By the time Sen. John McCain gets on NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" tonight, it's gonna look like it's way past the veteran senator's bedtime.
The show was, of course, taped this afternoon, a little bit late due to a very surprising event: air traffic congestion above and around Newark's airport. Imagine that! And on a Friday, too.
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But it's amazing what can happen when you have the Secret Service on your side: the Lincoln Tunnel was closed and McCain's motorcade sped through midtown Manhattan to the NBC studios.
(Oh well, he wasn't gonna win New York's voters over anyway.)
There, the Republican nominee-to-be was well-received, even when Conan begged the 71-year-old war vet and POW to give late-night comedians something other than his age to joke about.
There was a pause. And McCain fell over asleep.
The late-night host acknowledged his colleagues had been unable to find anything to make fun aboutBarack Obama. (One idea: How about those Prince Charles-like jug ears?)
"I say we're tired of this take on you," O'Brien complained. "We....
Campaigning for the U.S. presidency has its really unpleasant personal aspects. Criticism of the candidate is hard for family members to take. And criticism of the family is hard for the candidate to take.
That's why, for instance, in 1999-2000 at their request, George W. Bush kept his teenage daughters out of the spotlight. Until their recent "Access Hollywood" interview, the Obamas did the same with their younger daughters and later said they regretted that exposure.
But now Sen. Barack Obama says he wishes what he calls the conservative press would lay off his wife, Michelle, because she's a civilian who "didn't sign up for this."
Today, she campaigned in Washington state where the state Republican Party welcomed here with an ad (see video below the Read more line, with a hat tip to WakeUpAmerica).
Obama says he finds criticism of his spouse "infuriating." And he adds: "If they have a difference with me on policy, they should debate me. Not her."
In an interview this week with Glamour magazine, Obama complained that “the conservative press -– Fox News and the National Review and columnists of every ilk” had been too critical in its coverage of her.
He said he thinks reporters from those organizations “went fairly deliberately at her in a pretty systematic way” and, he asserted, “treated her as the candidate in a way that you just rarely see the Democrats try to do against Republicans.”
Obama would get a real argument about that from some....
The mystery has been cleared up about what else Jesse Jackson said last week when he made his crude remarks about Barack Obama.
The previously unreported comment, disclosed Wednesday morning by the TVNewser blog, was:
“Barack ... he’s talking down to black people ... telling [black people] how to behave.” Only Jackson used the plural form of the “n-word,” not “black people,” in the second part of his comment.
Initially, the firestorm was over comments Jackson made to a guest before a July 6 interview on "Fox & Friends."
The civil rights leader whispered that Obama was "talking down to black people" and that Jackson wanted to "cut his nuts off."
The comments went unnoticed in the control room, Fox News said. But, as reported by The Times’ Matea Gold in a story published Friday, an employee working the overnight shift transcribed the tape, and the remarks that first caused the stir were reported several days later on Fox’s "The O’Reilly Factor." Then, as The Ticket reported, there was a controversy over exactly what Jackson said he wanted to do.
At the time, host Bill O’Reilly told viewers the network had decided to air only portions of what Jackson had said, adding there was "more damaging" material, too. That gave rise to rumors that Jackson had used the “n word” –- and aimed it directly at Obama.
In a Wednesday afternoon interview with fellow Fox host Shepard Smith, O’Reilly said he had withheld the “n-word” remark because, “I’m not in the business of creating some kind of controversy that’s not relevant to the general subject -- one civil rights leader disparaging another over policy.”
But why did O’Reilly mention in the first place that he had “more damaging” material?
In a one-sentence statement offered as a reply, O’Reilly said Wednesday: “We tell the audience the full breadth of everything we report on.” There was no elaboration on why the “full breadth” didn’t include the actual comment.
As for how the “n-word” comment eventually got out, O’Reilly told Smith that “some weasel leaked it to the Internet.”
