Fox's photo phlub on national TV, explaining Clinton's debate demand

Here's a screen grab of a shot they showed on "Fox & Friends" the other morning. They were illustrating the repeated calls by New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, reported in detail on The Ticket, for a Lincoln-Douglas style debate between the two remaining Democratic presidential candidates, Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama before next week's Indiana and North Carolina primaries.

Remember we suggested in that item that it's a sure sign of someone losing when he/she seeks a "Lincoln-Douglas style debate," meaning one-on-one, no moderator, as Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas did seven times in their fabled U.S. Senate race in 1858.

By the way, do you see anything wrong with this screen shot from Fox?

Hint: That's Lincoln on the right, all right. (By the way, we know subjects were not supposed to smile in 19th century photographs. But do you think that mug would let Abe get elected in today's made-up, beautified media world?)

So the fellow on the left must be Stephen Douglas, right? The winner of that 1858 race that left Lincoln free to prepare for his successful 1860 Republican presidential run. Wrong! Old Steve D. wasn't African American for starters.

That's actually a photograph of Frederick Douglass, the 19th century black abolitionist who sure wasn't running for the Senate in 1858. Fox's producers put up the wrong guy on national TV.

But who's gonna notice on a chat-filled TV morning show? With a tip of the hat to our pals at the Swamp and MSNBC, which caught their competitor's photo flub.

--Andrew Malcolm

A Michelle Obama excerpt, discussing Jeremiah Wright

In an interview with Barack and Michelle Obama that NBC's "Today" show will air Thursday -- with excerpts aired this evening on NBC's "Nightly News" -- Meredith Vieira asked the candidate's wife whether she believed that the couple's former longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, had betrayed her husband.

"I think Barack has spoken so clearly and eloquently about this," Michelle Obama said.

"But do you personally feel that the Rev. Wright ... ," asked Vieira, probing for more.

"You know what I think, Meredith? I think we gotta move forward," Michelle said. "You know, this conversation doesn't help my kids. You know, it doesn't help kids out there who are looking for us to make decisions and choices about how we're going to better fund education."

-- Mark Silva

Mark Silva writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau.

Excerpts from Hillary Clinton's chat with Bill O'Reilly

Fox News Channel has released excerpts of Hillary Clinton's interview with Bill O'Reilly, before the airing tonight of the first segment of the talk (Part 2 broadcasts Thursday). Not surprisingly, the first topic spotlighted was the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Here's the excerpt, which leaves it unclear whether she was addressing a specific Wright remark or the inflammatory tenor of many of his comments came after O'Reilly asked her: "You're an American citizen. I'm an American citizen. He's an American citizen, Rev. Wright. What do you think when you hear a fellow American citizen say that stuff about America? What do you think?"

“Well, I take offense at it. I think it’s offensive and outrageous. And, you know, I’m going to express my opinion, others can express theirs. But, you know, it is -- it is part of, you know, just an atmosphere that we’re in today where all kinds of things are being said.

"And people have to, you know, decide what they believe. And I sure don’t believe the United States government was behind AIDS.”

It makes perfect sense for Clinton to condemn Wright, especially on the AIDS issue. We wonder, though, if at some point in the interview she cut Barack Obama the type of slack John McCain did on Tuesday.

Here's part of the quote McCain gave CNN on Tuesday:

"I have made it very clear that I don't believe that Rev. Wright reflects the views of Sen. Obama, and I don't have anything more to say about it."

(Update: Clinton told O'Reilly that Obama "made his views clear, finally, and did what he had to do.")

Another Clinton excerpt seems to suggest ...

An Oprah Winfrey neighbor in California endorses Barack Obama

And then there were 10.

Given our particular interest in all things California, we've double-checked and confirmed that that's how many of the state's 34 Democratic members of the U.S. House remain uncommitted in their party's blistering presidential contest (no small matter since they're all convention superdelegates).

The number was reduced from 11 with Rep. Lois Capps of Santa Barbara (right) declaring her allegiance to Barack Obama. Indeed, today Capps was one of three "supers" coming out for Obama, even as the political world mulls how badly the latest contretemps sparked by the Rev. Jeremiah Wright damaged him.

The other two were Rep. Bruce Braley of Iowa and Rep. Baron Hill of Indiana (an especially interesting endorsement not only because of his state's impending primary, but because he represents one of the nation's most politically competitive districts.)

In their ever-so-tight race, Hillary Clinton countered with two new "supers" -- Democratic National Committee member Luisette Cabanas of Puerto Rico and AFL-CIO leader Bill George of Pennsylvania.

The moves were in line with recent trends in the hand-to-hand combat for superdelegates: Obama does well among those who are elected officials, while Clinton benefits from her institutional support within party ranks.

Capps is one of those with strong ties to the Clintons. Her daughter, Laura, worked several years ...

Barack Obama gets in some exercise

Roy Williams, for years one of the most successful coaches in college basketball, has taken a shot at political prognostication.

“You've got the future president of the United States wide open,” he shouted at one point to present and past University of North Carolina basketball players who were part of a pickup game Tuesday that included Barack Obama (and who apparently weren't as willing as they should have been to pass to him).

The coaching tip from Williams, who won the national championship at UNC a few years back and led the Tar Heels to the Final Four earlier this spring, earned him "quote of the day" honors from ABC's daily political note (no small achievement, given the plethora of sound bites Obama provided later at his news conference denouncing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright).

If ever a politician needed to work off some nervous energy with a game of hoops, we imagine it was Obama as he grappled ...

