NY Senate Tea Leaves: Paterson And Possible Clinton Replacement Return From Iraq

Gov. David Paterson, the keyholder to the coveted Senate seat in New York, returned on Christmas Eve from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan with a potential filler of that vacancy.

Rep. Steve Israel accompanied Paterson and fellow Rep. Anthony Weiner at a press conference in the halls of LaGuardia Airport on Wednesday. The topic was the trio’s trip to the two war zones — an educational and important venture, Paterson said, that was appropriate for the holiday season.

But Israel’s three-day long private audience with the governor has spurred speculation that he could eventually be asked to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate. As has news that the Long Island congressman hired a former Clinton aide to assist him in winning Paterson’s support.

The Senate vacancy was addressed during the question and answer session in the airport terminal, much to Paterson’s chagrin. The Governor insisted that he and Israel did not talk about the seat while on the trip.

“Congressman Israel and I wanted to make sure that nobody was upset about the amount of time we were spending over the last three days,” he said.

And all three New York pols demonstrated a hybrid of exasperation and cynicism to the press’ infatuation with the open seat. When a reporter referred to Caroline Kennedy as the “front-runner,” the Governor interjected: “How is she a front-runner?”

Later he would say of the build up to his selection: it is “more like the prelude to a high school prom than the choosing of the United States Senate.”

And yet, as much as Paterson and Israel downplayed the significance of them traveling together, there were noteworthy bits to grab from their post-trip news conference. Israel talked about how “profound it was to have the governor of the state of New York” alongside him for what was his six trip to Iraq. And the compliments did not end there:

“This is the first governor of New York since 9/11 to travel to the military theater, to visit with his troops, members of the NY National Guard,” he said. “And that’s something that was certainly very special to them and special to me.”

This, of course, is a limited reading of a media availability largely devoted to recounting a trip to two dangerous war zones. All three lauded the work of New York’s 10,000 or so troops overseas. Israel, meanwhile, told an amusing and poignant story about a Jewish soldier in Kabul celebrating Chanukah by himself - “one of the loneliest Chanukahs that anyone can imagine.”

But when it comes to the process of choosing a Senate replacement, tea leaves are never left unread. And at one point in the Q&A, Patterson said of the possible Senate replacement: “I think Steve Israel is highly qualified.”

Read more: Paterson Kennedy, Steve Israel, Iraq Trip, Clinton Replacement, New York Senate Seat, Caroline Kennedy, Paterson Israel, Media Frenzy, David Paterson, Paterson Senate Seat, Paterson Media, Politics News

The 10 Worst Media Moments Of 2008

OK, now that we’ve celebrated all the good things that media professionals managed to grace our world with this year, let’s skip ahead to a listicle of lowlights, which is probably what you all really want anyway, since everyone runs on schadenfreude these days and is filled with impotent rage!

Anyway, as before, many of you will agree and many will disagree, and that’s cool! Please do! Especially if you want to comment or send an email about it! But note that I’ve left off a lot of examples that many of you will no doubt feel are obligatory inclusions. For instance, I can already predict an email complaining that Bill O’Reilly doesn’t make this list. It seems to me that some examples of stupidity are far too ubiquitous to be remarkable. Nevertheless, the comments are there for all of you to cherish the moments I missed.

TEN THINGS THAT SUCKED OUT LOUD IN 2008, MEDIA EDITION

1. The Economy Kills Everyone
Some greet the effects of the down economy on the media with mockery, some with mournfulness, some with a combination of the two I shall call mournckery. Eventually though, a writer you admire gets laid off, or a reporter you’ve depended on has to take a buyout, or RADAR Magazine folds and their fantastic web operation comes under the rule of a bunch of gibbering twits with birdcrap for brains and it all hits home. And look, everyone knows that the web is going to solve all of the world’s problems, but tell me: how does the imminent failure of, say, New Jersey’s Star-Ledger grab you? Worried about that at all? Of course not! Everyone knows that the State of New Jersey is filled with affluent laptop/iPhone owners and their politicians are the most honest people in the ever-loving world!