Presidential campaigns are much like a complex traveling circus, with teams assigned to develop messages to voters, teams designed to scout appropriate sites for candidate visits, teams assigned to prepare them and teams assigned to accompany the candidate and ensure a smooth appearance, most notably with the traveling and local media whose experience is reflected in the tone and detail of the coverage they provide to millions.
Sometimes the campaign venues are too small to accommodate the large press packs traveling on the campaign plane, whose numbers jockeying for position would spoil the desired "getting-to-know-you-feel" the campaign wants for the TV cameras.
So pool reporters are chosen by turn to represent print and broadcast media, assembled elsewhere, and share what they see and hear with their absent colleagues in detailed Pool Reports, sometimes several a day and sometimes with professional asides to their colleagues.
From time to time through November, The Ticket is going to publish these pool reports in their entirety to give readers an inside feel for the kinds of detail they may not always see in the formal news coverage and to peer inside the raw material that journalists use to compile their coverage. Sometimes, as last night, the pool reports include details of an unexpected encounter.
This morning's Pool Report is No. 4 from Tuesday evening with Sen. John McCain in St. Louis. It includes a humorous addition at the end:
McCain Pool Report #4 7/15/08
ST. LOUIS—Showing his intimate knowledge of the Show Me State’s culture, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) made a pilgrimage to one of its vaunted institutions Tuesday night: Ted Drewes Frozen Custard.
The local dessert stand, which was founded in 1929, made its reputation on its 'concretes' cups of frozen custard that are so thick the servers flip them upside down before they....
Former pro wrestler and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse 'Come Over Here and Say That' Ventura has decided not to run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Republican Norm 'I Used to Be Mayor, You Know' Coleman and now desired by Democrat Al 'Big Fat Comedian With a Work Comp Payment Problem' Franken.
Unless he changes his mind before the filing deadline of 5 p.m. Tuesday.
That woulda been a wonderful "Smackdown 08." Picture the televised debates, Jesse ranting and pointing his finger at the camera after smashing a chair over the moderator's head. Franken trying to be funny again. And Norm, the former St. Paul mayor, consulting his notes on fiscal numbers.
Jesse was made for the media. Huge guy. Deep voice. Outrageous opinions. Sounds good. Who would you want with on your side in a bar fight, even if he started it?
So, naturally the big guy chose to end the speculation that he started himself a week or so ago by going on the staid traditional forum of "Larry King Live" to make his non-announcement because that show didn't have any missing blonde high school cheerleaders to interview the parents of tonight.
Jeese's speaking fees must be fading for him to gin up this 10-day publicity dust devil.
Jesse said he was sick and tired of both parties. All they do is spend other people's money, he said. He also said he might not even vote, there's so little difference between them. He said they denounce each other and then make backroom buddy-buddy deals with each other, just like pro wrestling. And he's angry about it.
And in a move that could have created Minnesota residency problems if he'd run, Jesse let slip that he's moved southwest and now lives at least half the year in Mexico. Which is understandable given Minnesota's surfing conditions and the summertime bug supply in the Land of 10,000,000 Lakes or however many they claim up there.
Come to think of it, the Lakers did the same thing.
As if he's not got enough to worry about with helpers like Phil Gramm,John McCain is learning the hard way that having the Gubernator on the stump for you can be a gamble.
The California governor appeared by tape on ABC’s "This Week" today intended, everybody thought, to give a boost to the Arizona senator's Republican candidacy for the White House.
But instead, when asked, Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggerseemed to suggest he would have no qualms about joining an administration run by someone called Barack Obama -- who, if memory serves, is the Democrat actually opposing the Republican man the Republican Schwarzenegger endorsed for president.
The show's host, George Stephanopoulos, questioned the governor about a report in Newsweek that the Democratic senator, if elected president, might ask the Republican governor to serve in an Obama Cabinet post, as something like an energy czar. Which is Russian for big kahuna, but you get the point.
The immediate answer from most any other McCain surrogate would be: "Are you serious?" "What are you drinking from that cup, George?" "Of course not." "Absolutely not." "No." An outburst of laughter combined with a shaking head. Or perhaps a cackle.
