Journalism is a tough job; the adrenaline-pumping nature of the business can exacerbate any heart problems one may be slightly susceptible to. A reporter cannot plan for the news to start jumping when she or he is ready and rested - a journalist must stalk stories where they are and when they happen.

Many a reporter have died right at their desks of heart attacks while covering breaking news. To check out for a much-needed vacation is to risk one's career; losing a scoop to a competing network can pummel ratings and advertising revenue, and could lead to the layoff of many friends.

This election is historic in so many ways. The first woman, the first African American to be viable leaders of the free world ran a competitive race. And the first septuagenarian is notable too. This means day-to-day political news reports will be filed and bound in history and textbook alike for decades to come.

Maintaining objectivity is very, very difficult for a journalist to do - in fact it's probably impossible. If you're raised a staunch Catholic and were given a great education by nuns who nurtured your talents when others considered you unruly and a bit hyperactive, it would be hard to truly see the world from the shoes of somebody who contradicted what those nuns taught you to be virtuous and right.

The job of the journalist is to make an effort to stand in the shoes of others. But even the finest journalist can only strive to do their best.

Joe Klein speaks highly of his recently deceased colleague and shares an anecdote of a time when he and Russert covered the primaries in 1992:

Every four years, through the 80s and 90s, Tim and I would go out and watch the politicians work on the weekend before the New Hampshire primary. Our most memorable excursion was in 1992, when we saw Paul Tsongas selling his chilly fiscal discipline and then watched Bill Clinton work a nursing home. A woman started to ask Clinton about the high price of prescription drugs, then dissolved in tears, unable to finish. Clinton immediately went to the woman, dropped to his knees and hugged her; he held her tight for what seemed a long time. It was a reflexive reaction, and fairly shocking -- neither of us were yet aware of Clinton's rampaging empathy -- and very moving. Tim and I looked at each other, and we both had tears in our eyes. "I don't think we'll ever see Tsongas do that," he said.

An open letter to the media:

Just thought you probably didn't know that Pew Research did a poll this week and guess what?

They discovered that:

85% of the people had been following stories of Obama and the media trying  to push Hillary out of the race.

22% were following American Idol

11% had seen stories of Jenna's wedding.

Outcome: 72% of people were upset with what they saw the media and Obama doing trying to push Hillary out and want the race to continue.

We should explain to Russert and Matthews and George and Wolf and Keith and Gloria and David and Alex and Suzanne and Paul and Rachel and Sean and Bill and George and Candy and Tom and Brian and Shepherd and Contessa and Lawrence and Nora and John and Chuck and Ben and Roland and Donna and all of the rest of the people on TV who will be teaching America over the next three days what's happening and what it means! They need to be hearing how we feel about their dismissal of our votes and their misrepresentations about our process (some from Donna Brazile, Howard Dean and Paul Begalia.)  We need to change their ridiculous, stale and uninformed talking heads' talking points.  They reach  some of the voters we need to win. Don't let them turn those voters off with this misinformation campaign. (Their chatter was so out of date last week that nobody even seem to notice the startling data in the exit polls; they just dismissed West Virginians as insignificant, old, undereducated, poor  as though they were dismissable to Democrats and as though that was who the data said were voting! Embarrassing for them and important for the party not to associate with or condone that behavior.

The RULZ of nominations are that as long as there are two or more candidates, the nominee is declared after the official convention vote of the people elligible.

To win, the candidate needs one half, plus one,votes of the delegates credentialled and seated at the convention, cast by secret ballot, reported in live outcry by the state delegation, counted, recorded and confirmed by the Secretary of the Party in the presence of the entire convention delegation. THEN the magic number of majority is applied and the convention knows its' nominee.  If no one reaches the majority, the vote is called on the Second Ballot, and on till somebody reaches the majority vote, counted and confirmed. THEN we have a nominee.
 

BREAKING VIDEO: Russert Says It's Over - Clinton Cancels

crossposted from Daily Kos REC list. at 2:28 AM

BY: HoldEmAccountable

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/5 /7/05422/52894/207/493056

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This is huge. Russert says definitively, "We now know who the Democratic candidate is going to be." He also reveals Clinton has canceled all morning interviews and campaign appearances tomorrow.

Wow. Everyone should see this video. It's over. There should be no opportunity given to Clinton to pull a Lieberman now. This wisdom from Russert should be the conventional wisdom. If you agree, please recommend.

"My guess is that ..the forces that we liberated by invading Iraq were so powerful and so uncontrollable that virtually nothing the United States might have done,...would have effectively prevented this (present) disintegration." (JOHN BURNS)

History of Planning: The Generals were forbade from writing a comprehensive post war plan under threat of being fired. The State Department's 15 Volume post-war plan and analysis was effectively trashed.

Since day one of the Iraq fiasco my mind frequently offers up what I call the "Einstein Exception." All time is relative.
Whether the mission in Iraq was to install a friendly government by force thusly cementing a US presence in hydrocarbon central or to vanquish a threatening regime it makes no difference. What makes a difference is that the amount of time available to plan a successful liberation was in no way constrained.

I've never paid much attention to Elizabeth Dole, even with her role as NRSC Chair and my penchant for electoral politics. But having just watched her appearance on Meet The Press I have to ask, has she always been this way? This verbally pugnacious, desperately stubborn megaphone of a woman behaving at best as the diplomatic equivalent of a child firmly cupping hands over ears and loudly chanting `I can't hear you' over and over and over again.

I was cringing just watching her, having that sort of embarrassment you sometimes feel for people on the TV who have absolutely nothing to do with your real life. But her Mehlman-like filibustering was a little surprising to me, going well beyond staying on message all the way into simply talking loudly over her opponent's criticism. The lede from the show was Elizabeth Dole's comment that Democrats seem content to lose in Iraq, but it was her wing nut diatribe that followed, purpose built to drown out Rham Emanuel's attempt to respond to her outrageous comment, which she carried all the way to commercial break to the obvious frustration of even the nearly unflappable Russert that really impressed me.

On Tim Russert, Norwood said the following:

1-illegal aliens are like "bank robbers."
2-they do not pay taxes because they "claim 12-13 dependents" in the tax forms.
3-"3 million Mexican babies born here."

I just wrote the representative's words and I apologize in advance on any transcribing errors; the essence is definetely 100% accurate. Where is the outrage? Does anyone need any spelling out why the above is racist?  This is quite shocking and does represent the modern strain of republicanism.