2. ABC’s Terrible Debate
Political debates are all alike; every terrible debate is terrible in its own way. And yet the ridiculous attempt by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson nevertheless ranks as the supreme example of incompetence. It didn’t matter that every single one of their gotcha questions, save Gibson’s high-toned bitchery over his investment portfolio, had already been asked 4,751 times: George and Charlie were bound and determined to be the 4,752nd to do so! As such, the entire debate played like something ABC News took all of fifteen minutes to prepare for, right down to the tatty production values and asinine, utterly tone-deaf references to the Constitution. The resulting debate wasn’t fair to either candidate and was an insult to every viewer who tuned in. “The crowd’s turning on me,” Gibson quipped, after it was over. Would they had done so earlier!

Oh, and did Stephanopoulos hypocritically engage in the sort of behavior that he once decried as a political operative? OF COURSE HE DID.

On the bright side, this happened.

3. The Day of Lipstick On A Pig
I don’t think a single event managed to sum up the media’s inability to distinguish activity from achievement, their willingness to delve deeply into irrelevant minutiae, or their tendency to obsess themselves with transparently stupid meta-narratives any better than they day we all woke up to discover that the commonly used phrase “lipstick on a pig” had become transformed into some sort of sexist insult. It was a sickening and foul display - media professionals on all networks and platforms hurling this loafer of high-toned nonsense at our heads. Naturally, the very premise of their argument was unremittingly false, and the resulting blockstop coverage and commentary was nothing more than widespread platform abuse. Then, as soon as this zombie contagion struck the media, it was gone, and no one ever talked about it again. NEVER FORGET THAT ADULTS - ACTUAL GROWN-UPS! - PERPETRATED THIS NONSENSE.

4. NYT’s Vicki Iseman story
Speaking of platform abuse, how is it that we all know that the New York Times knew full well that their John McCain-Vicki Iseman story was a stinkfest on arrival? For me, it was the way the shuffled it out online during evening rush-hour, as if they wanted viewers to be moving in the opposite direction of their journalistic turd when it fell to earth. The story may have had some viability, but whatever truth there was in McCain’s interactions with Washington lobbyists came sandwiched between sensationalistic and salacious intimations of sexual infidelities between John McCain and a lobbyist named Vicki Iseman. You had to love the way the Times worked their drizzle of sizzle up into the lede and then spent three pages avoiding the matter before veering back to it. The Iseman part of the saga is supported by precisely one on-the-record source, former McCain confidant and adviser John Weaver. In my opinion, Weaver’s quotes are, uhm…woven to make it look like he is confirming the Iseman-McCain relationship. Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt faulted the paper as well, saying, “The newspaper found itself in the uncomfortable position of being the story as much as publishing the story, in large part because, although it raised one of the most toxic subjects in politics — sex — it offered readers no proof that McCain and Iseman had a romance.”

5. Endless Talk of the “Gender Card”
Everyone talked about how sexist the media was this year, and everyone had their own idea as to where this sexism was most glaringly revealed. I’ll tell you what set my teeth on edge: every time someone made mention of Hillary Clinton playing the “gender card.”

Let me get this straight. It’s okay for Barack Obama to put his racial background to advantageous use. It’s okay for John McCain to put his war-hero past to advantageous use. It’s okay for John Edwards to put his Son-of-a-mill-worker-hood to advantageous use. It’s okay for Rudy Guiliani to put his proximity to the September 11th attacks to advantageous use. But if Hillary Clinton attempts to leverage her femininity to her advantage, suddenly everyone has to debate the relative fairness of it? Is American politics a milieu in which the participants often forego their natural advantages in competition, out of a spirit of fairness? No? Then suggesting Hillary Clinton be tied to a different set of standards is horseshit, the end.

6. Thrill Up The Leg
The sad curse of immortality is that it is often our moments of folly that end up outliving us. MSNBC’s Chris Matthews will come to understand this in time. While covering the 2008 “Potomac Primary,” Matthews enthused that Barack Obama’s oratory caused a physiological reaction, specifically:

I have to tell you, you know, it’s part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama’s speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often.