Everyone understands Schwarzenegger's got to live with his wife, Maria Shriver, who's a Democrat. And she's endorsed the other guy. Fine.
But instead of full support, what the McCain camp got was their surrogate nibbling at the Democratic bait.
Stephanopoulos: “If he were president and he called, you would at least take that call?”
Schwarzenegger: “I would take his call now, I will take his call when he's President. Any time. Remember, no matter who is president, I don't see this as a political thing, I see this as we always have to help no matter what the administration is.”
"When" Obama's president?
The governor might try to "clarify" Monday. But with friends like these ...
(UPDATE: Sure enough, as predicted the Governor made a clarifying statement Monday saying, among other things, "I have no interest in leaving the state of California until my mission is finished.")
In politics, "flip-flop" is considered the equivalent of two four-letter words -- but not by Arnold Schwarzenegger. If anything, the California governor says, politicians should flip-flop more frequently.
"Flip-flopping is getting a bad rap, because I think it is great," he said during an interview taped last week and broadcast Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "Someone has made a mistake. I mean, someone has, for 20 or 30 years, been in the wrong place with his idea and with his ideology and says, 'You know something? I changed my mind. I am now for this.'
"As long as he's honest or she's honest, I think that is a wonderful thing. You can change your mind," he said. "I have changed my mind on things, and there is nothing wrong with it."
As a politician, Schwarzenegger has tried to avoid hard-line positions on the right or the left, but he noted that winning presidential primaries -- appealing to a party's core voters, in other words -- may require candidates to veer to the extreme.
But now that he has enough delegates to become the GOP nominee, John McCain "hopefully" will "wander a little more to the left," Schwarzenegger said. As for McCain's Democratic counterpart, Barack Obama, "what he has done consistently has been very much to the left, and he's now more and more going to the right."
"You think that's smart," said host George Stephanopoulos.
"That's what they have to do," Schwarzenegger replied.
The Sunday talk-show hosts paid tribute this morning to one of their own: Tony Snow, the first moderator of "Fox News Sunday," who died of colon cancer on Saturday.
Snow hosted the program -- the first news show on the Fox television network -- for seven years, from 1996 to 2003. He then turned his attention to "Weekend Live with Tony Snow" on Fox News Channel and "Tony Snow Live" on Fox News Radio before being named White House press secretary in April 2006.
He served President Bush until stepping down in September 2007, citing his desire to ensure that his family was financially secure. Most recently, he was a commentator on CNN.
On CBS' "Face the Nation," former Republican National Committee chair Ed Gillespie recalled Snow as "one of the good guys." ...
Recently, regular Ticket readers will recall, we celebrated the good news for politics junkies that PBS was going to have gavel-to-gavel television coverage of the upcoming Democratic and Republican national conventions.
The networks and even some print media have cut back their coverage drastically.
Well, here's some even better news. Those politics junkies aware of XM Satellite Radio's all-politics POTUS 08 Channel 130 have for 10 months now been getting round-the-clock expert reporting on the presidential election races, now focusing on Republican nominee-to-be John McCain and the Democrats' choice, Barack Obama.
This weekend XM announced that the channel will cover both parties' national conventions 24 hours a day, commercial-free, with all-day and evening live coverage and overnight reruns of highlights.
This coverage has long been available to millions of XM subscribers in homes, in cars and online. But, XM also announced, during the conventions the satellite radio operation will offer free 14-day trials to online users at www.xmradio.com/potus.
Timed right, those free 14 days will perfectly overlap both the Democrats' convention in Denver at the end of August and the Republicans' meeting in St. Paul, Minn., in early September.
XM will have its broadcast booth overlooking both convention floors, with the usual array of anchors on hand, including Joe Mathieu (pictured), Tim Farley, Rebecca Roberts and Scott Walterman. During each week's session, Adrienne Mitchell will report on the other party from Washington.
The channel is already broadcasting weekly sessions with each convention's organizers. And it plans to interview speakers, reporters, strategists, delegates and -- who knows -- maybe even some convention attendees wearing funny hats, which won't look so bad on radio.
