Fox News was the go-to news channel for Obama's Afghanistan speech

The first batch of TV ratings are in for President Obama's speech about Afghanistan on Tuesday night. Fox News romped the other 24-hour news networks.

Fox News had 4.55-million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research. CNN came in second with 2.35 million, followed by MSNBC with 1.56 million.

Overall, Obama's speech drew 40.77-million viewers. By comparison, this year's Oscars drew 36-million viewers.

The speech, which aired on 10 television networks, was Obama's seventh prime-time appearance this year.  His audience Tuesday was 27% larger than his last prime-time appearance, when he addressed a joint session of Congress on Sept. 9.

A ratings breakdown for the major networks isn't in yet.

Nielsen says it will soon roll online viewership statistics into its reports, which is good because that's where I watched the speech last night.

Immediately after the address, Fox News' viewership reached as much as 5.22 million for its analysis, which, as you can imagine, tore Obama's plan to shreds.

Here's the Ticket's take on the speech. And here's a sampling of the Twitter world's reactions in less than 140 characters.

For those who missed it, we also have the unedited text of Obama's speech.

-- Mark Milian

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Photo credit: Roger L. Wollenberg / EPA

Obama's revealing Afghanistan war speech: 4,582 words and not one of them was 'victory'

President Obama spoke 4,582 words in his primetime Afghanistan war speech at West Point last night.

He said "al Qaeda" 22 times.

He mentioned the "Taliban" 12 times.

And here's how many times the Democratic chief executive used the word "victory" -- 0.

That telling omission says more than anything about Obama's 322d day in office when he gave his first major address as the United States' commander-in-chief.

Through a clever, timely use of leaks late Monday and suggestive advance excerpts Tuesday afternoon, the Obama White House communications team used the public and news media's intense curiosity about his war decisions to steer public attention toward the number of additional American troops he'll dispatch into that war-torn land in the first half of 2010.

That number is 30,000, significantly less than some reported numbers requested by the ground commander. But added to the existing 68,000 there and taken out of context, that would appear....

Obama's Afghanistan speech: CliffsNotes version

President Obama's speech on Afghanistan at West Point tonight covered much ground. Here are some key excerpts to digest before bed (U.S. time):

Over the last several years, the Taliban has maintained common cause with Al Qaeda, as they both seek an overthrow of the Afghan government. Gradually, the Taliban has begun to take control over swaths of Afghanistan, while engaging in increasingly brazen and devastating acts of terrorism against the Pakistani people.

Throughout this period, our troop levels in Afghanistan remained a fraction of what they were in Iraq. When I took office, we had just over 32,000 Americans serving in Afghanistan, compared to 160,000 in Iraq at the peak of the war....

Afghanistan is not lost, but for several years it has moved backwards. There is no imminent threat of....

'Meet the Press' sweeps TV's November Sweeps, but...

November Sweeps, that time of the year when TV networks get in a career-making/career-sinking tizzy over ratings, didn't cause any drastic changes in the Sunday talk show arena. Maybe because the guests were a bit of a snooze.

NBC's "Meet the Press" came out on top on Sunday, Nov. 24, grabbing 3.05 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

The race continues to stay competitive, as we've noted in the past. ABC's "This Week" had 2.77 million viewers followed by CBS' "Face the Nation" with 2.60 million.

"Fox News Sunday" seems to be slowly gaining momentum, with a now-consistent reach of more than a million people tuning in on Sunday mornings. Thank you, David Axelrod. Would you please denounce Fox News some more?

When you factor in reruns, however, the numbers get even more interesting. The NBC show still holds onto the crown when you add a repeat on cable MSNBC. Then, in second place now is the Fox show with Chris Wallace. Combined, more people watch that show's reruns than its original airing.

The other two programs don't offer repeat showings.

-- Mark Milian

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Photo: Getty Images

Sunday shows: Warren, Huckabee, Obey, Bayh

ABC's " This Week With George Stephanopoulos": Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Bloomberg's "Political Capital" with Al Hunt: Kati Marton, author of "Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America," and Robert Merry, author of "A Country of Vast Designs: James K. Polk, the Mexican War and the Conquest of the American Continent."

CBS' "Face the Nation With Bob Schieffer": Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.); former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas); Dede Scozzafava, former Republican candidate for New York's 23rd Congressional District; Ed Gillespie, former Bush White House counselor.

CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS": Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt, journalist Maziar Bahari.

CNN's "State of the Union With John King": Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Jack Reed, (D-R.I.); Rep. David Obey (D-Wis.); former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace": Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), and Evan Bayh (D-Ind.); former Gov. Mike Huckabee (R-Ark.); Howard Dean, ex-chairman of the Democratic National Committee; Maj. Gen. Carla Hawley-Bowland, commanding general of Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

NBC's "Meet the Press With David Gregory": Bill and Melinda Gates, co-chairs of the Gates Foundation, and the Rev. Rick Warren, pastor of California's Saddleback Church.

-- Steve Padilla

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File photo: The Rev. Rick Warren. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Karl Rove talks about Sarah Palin -- and Top of the Ticket

The other night Karl Rove was talking with Greta Van Susteren about the Sarah Palin phenomenon and her record-breaking book sales of "Going Rogue." He says he's started the book, finds it a very good read, is impressed by her crowds (4,000 at Ft. Bragg) and its sales nearly exceeding an ex-president's book, Bill Clinton's, written post-presidency.

The political strategist, with his own book coming out in March, "Courage and Consequence," says Palin has got to learn to pivot off of the misbehaving son-in-law and other soap opera questions because the media want to keep her on the cover of People magazine, not talking about serious issues.

But, Rove notes, there's a big difference between running to sell a book and running to win the White House.

Greta seemed done with her interview when Rove wanted to say something else.

That's another part that caught our ear since, to speak candidly, he wanted to talk about a recent Top of the Ticket item, which you can read right here after watching the video.

The Fox News Channel video is here below, courtesy of, not too surprisingly, the Fox News Channel.

Speaking of Top of the Ticket, recent polls indicate that 100% of those clicking here get Twitter alerts of each new Ticket item. Or follow us @latimestot. And we're also over here on Facebook.

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Lou Dobbs was against alien amnesty before he was for it

In the surest sign yet that the newly former CNN talker seriously plans to enter politics, Lou Dobbs has already flip-flopped on the question of amnesty for people illegally living in this country.

Having created much of his fame and infamy out of controversial statements on the unacceptable presence of an estimated 12 million undocumented workers in this country and the federal government's ineptitude in addressing the problem, here's what Dobbs now says:

We need the ability to legalize illegal immigrants under certain conditions.

His surprising switcheroo barely two weeks after departing his network of nearly 30 years came during an interview with the Spanish-language network Telemundo, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Dobbs, a Texas native and graduate of Harvard, lives on a 300-acre farm in northwest New Jersey, where he could run for a U.S. Senate seat. 

Or possibly launch a presidential bid for 2012, trying to tap into the kinds of conservative populist anger that has confounded the Republican party and fueled so-called "tea parties" across the country this year, protesting taxes, spending and deficits.

"Whatever you have thought of me in the past," Dobbs told Telemundo's Maria Celeste the other day, "I can tell you right now that I am one of your greatest friends and I mean for us to work together. I hope that will begin with Maria and me and Telemundo and other media organizations and others in this national debate that we should turn into a solution rather than a continuing debate and factional contest."

The Garden State usually votes firmly Democratic. But earlier this month voters there rejected the reelection  Democrat Gov. Jon Corzine -- who had ample money and the frequent campaign support of President Obama -- and elected a Republican on a "taxes-are-too-high" platform.

The next U.S. Senate election in New Jersey comes in 2012, when incumbent Democrat Robert Menendez is up for reelection for the first time.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Screen shot of Lou Dobbs on CNN. Credit: Tony Pierce / Los Angeles Times

So do you think Lou Dobbs will get the Hispanic vote in 2012?

President Lou Dobbs.

Has a nice ring to it, right?

Well, he's starting to think so. Word out of New York this afternoon that LD is pondering a run for the White House.

The 64-year-old award-winning former radio/TV host, the son of a Texas propane dealer (no gasbag jokes,  please), was asked on a radio interview today about this "crazy idea" floating around of him seeking the presidency of these United States.

His response: "What's so crazy about that? Golly!" (Except he really said golly.)

He elaborated slightly:

"Well, I’ll tell you this much -- it’s one of the discussions that we’re having. For the first time, I’m actually listening to some people about politics. I don’t think I’ve got the nature for it. [But] we’ve got to do something in this country, and I think that being in the public arena means you’ve got to be part of the solution.