Matthews thus became a symbol for everyone who has ever complained, or will complain, about “Obama adulation” in the media. In all likelihood, Matthews will never live this down. Not ever.

7. 32 Important Words The Media Missed
Back when Henry Paulson wrote up the proposed $700 billion bailout package, it contained this part called “Section 8,” whose thirty-two words basically precluded any or all efforts to hold anyone involved in the disbursement of these monies accountable:

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.”

The mainstream media totally missed this. Today, they are all yelling at banks, wondering what happened to all the money. It’s quite pathetic, really.

8. Message Force Multipliers
On April 20th, David Barstow of the New York Times told the incredibly true story of how the Pentagon unleashed a platoon of administration shills with extensive conflicts of interest upon the television media, presented as neutral “miltary analysts,” to serve as a “Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance.” The complacent/complicit networks did little to shoulder the responsibility of their failure to vet and/or disclose to the public the true affiliations of these P.R. agents. But hey, were it not for Barstow himself, following up on the matter months later, it’s not like the New York Times took all that active an interest in their own story. So, yes, America: you are entitled to your cynicism!

9. NYT Mission Accomplished Panel
In May, the New York Times commemorated the anniversary of the “Mission Accomplished” banner by hosting a symposium from celebrated thinkers, most of whom were well-known as people who got the Iraq War wrong. They were allowed, in that symposium, to continue to get the Iraq War wrong. Mission accomplished!

10 (tie). Charlotte Allen/Bill Kristol
How do you prefer your op-ed idiocy America? Rendered in a thousand cuts from Bill Kristol, phoning in his obligation to the New York Times? Or delivered in one sharp, shock-and-awesome example of stupidity, a la Charlotte Allen in the Washington Post?

_____________

As for (dis)honorable mentions, where do begin and end? CNN capped off their year of election overkill with their infinitely mockable “holograms,” which will now stand in for the human talent they’ve been shedding. Portfolio inexplicably put American Apparel’s Dov Charney on their cover at a time when everyone else was chronicling the economic catastrophe. Amy Chozick wrote an idiotic piece for the Wall Street Journal about whether Obama was “too fit” to be President - some of her “sources” were anonymous message-board denizens who she prodded into participating. Barbara West went after Joe Biden with every GOP talking point she could stuff into her head, and later claimed that zeroed the balance. And MSNBC’s The Race For The White House was the dumbest political show ever conceived by sentient beings.

Read more: Video, 2008, Media Criticism, Media News

2008: The Year In Media Highlights

It’s the end of the year, and so I must answer the call for summative listicles of things. So, why not a list of stuff I liked that people in the mass media did this year? Okay! Obviously this is by no means meant to be complete or offered despotically as the be-all-end-all list on this subject. Maybe you’d like to add your own highlights in the comments, or send me an email with your own nomination? That way, I’ll have the fodder for something to write on New Year’s Eve as well! Anyway, i hope you enjoy this!

TEN THINGS THAT MANAGED TO NOT SUCK IN 2008, MEDIA EDITION

1. FiveThirtyEight.com
The uncanny, poll-wrangling, stats-freaking Nate Silver took it upon himself to demonstrate that some level of governable, rational reality could be brought to bear on the confusing world of competing tracking polls, and along the way all but cemented the geek-chic trajectory of this election season. But FiveThirtyEight did flesh-and-blood reportage just as well as they did number crunching. Vastly undersung were the wonderful series of posts that Silver’s partners in crime authored as they traveled the country assessing the ground-games of both campaigns. Their only worry now is what will happen in four years when their terrifying accuracy inspires the electorate to stay home and avoid the polls out of existential overconfidence.

2. Rachel Maddow
While many cheer the stellar rise of Rachel Maddow as further proof of the viability of progressive voices on primetime cable news, I’d rather celebrate the rise of a voice that’s not endlessly yelling or yammering away with all of the dull and insensate tonality of a pair of pecans inside a tin can. Genial, witty, and composed, Maddow runs her MSNBC show with a unique-to-cable-news understanding that amplified stridency is not a substitute for a strong set of beliefs. Plus, she’s fun. Don’t people like to have fun, anymore? For Pete’s sake! If you’re going to watch cable news in prime time when you could be doing ANYTHING ELSE IN WORLD, shouldn’t it not be like grim punishment?