By the way, The Ticket will be blogging both conventions in its usual unpredictable way.
ABC's "This Week": California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the presidential campaign, wildfires and gasoline prices (taped Friday); round table with Richard Stengel (Time magazine) and Donna Brazile, Cokie Roberts and George Will (ABC News).
CBS' "Face the Nation": (UPDATE: CBS has added Ed Gillespie, counselor to President Bush, to the guest list talk about former press secretary Tony Sunday, who died Saturday of cancer.) Sallai Meridor (Israeli ambassador to the U.S.); Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Roger Simon, chief political columnist, Politico. Topics are Iran, Iraq and the presidential campaign.
CNN's "Late Edition": The presidential campaign: Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Govs. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) and Janet Napolitano (D-Ariz.) and Nancy Pfotenhauer (McCain economic advisor) and Jason Furman (Obama economic advisor). Iraq: Iraqi national security advisor Mowaffak Rubaie.
"Fox News Sunday": T. Boone Pickens, on his energy plan.
NBC's "Meet the Press": Carly Fiorina (McCain Victory 2008 chairwoman) and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), national co-chair of Obama campaign, on the presidential campaign. Round table with former Rep. Harold Ford Jr., GOP strategist Mike Murphy and Andrea Mitchell of NBC News.
Peering into its secret crystal blog ball, The Ticket confidently predicts that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will criticize the Bush administration Sunday during his appearance on "This Week With George Stephanopolous."
He'll probably say something like: "This administration did not believe in global warming. They just didn't believe in it or they didn't believe that they should do anything about it, since China is not doing anything about it and since India is not willing to do the same thing, so why should we do the same thing?"
"We don't wait for other countries to do the same thing," Schwarzenegger is almost certain to add. "That's what makes America No. 1."
No doubt George will ask Arnold's reaction to the recent decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to sit back on new moves against global warming before the end of Bush's presidency.
"Well, to be honest with you," the California governor is likely to respond, "if they would have done something this year, I would have thought it was bogus anyway. Because you don't change global warming and you don't really have an effect by doing something six months before you leave office."
See the extra value you get by reading The Ticket?
Actually, ABC released excerpts of the interview, which was taped Friday morning, no doubt because the governor didn't want to get up early Sunday.
After a long, candid and public battle with colon cancer, former White House press secretary and television-radio host Tony Snow died early this morning.
Snow died about 2 a.m. EDT in Georgetown University Hospital. He was 53 and is survived by his wife, Jill Ellen Walker, and their three children: Kendall, Robbie and Kristi.
A video segment about his death is available by clicking the Read more line below.
Snow previously served as chief speechwriter for President George H.W. Bushand as a frequent host on Fox News Channel's "Fox News Sunday," "Weekend Live" and "The O'Reilly Factor."
He also guest-hosted for Rush Limbaugh and had his own radio talk show.
In September, after 17 months in the White House job, Snow retired as President George W. Bush's third press secretary, typically not blaming his disease but saying with his cancer he needed to ...
The controversy is not about whether the reverend's remarks are crude; that seems pretty well-established. And Jackson tried to preemptively apologize on another network as soon as Fox News asked him for comment before airing the tape.
The controversy is not over whether Jackson's mutilation desire shows a jealousy between the two Chicago South Side black leaders, at least one way on Jackson's part.
The controversy is over whether Jackson said he wanted to cut Obama's "nuts off" or "nuts out." No, really.
Apparently the actual tape is somewhat muffled. Although establishing such genital distinctions was not covered much back in journalism school, for the record for the moment The Times is going with "nuts off," because that's what Fox News showed on its screen caption.
There is, however, a good bit more to this simmering story, which thrust Jackson back into the publicity spotlight where he always looks so comfortable. And, as usual, The Times' Matea Gold doesn't miss a detail. She has the full engrossing story now over on the Show Tracker blog.