The controversial Harvard-educated CNN commentator, who was particularly outspoken on this cockamamie idea that the United States has some kind of illegal alien problem, abruptly resigned on-air Nov. 11. Protest groups claimed they had him pushed out.

But Lou cited his growing concern over the nation's expanding problems and the need to address them beyond his cable commentator's role. (See video below for his complete resignation remarks.)

Now, it's taken the self-described "independent populist" 12 whole days to....

broach the idea of running for the White House, good news for any incumbent since Dobbs and you-name-all-the-others can divvy up the voters unhappy with him.

It is, of course, a preposterous idea that someone never elected to anything except high school student body president in rural Texas could win the nation's top elected job on the backs of angry voters who believe the incumbent is incompetent.

Next thing you know, people will be suggesting that some old movie actor from California, who switched parties and peddled refrigerators on black-and-white TV, could run against a Democratic president elected after eight years of Republican controversy and scandal. And then the Republican actor could be elected president -- twice.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Sunday shows: Singh, Fiorina, Coburn, Nelson, Kyl

ABC This Week with George Stephanopoulos: Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), and a round table with ABC's George Will, Liz Cheney, Aspen Institute's Walter Isaacson and Robert Reich.

Bloomberg Political Capital with Al Hunt: Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.).

CBS Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Sens. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and CBS medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton.

CNN GPS with Fareed Zakaria: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Newsweek's Maziar Bahari.

CNN State of the Union with John King: Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), CNN's Mary Matalin and James Carville, California Republican Senate candidate and former Hewlett-Packard Chief Executive Carly Fiorina.

Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace: Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) and Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) with Club for Growth's Chris Chocola and Dr. Bernadine Healy, ex-director of National Institutes of Health; roundtable of Fox News' Brit Hume, Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard and NPR's Mara Liasson.

NBC Meet the Press with David Gregory: Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Joe Lieberman (I-Ct.),  Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Race for the Cure's Nancy Brinker and NBC's Chief Medical Editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Associated Press

Oprah quits and Chicago Mayor Richard Daley is displeased (only he'd put it a little differently)

According to Chicago Mayor Richard "Have a Nice Day" Daley, you can just blame (credit) that dad-gummed media again for chasing that Windy City institution Oprah off of television after compiling a personal federal reserve of only about $2.3 billion.

Oprah has announced she'll close down her daily syndicated chatfest in 2011 (see her tearful announcement video below). But she likely won't be gone long. O, gee, whatever will she call her own channel?

The diva of daytime TV, who's seen the ratings slip some since her prominent presidential campaign involvement, says she's retiring because it's time to leave and it's cold in Chicago and it's warm at her palace in Montecito, California. Also, she's got her man in the White House now.

Chicago's Democrat mayor hasn't been in a real good mood since his president failed to acquire the 2016 Summer Olympics for his adopted hometown.

According to Da Mayor, the real issue over the global star's departure is the stink the media churned up over the city closing down North Michigan Avenue for two days in September to accommodate Oprah's season-opening show taping.

The Chicago Sun-Times quotes the longtime mayor son of a longtime mayor as putting it this way:

She loves this city, and I will be talking to her, but again, that became a big rhubarb of the Chicago press: Beat up Oprah. And so, you keep kicking people, and people will leave. Simple as that.

Speaking in his usual straight face, and strangely in the past tense, Daley....

... also said: "I think she was the most successful woman that we will ever know in the history of this country." That should warm up the temperature for her -- and the rest of the planet.

According to sympathetic city officials always eager for the municipal publicity, the 48-hour closure of that main drag cost only $54,832, which Oprah's company repaid. So what's the big deal? asks the head of the Democrat machine that allowed Barack Obama to emerge on the South Side as long as he didn't make too many waves.

That price to the city, however, doesn't count the cost of increased blood pressures in thousands of notoriously genial Chicago drivers forced to divert to crowded State or Wabash Streets. No reimbursements there.

The mayor's theory may be right, although that would not account for why he and his late father stuck around town for so very many years despite their share of media bashings, scandals, trials and the like. If you have an opinion to share with the mayor, his door is always rarely open. But Daley's office phone is: 312-744-4045.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: George Burns / Harpo via Associated Press; Chicago Tribune (Mayor Daley on a good day).