3. Compassion Forum
Did you ever imagine that they could stuff four hundred debates inside a single election season? Me neither! And most of them ranged between awful and excremental. But one of the few I enjoyed was the Compassion Forum, despite its resolutely stupid name. As representatives of the media, Campbell Brown and Jon Meacham’s questions tended toward the reductionist and the cliched. But the various religious officials who were on hand to question Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were OUTSTANDING, asking deep and involved questions on both faith and policy. The forum’s quality questions inspired both candidates to offer some of their most engaging responses. More importantly, it was a lovely example of the value of a contemplative life.

4. Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Greenwald, on torture
The torture of human beings is an unquestionable moral failure and a rank-smelling blot on a society that permits it, and yet who knows where those of us who would take up this seemingly futile cause would be without the relentless rational ballast provided by the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan and Salon’s Glenn Greenwald, who have relentlessly added to the case against these crimes and who show no sign of discontinuing that effort.

5. Peter Schiff, on the economy
There were a few voices in the wilderness, gravely warning of the imminent collapse of the economy, to whom no one listened. Euro Pacific Capital’s Peter Schiff was made to endure the relentless mocking of idiots on the TV, and for that, we salute him.

6. “Katrina’s Hidden Race War,” in The Nation
A.C. Thompson’s epic, harrowing piece for The Nation, which describes in detail the way racist vigilantes ran their own little campaign of ethnic cleansing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, is investigative journalism done right. More importantly, it’s a necessary reminder that our past is not done with us by a long shot. And by the “past,” I’m not simply referring to the three years that have transpired since Katrina leveled a city.

7. Alex Pareene
For most of the people who ply their trade in political “analysis,” the essential task is one of superficial dazzle, to see how much mystical crap they can get dancing on the head of a pin. Witness Mark Halperin, who turns his idiocy into painful Zen koans and is thought of by important people as a sage authority. Gawker’s Alex Pareene is an antidote. Through his relentless refusal to indulge himself in the senseless, masturbatory mystification of the simple, Pareene manages to strip down a political event or a media obsession to its essential, understandable elements. He’s just not that impressed with the people who populate the political milieu. And he’d fracking hate being included on this listicle. God bless him for that. Now, can we find Pareene a perch where his paymasters aren’t bent on burning him out?

8. Ross Douthat and Reihan Salaam
Hey, have you heard about this “Republican Party?” If you wander into the deep woods, they’ll be the ones naked and howling, with sadness. Yes, the 2008 election has sent a fractured group off to do some of that soul-searching. Some of them will be aligning themselves with the Aerial Wolf Huntress From Wasilla. Some will choose an even blander course. But the GOP that survives to once again be a formidable opponent will be the ones who’ve got a dog-eared copy of Grand New Party on their nightstands. Authors Ross Douthat and Reihan Salaam aren’t the only ones working the return-to-the-working-class territory, but they have the added advantages of being new-media and new-blood.

9. Bob Costas interviews George Bush
Is it sort of dumb to include Bob Costas on a year-end list of the finest media moments? Well, if more people demonstrated the ability to conduct a substantive interview with President Bush, then yes! But they don’t! Seriously: can’t you see Costas hosting Meet The Press?

10. Damon Weaver
Damon Weaver is the ten-year old kid from Florida who interviewed Joe Biden and who wants to interview Barack Obama over Inauguration Weekend. He is JUST THE BEST. I want him to get his interview with Obama, and so do many of you, and together, we will MAKE THIS HAPPEN. Damon just makes you feel like there’s some stuff going on in this world that’s RIGHT. Here’s some details from one of his teachers, Brian Zimmerman:

Since Damon has been a reporter for our school’s television station his grades have improved. He is not a gifted student. He is an average student who has been working very hard. I asked him why his grades have improved since being a reporter and he told me that people out in Pahokee practice a lot to get better at football so he thinks it’s important to try harder in school so that he could become a journalist. Over the years, Damon’s has had some behavior issues in his classes, but since he has been involved with being a reporter the behavior issues have gone away. I must also mention, through all of the attention Damon has stayed well-grounded and never brags to the other students.

