Media

Not long after MoveOn.org decided to endorse Barack Obama, the group announced a video ad contest: "Obama in 30 Seconds'.

5.5 million votes were cast for the 1,100 submissions and 15 finalists were selected. An eclectic group of 24 judges that included Ben Affleck, Jesse Jackson, Oliver Stone and Moby, chose the winner, "Obamacan" by David Gaw and Lance Mungia of Monrovia, CA.

MoveOn's donors have committed $200,000 to run this ad in selected markets.

If you missed Countdown tonight, you missed what is perhaps Bill O'Reilly's finest moment. The conservative talk show host, culture warrior, and loofah enthusiast has rarely been so relatable. I rarely, if ever, find myself identifying with the author of "Those Who Trespass," but I'm right with him in this clip.

Now, Keith Olbermann seemed to think that this clip should be embarrassing to O'Reilly, but anyone who's ever had a piece of technology take up revolutionary arms against them, be it the "blue screen of death" on your laptop, or the accidental use of the "Live" button on the DVR remote during a football game that you started watching late, or even the obnoxious noise your vacuum makes to let you know there's too much hair in the brush, has got to relate to Billo's apoplectic reaction to the cruel misdeeds of his TelePrompter.

The Clinton braintrust has been making news the past few days, and not in a good way. First, there was the revelation that I was righter about Mark Penn than I knew. From Time Magazine:

As aides looked over the campaign calendar (last year), chief strategist Mark Penn confidently predicted that an early win in California would put her over the top because she would pick up all the state's 370 delegates. It sounded smart, but as every high school civics student now knows, Penn was wrong: Democrats, unlike the Republicans, apportion their delegates according to vote totals, rather than allowing any state to award them winner-take-all. Sitting nearby, veteran Democratic insider Harold M. Ickes, who had helped write those rules, was horrified - and let Penn know it. "How can it possibly be," Ickes asked, "that the much vaunted chief strategist doesn't understand proportional allocation?" And yet the strategy remained the same, with the campaign making its bet on big-state victories.

Ouch! Then, last night on Countdown, Keith Olbermann reported from an "unimpeachable source" (pun intended?) that Howard Wolfson is in talks to write a book, tough to do if you plan on going all the way to the White House. (Wolfson denies it.)

Dismissed campaign manager Patti Solis-Doyle is also purportedly working on a book deal. Aside from the fascination of comparing the Rashomon-like accounts of various insiders, these books will serve as a primer on how to run a wildly entertaining campaign.

What kind of Tuesday are we calling May 6? Little Super Tuesday? The Tuesday to end all Tuesdays? Maybe not Super, but Really Important Tuesday?

Now that the residents of North Carolina and Indiana have been pandered to, bamboozled and otherwise rubbed up against, I must say that living in an earlier primary state, this card-carrying elitist (who actually should profile as a Clinton supporter) is a little miffed that nobody kissed my tushie this hard.

But getting down to brass tacks, its still just a numbers game. Did Hillary convince enough lunch pail Reagan Dems or Obama get enough arugula-chomping multiracial elitists?

Here's what MSNBC's number-cruncher Chuck Todd has to say:

Despite the fact that another month of contests is still on the docket, nearly half of all remaining delegates will get handed out tomorrow. And the math will be a lot more crystal clear after tomorrow, both in delegates and the popular vote. Following Guam, there are now 404 pledged delegates up grabs, and 187 of them will be decided on Tuesday. Plus, per our count, there are 268 undeclared superdelegates. Here are the basics of what each candidate needs: Assuming he wins half of the delegates tomorrow (93), Obama needs just 38% of ALL remaining delegates to get to the magic number of 2,025. If Clinton wins 94 delegates on Tuesday, she will need 66% of all remaining delegates. In addition, assuming that delegate split tomorrow, then Clinton will need 85% of all remaining PLEDGED delegates to catch Obama for the lead in that category. Moreover, if Clinton simply wanted to cut Obama's pledged delegate lead to 100, she'd need to win 62% of all remaining delegates after tomorrow. As we've noted before, the math is certainly difficult for Clinton.

For you're TiVO/DVR/VCR planning purposes...the Sunday line-up:

ABC - This Week (George Stephanopoulos): with U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY)

CBS - Face the Nation (Bob Schieffer): with Congressman James Clyburn (D-SC) and ex-Governor Doug Wilder (VA-D).

CNN - Late Edition (Wolf Blitzer): with Governor Mike Easley (D-NC), ex-Labor Secretary Robert Reich and Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY)

Fox - News Sunday (Chris Wallace):with DNC Chairman Howard Dean.

NBC - Meet the Press (Tim Russert) with U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL).

What do you expect from guys who don't even know where to put the steering wheel?

The UK Telegraph, today, unveiled the final 10 names on its 50 Most Influential Pundits list, and the erstwhile MC landed in the #1 spot.

Dubbed the "architect" and "Bush's brain", Rove plotted to rise of George W Bush and departed the White House after the disastrous 2006 mid-term elections. Successful punditry is a combination of real political experience, intellectual nimbleness, a provocative turn of phrase and a coherent point of view. Rove, a Fox News commentator and contributor to Newsweek and the Wall Street Journal, has all these qualities.

Isn't being called "Bush's Brain" is a bit like being called "Lou Dobb's Sexual Magnetism?"