We'll just say also for the record that, frankly, "off" or "out" seems like pretty much the same effect and pretty much the same pain. But we're pretty much speculating there, fortunately.
Here's something fresh -- a politician rendered speechless, at least momentarily. Of course, few campaign conversations that involve Viagra and birth control can go anywhere good for a candidate.
In this video below, the questioner is our own Maeve Reston. The questionee -- John McCain, whom Reston asked for a reaction to a comment by McCain supporter-advisor Carly Fiorina about insurance companies that cover Viagra but not birth control. (And, yes, the image of a deer in the headlights comes to mind.)
John McCain did OK in the fundraising department in June, our colleague Dan Morain reports, though at this point, without Barack Obama's fundraising numbers, it's hard to say what that means. But we do like writing about money around here.
The McCain campaign says he raised $22 million in June, up slightly from the $21 million he raised in May. And the Republican National Committee added $26 million itself, money that can be used to buttress McCain's spending against Obama, who has been raising money like he owns the mint.
As Morain reports, Obama has raised $287 million to McCain's $133 million, which includes the June contributions for McCain but not, obviously, for Obama. Obama has sworn off federal funds -- after suggesting he'd do otherwise -- while McCain is taking the federal money, and its spending limits.
But with the RNC spinning off its own independent expenditure committee, the 527s on both sides and the rest of the cash flow that floods through campaign season, it will keep these folks very busy trying to make sense of it all.
This will be way past most of our bedtimes, but John McCain plans to test out the wee hours of campaigning next week with an appearance on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." The Swamp points out that McCain was the first sitting U.S. senator to appear on "Saturday Night Live," whose producer Lorne Michaels also is the executive producer of the O'Brien show.
McCain has been on O'Brien's show before, but this apparently is the first appearance since he became the presumptive Republican nominee (we don't know if that means the band has to kick up a trumpet fanfare when he walks out or what).
And what better time to revisit some of O'Brien's previous barbs about McCain? With a rim shot on the snare drum to About.Com (to get the true spirit, click here after each joke):
Now that Barack Obama is the Democratic nominee, Americans are going to have to choose between the 46-year-old Obama and the 71-year-old John McCain. That's the choice. In other words, it's a choice between the Hillary-defeater or the Wal-Mart greeter.
Barack Obama said today that he is going to fight for votes in all 50 states. Yeah. That's what he said. Meanwhile, John McCain said he's going to fight for votes in all 13 colonies.
This week, Barack Obama, true story, campaigned on an Indian reservation and the tribal chief adopted him. Yeah, the Indians actually prefer Obama to John McCain, because they still remember when McCain took their land.
Earlier today, John McCain released 1,200 pages of his medical records. Or, as his doctor calls it, Chapter One.
Barack Obama's staff and John McCain's staff are busy now negotiating when the presidential debates will take place. That's good, yeah. Yeah, Obama wants them to be in September, and McCain wants them to be after his nap, but before "Wheel of Fortune."
Below is a video of one of McCain's earlier appearances.
And, yes, we know Rep. Ron Paul isn't going to be anybody's nominee. But he could be.
We are sincerely indebted to loyal Ticket reader Travis for this morning's week-ending chuckle.
He found a website that lets you nominate anyone for president (insert name here) and incorporates their name in a most realistic TV news video report.
You can see how ridiculous the site is by watching this version -- before you start pranking family and friends. (It might take a minute or so to load if busy.)
And thanks again to Travis. If anybody else comes across good/fun/unusual political sites, just send them to The Ticket please. We might highlight yours.
Turns out Jesse Jackson's whispered crudity on Fox News about what he'd like to do to Barack Obama's privates almost made it through without notice.
Jackson, who has eagerly worn microphones over the years almost as much as Al Sharpton, obviously knew he could be heard. Why else whisper? Which he did, criticizing Obama to a fellow black guest on "Fox & Friends" before the show went live.
But as The Times' diligent Matea Gold reports here today, no one in the Fox control room caught the exchange at the time.