Kathryn E. Cunningham/Canal Point Elementary consists of a lower socio-economic student population. 96% of the students are on free or reduced lunches. 80% of our students are African-American. In Florida the schools are given grades based on their test scores. Our school was a failing school we had a low “D”. The past couple of years our school has raised its grade to a “B” and we are trying for an “A” this year.

This kid is doing it right folks, and he’s reflecting the larger efforts of a lot of other people who are also doing it right.

______________________

Honorable mentions? Well, I’ve been a fan all year of McClatchy’s great coverage of Iraq. And I’m fond of The Washington Independent as well, especially the work of Spencer Ackerman and Laura McGann. Public Service Administration has put out some of my favorite political parodies. Campbell Brown made beating up on McCain punishment-junkie Tucker Bounds cool, and I loved her humane, histrionic-free defense of Arab-Americans. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs was delightful in his confrontation with Fox’s Sean Hannity. And this Bloggingheads conversation between Brian Beutler and Ta-Nehisi Coates is probably the best thing Bloggingheads has ever done.

Read more: 2008, Media Criticism, Holiday Season Commentary, Media News

Supreme Court Rules On Minnesota Senate Race: Window Closes On Norm Coleman

In what may very well be the death knell for Norm Coleman’s time in the U.S. Senate, the Minnesota Supreme Court on Wednesday unanimously dismissed one of his last legal objections to the recount process.

In a five-to-zero decision, the court rejected a Coleman campaign lawsuit that sought to block the course of the recount due to concerns that some ballots had been counted twice. It was the Minnesota Republican’s last legal angle for making up the 47-vote deficit he currently faces against Al Franken.

Coleman had argued that in the process of recounting, some precincts had accidentally counted both the original ballots and duplicates that were used for those original ballots that couldn’t be properly scanned. But the campaign asked only for the state to look at 25 specific counties, suggesting that the argument was politically and not legally motivated. Moreover, it couldn’t provide evidence that voting tallies during the recount exceeded those on Election Day — which would have been the obvious result of duplicates being counted.

With this issue, seemingly, out of the way, the recount process will come to an end once the state and both campaigns decide what to do about improperly rejected absentee ballots. That should come in early January. And while it would be foolish to predict how the counting and disbursement of these 1,600 ballots would proceed — the two camps have agreed on principles by which the process will be conducted — it seems likely that the results will favor Franken.

Franken’s campaign has been pining to have these wrongfully rejected absentee ballots counted from the beginning of the recount process, suggesting that they believe the votes will favor Franken. It is more common for Democratic voters to make clerical errors on their absentee ballots than it is for Republicans.

All told, the window through which Coleman was looking to hold unto his Senate seat just became measurably narrower.

UPDATE: Not entirely surprising, the Coleman campaign says a lawsuit challenging the results of the election is now a near certainty. According to the Hill:

The Coleman campaign had claimed [duplicate] ballots, created by local election officials to mirror original ballots that were somehow damaged, were sometimes counted twice by accident, and should not be included.

“We are deeply disappointed in that result. The Supreme Court decision virtually guarantees this election will be decided with an election contest,” Fritz Knaak told reporters on a conference call on Christmas Eve. “There’s no question, I mean no question in our minds that [a lawsuit] will happen now.”

Should the Coleman campaign file a contest, which it must do within seven days of the end of ballots being counted, the election results cannot be certified and no one will be sworn in when the 111th Congress meets January 5.