Barack Obama and wife, Michelle: Mutual TV appearance upcoming

Now that Barack Obama has distanced himself publicly, if painfully, from the pastor who married him and his wife and baptized their children, he is getting close to the wife in a national television appearance.

NBC's Meredith Vieira will sit down with Barack and Michelle Obama today in Indianapolis for an interview that will air on the "Today" show Thursday. A segment of the talk will air on NBC's "Nightly News" and on MSNBC this evening.

Michelle Obama has been a tireless campaigner for her husband on the road. And now, as the Democratic candidate for president attempts to put the Rev. Jeremiah Wright in the campaign's rear view mirror, he is presenting a new image for public consumption: A professional and happily married couple willing to face a rough political time together.

-- Mark Silva

Mark Silva writes for the Swamp of the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau.

Is Obama wrong or Wright? Vote here

In his highly praised and closely critiqued speech on race in America in Philadelphia last month, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama took 37 minutes to dissect his views on race in America and the need for improved dialog and his controversial relationship with his outspoken pastor of two decades, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ.

As the leading candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, Obama was under extreme and mounting pressure to distance himself from the inflammatory remarks of Wright.

They included denunciations of America, appearing to suggest the United States invited the 9/11 attacks and charging that the federal government invented the AIDS epidemic to commit genocide against people of color.

Obama said he had not heard the worst comments and did not specify which Wright remarks he was describing, but "condemned" the "statements of Rev. Wright that have caused such controversy." So proud is the Obama organization of that now partially inoperative address that as of last night it was still offering a DVD of the speech in return for a minimum $30 campaign donation.

At the same time Obama also said of Wright: "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community."

Tuesday, after Wright's speech and news conference in Washington, Obama did just that. "The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church.

"They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs.

"And if Rev. Wright thinks that that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well. And based on his remarks yesterday, well, I may not know him as well as I thought either."

Obama's complete news conference remarks are published below after the jump, along with a third poll question. And as always on The Ticket, the comment line is open for dialogue.

Click on Read more.

--Andrew Malcolm

Ron Paul's troops quietly take over some local GOP groups

If anybody thought the Ron Paul Revolution had expired, they need to rethink that one.

Clearly, the 72-year-old libertarian-minded Texas representative was not going to win the Republican Party's nomination this year with his 12, 20 or 42 delegates, whomever you believe. Sen. John McCain already has enough to win the GOP nod in St. Paul in September. So Paul has taken his well-funded campaign and gone rather underground to the local level where his loyal Paulunteers are organizing and taking over numerous county party operations in several states.

Quietly, beneath the political radar of the Republican Party establishment and mainstream media, they're laboring at the local level. Last month Paul forces read the party rule book in Missouri and elected about a third of the delegates to the state convention that will pick the delegates to the national convention.

Last weekend in Nevada they drove through a rules change in the state party convention that halted the approval of pre-approved slates of convention delegates as a means to eventually substitute their own supporters to travel to St. Paul and boost Paul's delegate totals for platform and other struggles this fall.

Using sophisticated communications techniques on the Nevada convention floor in Reno, Paul supporters transmitted mass text messaging to maneuver and direct their troops. When Paul appeared to speak, the ovation was thunderous.

At other times they shouted down the convention chair, Sen. Bob Beers. Taken by surprise the convention organizers and the McCain camp, which for instance had no supply of campaign signs to compete with the blizzard of Paul signs, eventually adjourned the convention in chaos without electing any delegates.

The excuse was the expiration of the convention's contract with the host casino. No new convention date was announced. The Ron Paul crews move on to their next target.

--Andrew Malcolm

                                                                                                                  Photo Credit: RonPaul.com

Hillary Clinton, meet Bill O'Reilly

As our Showtracker blog noted earlier today, Hillary Clinton is slated to headline FOX News Channel's "The O'Reilly Factor," conversing -- for the first time -- with host Bill O'Reilly from Indiana. The interview will air in two parts, with the first segment shown Wednesday night and the next on Thursday (all the better to milk the ratings, presumably).

Her appearance predictably follows Barack Obama's long-awaited interview on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace. From the viewpoint of the mainstream media (like us), Obama emerged unscathed from his encounter with Wallace (little knowing a new Jeremiah Wright-inspired firestorm awaited him).

But some liberal bloggers, who as part of decrying what they see as FOX's over-the-top conservative bias generally urge Democrats to boycott the network, were displeased with Obama and the way he handled his chat (see here, here and here).

Clinton may not take quite as much grief because many in the liberal blogsphere have long since written her off. Still, she hasn't gotten a complete pass.

Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post had unpleasant things ...

The Barack Obama-Jeremiah Wright link: What first forged it?

Noam Scheiber of the New Republic earlier today astutely focused on what remains the great imponderable in the Barack Obama-Jeremiah Wright relationship: What caused the younger, aspiring pol to first come under the sway of the older, established preacher?

Scheiber rejects as simplistic the two basic theories that abound -- that Obama cynically joined Wright's church as a purely political calculation, or that he saw in the pastor a substitute for the father he basically lacked.

Instead, Scheiber consulted "Obama: From Promise to Power," a biography by David Mendell that probed how the two became linked, an effort helped by insights provided by Wright himself. Scheiber's posting consists mainly of what he rightly terms a "fascinating passage" from Mendell's book. Here's part of it:

"The liberal, Columbia-educated Obama was attracted to Wright's cerebral and inclusive nature, as opposed to the more socially conservative and less educated ministers around Chicago. Wright developed into a counselor and mentor to Obama as Obama sought to understand the power of Christianity in the lives of black Americans, and as he grappled with the complex vagaries of Chicago's black political scene."

-- Don Frederick