It was only during the night that a Fox staffer who was transcribing the program caught the whisper and then noticed Jackson's hand-cutting motion beneath the desk.
The catch worked its way up the in-house news chain and, finally, onto the air Wednesday. But Jackson was tipped about the imminent embarrassment when Fox News fairly asked him for comment before its broadcast, and Jackson immediately arranged to go on CNN to attempt a preemptive broadcast apology.
Judging by online reaction, that didn't work too well. And people ....
One of the most important issues to any presidential campaign is controlling the message transmitted to the voting public through the media covering each day's events.
One of the biggest threats to controlling that message is the media itself, especially the national media that pays a fortune to travel with the candidates on their chartered planes, buses and vans. And watches and listens and questions intensely for any change or even apparent change in the campaign, as is its perceived duty.
Another threat to controlling that message is the candidate himself -- or as Hillary Clinton learned last fall and winter, the candidate's spouse himself. They get off course talking or scrapping about something else and the day's carefully crafted message on, say, creating jobs gets completely lost.
As an obvious part of the campaign discipline newly imposed on Sen. John McCain by his newly imposed campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, the senator kept bringing the conversation back to economics in virtually every discussion Wednesday. Give the political freewheeler one day's gold star for good behavior.
Another favorite way to control the message is to separate the candidate from the often-bored national press, which has heard the same themes, details and jokes over and over again. And expose him/her instead to the local media, where a presidential candidate is by definition much bigger news. Even Jim Gilmore or Chris Dodd can get them excited.
Although it was a local reporter who caught an embarrassed (and privately angered) candidate ...
Jesse Jackson should have long ago learned the dangers of speaking too bluntly with the media anywhere in sight (or, in the controversy that erupted today, a microphone anywhere near).
Jackson, before this year, laid claim to running the most noteworthy campaigns an African American had waged for the White House. In the 1988, in fact, he was a major factor in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination -- he won 11 primaries and caucuses, briefly led in the delegate count in the early spring and was the last challenger standing against the eventual nominee, then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.
The groundwork for this strong showing had been laid by his candidacy four years earlier. But his 1984 campaign remains best remembered for the flap over disparaging comments he made about Jews and New York City.
As recounted in this post on Washingtonpost.com, Jackson "referred to Jews as 'Hymies' and to New York City as 'Hymietown' in January 1984 during a conversation with a black Washington Post reporter, Milton Coleman.
Jackson had assumed the references would not be printed because of his racial bond with Coleman. But several weeks later Coleman permitted the slurs to be included far down in an article by another Post reporter on Jackson's rocky relations with American Jews. A storm of protest erupted ..."
A "storm" of protest hasn't yet greeted the revelation that Jackson -- ostensibly a Barack Obama supporter -- used crude language a few days ago as he waited to appear on Fox News Channel and, in a whispered aside to another guest, expressed his view that the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has been "talking down to black people."
One very strong protest, however, was issued this evening by Jackson's son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois. The congressman's office e-mailed this statement (complete with three sentences boldfaced):
"I'm deeply outraged and disappointed in Reverend Jackson's reckless statements about Senator Barack Obama. His divisive and demeaning comments about the presumptive Democratic nominee -- and I believe the next president of the United States -- contradict his inspiring and courageous career.
"Instead of tearing others down, Barack Obama wants to build the country up and bring people together so that we can move forward, together -- as one nation. The remarks like those uttered on Fox by Revered [sic] Jackson do not advance the campaign's cause of building a more perfect Union.
"Revered [sic] Jackson is my dad and I'll always love him. He should know how hard that I've worked for the last year and a half as a national co-chair of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. So, I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric. He should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself."
On a lighter note, to check out what our friends at The Swamp aptly refer to as a "now-prescient Saturday Night Live cartoon" on an imagined Obama-Jackson-Al Sharpton dynamic, go here.
On Tuesday night, "Access Hollywood" broadcast the firsttwo segments of its four-part interview with Barack Obama and his family, taped on July 4 during a campaign stop in Butte, Mont. Parts 3 and 4 will air today and Thursday.