Read more: Franken Coleman, Minnesota Recount, Coleman Recount, Norm Coleman, Al Franken, Supreme Court, Franken Senator, Minnesota Supreme Court, Minnesota Senate Race, Mn Senate Race, Politics News

Townhall ’s Matt Lewis: Obama "Out Of The Country" In Hawaii (VIDEO) [UPDATED]

UPDATE: Well, now that Rahm Emanuel has packed off to the deepest wilds of Africa on the day of the release of this report, I got to admit: Lewis was maybe on to something - even prescient! Because no one’s going to be able to ply Emanuel with questions while he’s off on his Heart of Darkness-themed holiday jaunt. Our own Sam Stein reports that “Transition officials did not specify where in Africa he went, though another source said the family would be going on a safari.” That means Emanuel will return having done further study on deadly predators in their natural surroundings, which isn’t good news for anyone.

———————–

So, here’s the latest worry for President-elect Barack Obama: is it okay that he’s in Hawaii? This matter taken up by MSNBC’s Tamron Hall Monday, with the help of The Nation’s Ari Melber and Townhall’s Matt Lewis. Because why not? It’s almost Christmas, and no one’s watching the news anyway! So it feels like almost a dick move to point this exchange out:

HALL: Matt, I bring up location because obviously I think if it were really a big deal and there was something that he needed to do, meaning the President-Elect, any type of damage control, he would be in Chicago and not on vacation, which gives off the idea obviously he knows what’s in the report. If he’s easy-going at the golf course, whatever we read tomorrow won’t be a big deal.

LEWIS: I think it’s very likely what we read tomorrow will not be a big deal. However, you know, you could make an argument that if he wants it to appear to be not a big deal he would be out of the country. But, look, I find the most interesting thing about this is the Chicago Tribune reported last week there were, like, twenty-one phone conversations between Rahm Emanuel and Blago.

Yeah, uhm…I know they eat a lot of spam there, and shoot Lost, and worship Polynesian rainbow-gods, and people often go there to forget Sarah Marshall, but Hawaii is not “out of the country.” In fact, since 1959, it’s been a part of the United States, which is about as not out of the country as a location can get.

Of course, maybe what Lewis is saying is that Obama could enhance the play-it-cool effect by traveling even farther afield, like to whatever nation keeps his secret birth certificate hidden! Let’s hope so! There are mistakes, and then there are mistakes made by “Zombie” Radar, and the latter are in an entirely different class. This should have been an easy catch for Tamron Hall, as well.

Read more: Hawaii, Obama Vacation, Blagojevich Scandal, Barack Obama, Matt Lewis, Video, Geography, Obama Hawaii, Obama Blagojevich, Rod Blagojevich, Blagojevich Corruption, Townhall, Media News

Obama Puts Out Holiday Radio Address

With the President-elect in Hawaii and most of the political world taking a short breather to celebrate the holidays, the Obama transition team put out a radio address on Wednesday.

The clip touches on the usual themes for this time of year: recognition of the sacrifice made by American troops and a call for community service, along with acknowledgment of the struggling economy.

“If the American people come together and put their shoulder to the wheel of history, then I know that we can put our people back to work and point our country in a new direction,” the radio text reads. “That is how we will see ourselves through this time of crisis, and reach the promise of a brighter day.”

It ends with an historical anecdote, noting that the first “American Christmas” came when George Washington and his Army crossed the Delaware River at the turning point of the Revolutionary War. It is a slight twisting of history, but a poignant touch.

Here are some of the more noteworthy portions:

Many troops are serving their second, third, or even fourth tour of duty. And we are reminded that they are more than dedicated Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guard - they are devoted fathers and mothers; husbands and wives; sons and daughters; sisters and brothers.

This holiday season, their families celebrate with a joy that is muted knowing that a loved one is absent, and sometimes in danger. In towns and cities across America, there is an empty seat at the dinner table; in distant bases and on ships at sea, our servicemen and women can only wonder at the look on their child’s face as they open a gift back home.

[snip]

These are also tough times for many Americans struggling in our sluggish economy. As we count the higher blessings of faith and family, we know that millions of Americans don’t have a job. Many more are struggling to pay the bills or stay in their homes. From students to seniors, the future seems uncertain.

That is why this season of giving should also be a time to renew a sense of common purpose and shared citizenship. Now, more than ever, we must rededicate ourselves to the notion that we share a common destiny as Americans - that I am my brother’s keeper, I am my sister’s keeper. Now, we must all do our part to serve one another; to seek new ideas and new innovation; and to start a new chapter for our great country.

