The Kicker

A modest local paper stays on top of Gustav

As Gustav roared through the Gulf Coast, the networks trotted out their best and brightest correspondents to bring dispatches from the soggy states. As the Washington Post points out this is frequently an exercise in cliches. Is it really a hurricane, or even just a “tropical depression,” unless a TV reporter in a hooded windbreaker […]

Perhaps you watched that now-infamous Campbell Brown interview of (McCain aide) Tucker Bounds and concluded that CNN’s Brown was doing her job. You know, asking questions. Pressing for specifics. (What decisions did Palin make as head of the Alaska National Guard?) Maria Comella, a spokesperson for the McCain campaign, saw things differently, explaining the campaign’s […]

Tell us, talking heads, what Gov. Sarah Palin “has to do” tonight in her speech at the Republican convention? (And then later, naturally, you can tell us whether she has met the expectations that you helped to set). From across the pond: BBC ANCHOR: What does [Palin] have to do tonight, though? BBC REPORTER: …This […]

Here was the partial make-up of a happy post-convention table last night at the St. Paul Grill, just a block outside the Xcel Center security perimeter: E.J. Dionne. Jonathan Alter. Frank Luntz. Harold Meyerson. Ron Silver. And Montell Williams. Only at a convention.

And we mean that literally. Well, kinda. As the This Week host tried to make his way into a downtown St. Paul Walgreen’s yesterday evening, he was thwarted in his path by history itself: none other than The Original Maverick, Teddy Roosevelt. “George!” Roosevelt said, extending his hand. “Big fan.” As the former president eagerly […]

Rudy Giuliani was on Good Morning America earlier. Today’s noun? Palin. DIANE SAWYER: If [Palin] were the president on 9/11, you would have been confident? GIULIANI: I’d be confident that she’d be able to handle it. She’s been a governor of a state, she’s been mayor of a city… (Diane Sawyer, you handed him that […]

From the (Wasilla, Alaska) Frontiersman: “We’ve all done three, four, five, six interviews all over the world,” [Alaska delegate] [Dick] Stoffel said. “They asked, yeah, if you knew her, if you thought she would [be chosen], did you think she’d make a good vice president and why.” A New York Times reporter has been following […]

From Fred Thompson’s speech at the RNC last night: Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit. Well, give me a tough Alaskan Governor […]

Below, a sample of the white-plastic hats that were all the rage at the RNC after they were handed out to delegates entering the Xcel Center this afternoon. The headwear is banded, appropriately enough, with red, white, and blue…and branded, (in)appropriately enough, with the Fox News logo.

Jennifer Rubin, a blogger for Commentary Magazine, has this to say about covering the conventions live: Covering the Convention live gives you a gift: the gift of your own impressions and the counsel of your own judgment. You don’t hear or even see the MSM commentators. It is a blessing and a reminder that most […]

Today, the Internet has been abuzz with the saga of Campbell Brown’s interview with McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds, and the campaign’s revenge on CNN. It seems that after the tense exchange between Brown and Bounds about Sarah Palin’s foreign policy experience, the McCain campaign decided to cancel Palin’s appearance on Larry King Live. In a […]

When the new media impulse fails to impress.

While addressing the RNC, Joe Lieberman attempted to inject some levity into his speech by referring to his travels with McCain and others in the GOP posse. My friends, I have had the privilege and I’d say the pleasure of traveling the world with John McCain, even with Lindsey Graham it was a pleasure. The […]

Earlier tonight, things finally got underway at the post-Gustav RNC. As the honor guard made its way to the stage, CNN took the live feed, but Fox did not. So while the auditorium stood at attention, Shepard Smith kept talking. That’s odd enough. But then Fox chose to play, for analysis sake, a new anti-McCain […]