As we noted here and here, the Illinois senator and his wife, Michelle, have -- for the most part -- kept daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, away from photographers' lenses and reporters' tape recorders, but they agreed to the girls' on-camera appearance on the syndicated gossip show.
Now, on CBS' "Early Show" this morning, Dad looks like he's having second thoughts.
Russ Mitchell, "Early Show" co-host: Senator, on another note, we're seeing your kids out on the campaign trail more, we've seen them on television as well. Will we see them more as the campaign moves forward?
Obama: No, I don't think so. You know, we had a unique situation in Montana where it was Malia's birthday, and all of us, I think, got caught up in the festivities, and so they had a chance to be their adorable selves on TV, but generally, we've been very protective of them. You know, in retrospect, I think, you know, if you'd asked me, we probably wouldn't have done it then, we wouldn't do it again.
Why not? Maybe it was Sasha's revelation, when told they'd be getting ice cream after the interview, that "my dad doesn't like sweets." (To which the Democratic presidential candidate -- mindful, perhaps, of not alienating a vast majority of the American public -- quickly responded: "I like pie.")
Update: The topic came up on all three network morning shows. Asked by Diane Sawyer of ABC's "Good Morning America" if he was sorry he and his wife agreed to the interview, Obama replied: "A little bit of a pause, Michelle and I, particularly given the way that it sort of went around the cable stations. I don't think it's healthy, and it's something that we'll be avoiding in the future." And on NBC's "Today" show, which has the same corporate parent (NBC Universal) as "Access Hollywood," Obama told Matt Lauer: "We wouldn't do it again, and we won't be doing it again."
This is a new Ticket experiment. We're going to try this from time to time until Nov. 4 with new ads from the presidential campaigns -- maybe even ads for other offices, if they're interesting.
But instead of us writing on what these television commercials are about, we're asking you to tell us and the thousands of other daily Ticket readers what they're about. Why waste time talking back to your television screen?
You, the voters, tell us right here right now what you see in them that you like, didn't know, didn't like, whatever. It's your turn to blog about the campaigns.
Tell us what it's about and what you think in the Comments below. And since this isn't a pep rally for or against anyone, try to be open-minded, regardless of whom you may be currently supporting. We'll have other candidate ads posted here in coming weeks.
Mike Murphy, the garrulous Republican political strategist who helped Sen. John McCain dump the Karl Rove-led George W. Bush candidacy on its butt in the 2000 New Hampshire primary, is joining NBC News in an expanded role as political pundit.
In the past 48 hours Murphy, who remains a close confidante of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has been the subject of much speculation in the East Coast press.
But just now, Murphy told The Times' Dan Morain, that ain't gonna happen. Instead, Murphy said he intended to head to NBC News where he will expand his role as a political pundit and commentator on this year's dramatic unfolding general election campaign.
He'll appear on the network's "Nightly News" and "Meet the Press" as well as on several of NBC’s cable shows.
“I don’t intend to join the campaign,” Murphy said, adding that further details would be announced in coming days.
Murphy was McCain’s top strategist in his 2000 campaign, which faded in South Carolina after the dramatic 19-point upset of the Texas governor in the Granite State.
In conversations, McCain has made clear that he remains fond of Murphy. Murphy was also top campaign strategist to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romneyin his 2002 gubernatorial contest.
His lasting friendship with both McCain and Romney caused the 46-year-old Murphy to sit out this election cycle's Republican primary contests.
In addition to his punditry for NBC, Murphy heads an influential lobby-consulting firm, Navigators, with offices in Washington, Sacramento and elsewhere. He also is involved in Hollywood projects.
Tom Petruno, The Times' ace business reporter and editor, recently wrote: "The debate over whether we are, or aren't, actually in a recession will go on, but to some analysts there's no question anymore. Merrill Lynch & Co. economist David Rosenberg says the lesson from history is that 'you don't have six consecutive monthly declines in payrolls and not be in an outright recession.' "