Read more: Obama Troops, Obama Radio, Obama Community Service, Barack Obama, Obama Holiday, Obama Radio Address, Politics News

Larger Implications Of Obama’s Taste For Spam Uncovered

President-elect Barack Obama apparently tucked into some Spam sushi at lunch yesterday, so naturally, everyone spent a little time talking about it. I had to endure an uber-snooty David Shuster rant on the topic yesterday that threatened to induce the sort of reverse-peristalsis that many would associate with the mystery meat, widely eaten throughout the Hawaiian islands. But is there anything important to be said of Obama’s embrace of Spam? Lisa Derrick, proprietress of the newly-opened blog La Figa, may have hit on something: the official quashing of one of the more persistent campaign smears.

Those rumors of President-Obama being a Muslim have been laid to rest by his very visible consumption of a porky pan-Asian fusion delicacy–well that’s what fancy food folks will be calling Spam musubi now that Obama noshed on one while playing golf yesterday, making the Hawaiian snack chic. Expect them at Inauguration parties.

I’m especially hopeful that Spam delicacies will be widely available during the Inaugural weekend. It’s probably no coincidence that the announcement of Rick Warren’s participation in the festivities can be connected to the revised calculations of the anticipated crowds, down from four million to two million. It will be hilarious when Spam fails to inspire similar distaste.

Read more: Obama Spam, Obama Inauguration, Barack Obama, Obama Spam Sushi, Obama Spam Musubi, Media News

Howard Wolfson To Aid Bloomberg, Not Clinton

Howard Wolfson, communications guru for Hilary Clinton’s primary campaign, announced just now that he will be doing communications work for Michael Blomberg’s re-election campaign in 2010, a seeming end to the rumors that he would follow his old boss to the State Department.

“Please excuse the mass email,” Wolfson writes, “but I wanted to let you know the good news that I will be joining Mayor Bloomberg’s re-election campaign as a communications strategist in the New Year.”

As a New Yorker, I am very excited at the prospect of helping the Mayor at this very critical time in our city’s history.

It is quite clear to me that the Mayor’s strong record provides a compelling case for his re-election — and that he will provide the proven leadership we need to guide the City through the unprecedented fiscal challenges we face.

I look forward to speaking with you about this directly, and until then, best of the Holiday season.

Wolfson, who also does commentary for Fox News, did not specify whether his work for Bloomberg will be full time or as part of his firm, the Glover Park Group. His announcement does, however, seem to close the window on him working out of Foggy Bottom. It would be tough to travel with the nation’s chief diplomat and aid the New York City mayor’s run at a third term in office at the same time.

Read more: Clinton Primary, Howard Wolfson, Michael Bloomberg, State Department, Clinton, Politics News

Top Ten Robo-Calls Of The Election Year Revealed

One of the ways that innovations in user-friendly technologies had a profound effect on the 2008 election was the exposure given to campaign robo-calls, those horribly annoying campaign inducements that invaded our homes via the telephone, pitching all manner of outrageous claims and incendiary nonsense. Robo-calls were once the sort of shenanigan that drew only local attention. But now that just about anyone with internet access can grab audio content and pass it along over the internet, the purveyors of this auditory diarrhea risk national exposure and unwanted scrutiny.

Shaun Dakin, CEO and founder of the National Political Do Not Contact Registry battled the bots all year long, serving as a champion to everyone who prefers their telephones free of pollutants. So we’re happy to defer to his judgment as to the Top 10 Political Robocalls of 2008. He’s got many favorites: Elizabeth Dole’s “godless” call, Zane Starkewolf’s phone sex warning, Robert Morrow’s private citizen campaign of wigged-out Hillary paranoia, Barack Obama’s Joe The Copycat Plumber…the worst of the worst.

We’ll not spoil the call that took home the top spot, but as a special hint, please to enjoy one of Saturday Night Live’s underrated bits of political parody: Will Forte as the Sad Robo-Phone.

