not have to sign up for a PayPal account.  Credit cards are fine.

FOR A ONE-YEAR ($48) SUBSCRIPTION, CLICK:

FOR A SIX-MONTH ($26) SUBSCRIPTION, CLICK:

IF YOU DON'T WISH A SET SUBSCRIPTION, BUT PREFER TO DONATE ANY OTHER AMOUNT TO SUSTAIN URGENT AGENDA, CLICK:

SEARCH URGENT AGENDA:

POWER LINE:

It's a privilege for me to post periodic pieces at Power Line. To go to Power Line, click here.

To link to my Power Line pieces, go here.

THE CURRENT QUESTION

This space will regularly raise questions that relate to the news, but transcend daily headlines.  The idea is to stimulate talk about basic issues. Our last question asked: 

Last week we asked,

What are the three most absurd positions put forward by Barack Obama?

You can view the answers here.

NEW CURRENT QUESTION

This question was was suggested by reader Francis Drouillard:

What will Obama supporters do if he loses?

If you'd like to send us your thoughts, click:
response@urgentagenda.com
(Please stay within two or three paragraphs.  We try to print every reply, if space allows.  Place your name at the end of the message if you wish your name published.  This question will stay up through Sunday.)

CONTACT:

YOU CAN E-MAIL US, AS FOLLOWS:

If you have wonderful things to say about this site, if it makes you a better person, please click:
applause@urgentagenda.com

If you have a general comment on anything you see here, or on anything else that's topical, please click:
comments@urgentagenda.com

If you must say something obnoxious, something that will embarrass you and disgrace your loving family, click:
despicable@urgentagenda.com

If you required subscription service, please click:
service@urgentagenda.com

FAVORITE SITES (List will grow)

Power Line
Faster Please (Michael Ledeen)
OpinionJournal.com
Hudson Institute
Bookworm Room
Bill Bennett
Red State
Pajamas Media
Michelle Malkin
Diana West
The Weekly Standard
The New York Sun
Real Clear Politics
The Corner
City Journal
Gateway Pundit
American Thinker