Rove is unquestionably influential as a strategist, but I don't see that he's really made his bones yet as a pundit.

The balance of the Top 10 leans heavily on size and loyalty of the respective pundits' audience. With the exceptions of perhaps #8 Jon Stewart, #9 David Brooks, and #5 Politico, the Top 10 may be recognizable, but they don't have a big influence on political thought. Matt Drudge at #6 is less a pundit than a pundit birdfeeder.

#4 Rush Limbaugh has a huge and loyal audience, but his influence begins and ends with them. #3 Sean Hannity and #2 Chris Matthews both have brash personae, but don't go much deeper than the surface.

After the jump, the full list and coverage up to date.

The second half of Hillary Clinton's interview with Bill O'Reilly aired in two parts last night. Topics this time included "The War on Terror," illegal immigration, and foreign policy. The "O'Reilly Factor" host took over the interview, and at times seemed to be the interviewee, laying out his worldview. Senator Clinton's choice, then, was whether to challenge that world view or to fit herself into it.

Clinton has taken a lot of heat from the Democratic base for entertaining the ultra-conservative Fox News, but clearly, this is an attempt to appeal to more moderate, less ideological voters. The question, then, is can she reach those voters by appearing with the decidedly un-moderate O'Reilly?

Here's the video of part 3 of the interview, from last night's installment. After the jump, part 4, and some brief analysis.

Part 3

My favorite moment from first part of the O'Reilly-Clinton interview yesterday was when O'Reilly said to Clinton, "You're like me". I forgot to record part 2. Let me know how it went.

Worst. Preznit. Ever. George Bush's unfavorable rating is at 71% according to a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey. For contrast, Nixon's unfavorable was 67% right before he resigned his office. Impeached President Bill Clinton's unfavorable was 35% in January of 2001 when he left office.

South Africa's Nelson Mandela is on a US Government terrorist watch list. Nelson freaking Mandela. This designation dates back to the 70's when the SA Apartheid government classified the African National Congress terrorist and other countries followed suit - including yours truly. Secretary of State Rice calls it an embarrassing. Damn straight, cookie. Somebody update that spreadsheet.

Happy Law Day! Check out this snark-free homage to the rule of law on the White House website. "The theme of this year's Law Day, 'The Rule of Law: Foundation for Communities of Opportunity and Equity,' recognizes the fundamental role that the rule of law plays in preserving liberty in our Nation and in all free societies."

Our Country in the Year of our Lord 2008. Via #17 on "the list", Andrew Sullivan, found this today from man in Kentucky:

I really don't want an African-American as President ... I thought about it. I think he would put too many minorities in positions over the white race. That's my opinion. After 1964, you saw what the South did ... There's a lot of white people that just wouldn't vote for a colored person. Especially older people.

He's right. It's there. There's nothing Obama can do about it. This man was wearing a Hillary button.

The UK Telegraph continued its rollout of the 50 Most Infpundluential Political Pundits with numbers 20-11 today, and it looks like Colbert has been the beneficiary of a "Himself Bump," just edging out his friend, mentor, and microwave provider, "Papa Bear" Bill O'Reilly.

Also sure to be disappointed are fans of Keith Olbermann, who landed at #13, forming the bottom slice of bread in an O'Reilly sandwich. I, myself, predicted a #1 finish for the Special Commenter, and must now further question the judgment of my tea-sipping, croquet-playing brethren across the pond.Also sure to be disappointed are fans of Keith Olbermann, who landed at #13, forming the bottom slice of bread in an O'Reilly sandwich. I, myself, predicted a #1 finish for the Special Commenter, and must now further question the judgment of my tea-sipping, croquet-playing brethren across the pond.

Right behind "Delegate Math Whiz" Chuck Todd is my friend, Diana's fave, cranky contrarian Bill Maher. Even more politically incorrect at #16 is Glenn Beck, trailed by The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan, focus group guru Frank Luntz, CNN panelist Donna Brazile, and rounding out the 20th spot is Time's Joe Klein.

After the jump, the complete list-to-date, and the story so far.

Tim Russert, host of NBC's Meet the Press and famous for his little white dry-erase board and Gotcha!-style questioning, is rumored to be a sore sport when it comes to Arianna Huffington. From BuzzFeed:

Scuttlebutt that Tim Russert has had Arianna Huffington blacklisted from NBC over comments about him in her new book. There are several passages in Right is Wrong about Russert, calling him (among other things) "one of the temple guards of conventional wisdom" and a "conventional wisdom zombie." Huffington was reportedly un-booked from two NBC shows, but she's talking everywhere else about the tome. We love a good media scandal. Also, we just wanted to use the word scuttlebutt.

When reached for comment, Russert had this to say:

The Democrats need to have a balanced ticket...BRRRRRRAAAAAINS!

In the interest of fairness, I hereby extend an invitation to Arianna Huffington to come and get all of the publicity she wants from me. In fact, here's some now!

Seriously, though, nobody loves good scuttlebutt more than I do, but it ain't news, so I called NBC to see what they had to say about it. Their spokesman hasn't returned my call yet. They're not likely to say, "Yeah, Russert's a big crybaby," but I asked if they have Arianna booked on any other shows to do publicity for her book. If they do, the story's probably crap. Will keep you posted.

Update: NBC's comment after the jump.