Video- President Obama on Nukes, Palin, Confederacy and Iran

Acting as if Palin's opinion had any weight to it is beneath Stephanopoulos.

Video- Tom Hanks Impersonates James Carville

Via Media Bistro.

NBC News Files Complaint with White House Over ABC's Access

Wow, this has a really odd feel about it.

TVNewser has learned that NBC News has filed a formal complaint with the White House press office over the distribution of presidential interviews, specifically that several of the most recent broadcast TV interviews have gone to ABC News -- including George Stephanopoulos's interview yesterday and Charlie Gibson's December 15.

NBC is reportedly claiming Stephanopoulos' friendship with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has helped land the interviews. But insiders tell us those decisions are generally left to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

George Stephanopoulos offered job as co-host Good Morning America

By GottaLaff

I'd hate to lose him on Sunday mornings. If ABC ends up with a David Gregory equivalent, then I give up:

ABC has offered George Stephanopoulos "the coveted job of co-hosting Good Morning America, and intensive negotiations are under way," the Washington Post reports. [...]

"The onetime Clinton White House aide has also asked to hang on to his current job as the host of Washington-based This Week for as long as possible, although ABC executives do not believe he can handle both programs over the long term. ABC has not yet turned to the question of who might succeed Stephanopoulos on the prestigious Sunday show."

So who should replace him on This Week?

Republicans Want Network Time to Respond to Obama

Give them their whiny rebuttal time. Good lord.

George Stephanopoulos reports that House Republican Leader John Boehner is asking the broadcast networks to make time for a GOP response to President Obama's Joint Session speech next week.

He points out that Governor Carroll Campbell of South Carolina was given time to respond to President Clinton's September 1993 health care speech.

Video- Cokie Roberts Attributes Town Hall Disruptions to Shortage of Nuns

Sorry, no argument here. Via FDL.

ABC's "This Week" Tops MTP For First Time In 10 Years

Need anymore evidence that you suck there Gregory?

For the first time since June 27th, 1999, ABC's "This Week" drew more Total Viewers and A25-54 demo viewers than NBC's "Meet The Press," the longest running show in television history. The ratings win for "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" marks the first time in over ten years that the program scored first in both categories during regular coverage. The closest ABC had come was in August 2007, when "This Week" scored first in the demo, but tied "MTP" in Total Viewers.

Video- Stephanopoulos asks: "Is President Obama being Reaganesque enough?"

Um? I don't even have to bother to make a list of the "Reaganesque" traits of Ronnie, the commenters at Media Matters are already on it.

Video- Mitt Romney: Iran Elections Are Obama's Fault

John Boehner on This Week

Oh my jeebus, Rep Boehner himself put this on YouTube, as if he's really proud of it?

Karl Rove Owned By Katrina Vanden Heuvel

Popcorn worthy. I'm surprised she didn't reach over and slap his porcine mug.

George Will on the Differences Between the Parties

Compassionate Conservative George Will.

Sunday Morning Yak Fest Ratings Tighten

Alternative headline- David Gregory Sucks. One thing that stands out to me (other than Gregory sucking) is that it seems as if Snufflupagus's show has tried to mix it up with talking heads, even one show actually having a panel consisting completely of talkers under the age of 50. Really, how many times can you listen to Cokie Roberts, George Will, Little Tommy Friedman et al without being able to predict what the next sentence will be?

NBC had its lowest rated Meet the Press since David Gregory took over as moderator last Sunday, as ABC's This Week was the only broadcast to grow week-to-week in Total Viewers.

Meet the Press dropped below four million viewers, in part due to the lower coverage (96%) and irregular start times in some markets due to Super Bowl pre-game programming. Compared to the same week last year, This Week (3rd last week) cut the Total Viewer gap by 52%.

Obamas decide on dog

Obama made lots of news this morning, but of course, this was the most important part.

Video of This Week here.

When President-elect Obama was getting made up for his interview for ABC’s “This Week” at the Newseum, his daughters Malia and Sasha were playing producer and director in the control room.

At one point, they even got to talk into host George Stephanopoulos’s ear.

Stephanopoulos says they suggested a question: “What kind of a dog are we getting and when are we getting it?”