[WATCH.]

Read more: McCain Robocalls, Shaun Dakin, Robo-Calls, Robocall, Robocalls, Media News

Obama Blagojevich Report: Team Claims Exoneration

Barack Obama’s chief counsel declared on Tuesday afternoon that only one member of the President-elect’s staff — incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel — had any communications with embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his staff since Obama’s election.

Emanuel’s interactions, moreover, were not in any way improper, Obama’s aides stressed, and the transition team was fully compliant both with the law and the U.S. Attorney’s investigation into Blagojevich’s alleged pay-for-play scheme.

“No one in the Obama circle was aware of what was going on in the governor’s office until he was arrested,” said Greg Craig, Obama’s counsel. “They found out what the Governor was doing the same time the American public found out about it.”

While Craig and spokesman Robert Gibbs debriefed reporters, the Obama transition team put out a five-page report detailing the extent of contacts between the Illinois governor, the President-elect, and their respective staffs.

Read the full text of the Obama report.

As was reported over the weekend, incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel had been in touch with Blagojevich and his chief of staff, primarily about the replacement process for Emanuel’s own congressional seat but also about various Obama replacements.

At some point in mid-November, the Obama internal review states, the president-elect discussed potential “qualified candidates” for the Senate seat with Emanuel and senior adviser David Axelrod. “Those candidates included Representatives Jan Schakowsky and Jesse Jackson, Jr., Dan Hynes and Tammy Duckworth. The President-Elect understood that Rahm Emanuel would relay these names to the Governor’s office as additions to the pool of qualified candidates who might already be under consideration. Mr. Emanuel subsequently confirmed to the President that he had in fact relayed these names. At no time in the discussion of the Senate seat or of possible replacements did the President-Elect hear of a suggestion that the Governor expected a personal benefit in return for making this appointment to the Senate.”

Axelrod and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett both “did not have any contacts with the Governor or his office but are included in the report,” Craig’s findings say. But there is enough back-channel conversation involving Jarrett — mostly second-hand discussion about Blagojevich’s scheme — to possibly create public relations issues for her down the road.

According to the report, Jarrett had one contact with Blagojevich, during a National Governor’s Association Conference in Philadelphia in early December — “over three weeks after she had decided not to pursue the Senate seat.” Jarrett did speak to Tom Balanoff, the head of the Illinois chapter of the Service Employees International Union, who relayed to her that he had spoken with Blagojevich about her being named Obama’s replacement. Balanoff also related that Blagojevich was, perhaps, interested in heading the Department of Health and Human Services in the new administration.

“Mr. Balanoff did not suggest,” the internal report states, “that the Governor, in talking about HHS, was linking a position for himself in the Obama cabinet to the selection of the President-elect’s successor in the Senate, and Ms. Jarrett did not understand the conversation to suggest that the Governor wanted the cabinet seat as a quid pro quo…”

As for the HHS topic, “[Jarrett] viewed that as a ridiculous proposition and waved it off,” Craig said to reporters. “She found it to be a random comment on the face of it, ridiculous, and dismissed it as such.”

The section on Axelrod helps explain a statement he made on the scandal that created some confusion. “After the election, the President-elect discussed — with Mr. Axelrod and Mr. Emanuel — a number of individuals who were highly qualified to take his place in the Senate. Mr. Axelrod was under the impression that the President-elect would convey this information to the Governor or to someone from the Governor’s office, which explains why Mr. Axelrod gave an inaccurate answer on this subject to questions from the press.”

One other newsworthy bit: Craig said that the decision to delay the issuance of the report was made strictly by Patrick Fitzgerald’s office. They were worried about the damage it could cause to their investigation.

“This report was provided to the U.S. attorney’s office today,” said Craig. “It was ready for delivery actually on December 15, when I met with the U.S. Attorney and he asked me on that occasion to hold off out of concerns that by releasing this report we might have some impact on his investigation.”

Read more: Obama Absolution, Obama Greg Craig, Obama Internal Report, Greg Craig Robert Gibbs, Blagojevich Affair, Obama Blagojevich, Politics News