(snip)

The president-elect told Stephanopoulos: “They seem to have narrowed it down to a Labradoodle or a Portuguese water hound.”

“A medium-sized,” the anchor observed.

“Medium-sized dog, and so, we’re now going to start looking at shelters to see when one of those dogs might come up,” Obama replied. “We’re closing in on it. This has been tougher than finding a Commerce secretary.”

This Week: Panel Discussion on New Deal/Auto Bailout

Dedicated to The Cesca, since we both were happy to see some strong Progressive voices representin'.

Video- General Colin Powell Endorses Barack Obama

George Stephanopoulos just said it on This Week!! More when I can find a link.

Note- They've got it on the breaking banner at MSNBC, but no link yet.



Huge h/t to blade.

Added- I just watched the video and it was everything I was hoping for. I hear from Cesca that McCain is trying to parry with an endorsement by.... Alexander Haig? HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Four post bailout options

By GottaLaff

Via ABC News' George Stephanopoulos:

Congressional sources tell ABC News that what they're talking about right now are three or four basic baskets of options:

# 1 -- Muscle Bailout Bill Through House: Some leaders suggest those House Republicans on the fence will be swayed by seeing what the markets do tomorrow, which could be more bad news. [...]

#2 -- Pass Bailout in Senate First: [...] There appears to be broader support in the Senate for the bailout package. This option would see the Senate vote first which would increase the pressure on the House to pass the Bush administration's bailout bill.

#3 -- Make Small Tweaks to the Bill: Congressional leaders wonder if perhaps there are a couple of small tweaks they can make to the package that would bring along the 12 votes they lost the vote by. Option A, sources say, could be adding a line that some economists have said is absolutely necessary for the FDIC to guarantee all deposits in transaction accounts, not just up to $100,000. That would deal with the credit crunch and it would be quite popular, some on Capitol Hill argue. Option B would be eliminating the mark-to-market rule that many Republicans and conservatives complain about, which ensures financial decision-makers must show their losses in real time.

#4 -- Get More Democrats On Board: Finally, one other unlikely option talked about on Capitol Hill is to try to pass the bill almost entirely with the Democratic majority in the House. That would require adding a major stimulus package favored by Democrats, infrastructure spending, unemployment insurance spending, and heating and food stamp assistance for low-income Americans.

[...] We're not likely to hear members have landed on any single proposal until at least tomorrow.

Nothing will be done for at least a day and a half as Congress is in recess because of the Jewish New Year. The Senate won't be back until Wednesday afternoon and the House of Representatives is adjourned until Thursday.

However the bigger sell to Congress to do something may be the consequences of not acting. More bad news through the end of the week that might do it.

He goes on to say that "the fundamental problem for Republicans is that in an election year when the incumbent is not on the ballot, but you've had eight straight years of Republicans in the White House, any bad economic news is likely to fall harder at this point on Republicans."

VIDEO: ABC Roundtable, Will and Brazile edition

By GottaLaff

Donna Brazile and George Will agree that we're being railroaded? Really? Will and Brazile: Rhyme and reason?

Sam Donaldson re: Gramm-pa:

"He's showing too much anger."

Welcome to our world, Sam.

H/t: Eve

Obama on "This Week"

By GottaLaff

George Stephanopopopolopusnuffleupagus interviews Barack Obama. Here's a preview:

ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Reports: Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., admitted this weekend that his response on the definition of human life at Rick Warren's Saddleback Forum was "probably" too flip.

When asked at what point a baby gains human rights, Obama said last month "that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade."

But in an exclusive "This Week" interview airing this morning, Obama told Stephanopoulos "what I intended to say is that, as a Christian, I have a lot of humility...all I meant to communicate was that I don’t presume to be able to answer these kinds of theological questions."

Obama went on to explain, "that abortion is a moral issue, that it’s one that families struggle with all the time. And that in wrestling with those issues, I don’t think that the government criminalizing the choices that families make is the best answer for reducing abortions."

"The better answer...is to figure out, how do we make sure the young mothers, or women who have a pregnancy that’s unexpected or difficult, have the kind of support they need to make a whole range of choices, including adoption and keeping the child," he said.

Liveblogging:

Obama is refuting McCain's lies about Obama raising taxes. Good. Growth from the bottom up, he says. He says it's wise to raise revenues if there's a huge deficit, which there is, due to the Bush/McCain policies. We can't keep borrowing from the Chinese, he says.

We can't eliminate the deficit, but we can stabilize it, and give tax relief to middle class families.

George keeps asking him if he's going to increase taxes. Obama keeps correcting him.

Palin question: Ha! He just smiled and wondered if she would accept an invitation to George's show. He's sticking with his Palin/Bush/McCain line. He won't dig at her.

We didn't hear any economic policy talk from them, he says. Nothing to help families, etc.

"I also knew that Russia was next to Alaska on the map." Snap!

On her experience, he's responding by listing his own experience with foreign policy issues, and looks forward to debating. He's not into resume wars, back and forthing.

Community organizing: "I worked with churches, set up job training and after school programs. Asbestos in homes. Poor people. McCain says put country first... that's what I did from ages 24-27 before I went to law school. It's curious to me that they'd mock that."

Subtle racial code? "I didn't hear that. From folks who tried to grab the change banner, they have a very conservative view...."

Military? I signed up for selective service in high school. Military service is a noble option. But the Viet Nam war was over, no active military conflict, so it's not an option I decided to pursue. But for those who do go into the military, they should be treated right. McCain and I disagree here... on PTSD, veteran issues...

Change vs. bipartisanship: No, I didn't vote with Bush. The point isn't breaking with party, the point is voting with Bush's policy. Who's more likely to change that? Me. The Republicans controlled the agenda, so I voted against the Rs about issues I felt strongly about. Breaking with party: You can get [plenty of] testimony that says I've worked with Rs. How you campaign foreshadows how you're gonna govern. [can't keep up here]

I'll insist on an audit of every bit of government spending; I'll have arguments with Dems about which programs don't work. ... Ex: The way we fund Medicare has to be reexamined. Fee for service doesn't measure if the service is actually needed, the quality. We can improve care and save taxpayers.

Iraq: They have yet to define victory. Poorly conceived mission, so to talk about victory.... Bush made a huge strategic blunder, drove a car off a ditch. I think we can get the car back on the road, but ... The troops have done great, improvements in violence had to do with the surge and the Sunni awakening... But why does McCain snatch defeat from victory? Maliki says we're ready to give Iraqis responsibility... McCain is resistant, even when Bush says they're ready.

Why are people so focused on the last 18 mos, but not the last 5 years? My whole premise has always been it was a distraction to go to Iraq... we had to make the best. At the time of the surge, it didn't address the underlying problem of political differences. ... and to provide the strategy that would allow us to move forward. That wasn't part of the surge. Yes, the surge reduced violence more than we expected. But, the judgment should have been whether to give an open ended blank check to Bush, or to pressure him to plan to wind the war down.

Muslim connections, Rick Davis said they never did that: These guys love to throw a rock and hide their hand. When you look at what's on Fox news, mostly allied to these folks... The minute Palin was forced to talk about her daughter, I said that's off limits. What did McCain's camp do? They accused the liberal blogs who support Obama are attacking Palin. Let's not play games. McCain hasn't talked about my faith, said I'm Muslim, but it's fair to say that coming out of the Republican camp, there have been suggestions that I'm not who I say I am, deeply offensive.

There's a real difference between the parties. McCain's a good man, has embraced and adopted the George Bush economic platform. Mine's different. If we help the middle class have lower taxes, send kids to college, green technology, the economy will grow more. If I can make that clear, America will make their assessment. McCain choice = same government. Obama = different one. If they like the last 8 years, they'll go with him. If not, me.

Watch McCain Blather On Gay Adoption

If I thought this guy was in any way admirable I'd be embarrassed for him. And Steffy deserves a wedgie for not calling McCain on this obfuscation. Via TPM-

In the interview, McCain repeatedly said that he is “for the values and principles that two parent families represent.” He also said preserving traditional families is “not the reason why I’m running for president of the United States.” Just seconds later, however, he reversed course and bluntly stated, “I’m running for president of the United States because I want to help with family values.”