As a two-year-old, so the family story goes, I would ask my mother to hang a map on the wall behind me while I shuffled papers in my small hands at a desk, pretending to be Walter Cronkite. Around that same time, maybe a little later, when I was visiting my grandfather's farm implement store in the Bible Belt, one of the mechanics in the shop was left dumbfounded when he asked me what my favorite TV show was, and I said, apparently without hesitation, "Walter Cronkite."

I'll stipulate that those anecdotes, which I have no direct memory of, probably say more about what a hopelessly geeky kid I was than they do about Cronkite or his influence. But it does give you a sense of his place in the American home in the 1970s.

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Remember this?

President George W. Bush signed into law Thursday the first major piece of legislation of his presidency, a $1.35 trillion tax cut over 10 years.

Of the six senators begging President Obama to slow down health care reform, four of them -- Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and Susan Collins (R-ME) -- voted for those huge Bush tax cuts.

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Everyone who's yapping about the CBO chief's comments about health care costs, should read this piece by Jon Cohn. Another one of those cases where -- shockingly -- it really helps to understand the policy details and not just the political atmospherics.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Welcome To Canada

Obits from the Times, CBS, the Post ...

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-KS): If health care covered abortions, Obama's mom might have aborted him.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) twitters on Obama's White House remarks:

Obama speech on healthCareReform Absolutely nothing new Waste of time saying we are going to get that done Baucus and I know that But doRITE

Worries me that Grassley and Baucus think they have it all figured out.

4:07 PM ... Obama laying out broad range of agreements and what he describes as emerging consensus in place prior to appearance of letter requesting delay from six senate wankers this morning.

4:09 PM ... "Health insurance reform cannot add to the deficit over the next decade."

4:12 PM ... Miscellaneous race metaphors, "now is not the time to slow down" in re senate wanker six.

Blitzer calls Obama afternoon remarks on health care a "hail mary pass" to save health care reform.

Big, big, big step backwards for the Kindle book platform. And even with a poetic twist.

It seems Amazon snuck into people's electronic libraries overnight and deleted their George Orwell books. (I'm not clear what happened in cases where people had also saved their electronic copies to the computer in addition to their Kindle -- if anyone knows, lemme know.)

The technology and execution is amazing, as I've noted before. But it really seems like Amazon Inc. might be too craven to make it work.

House intel committee chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) announces his committee will investigate the failure to inform Congress of the secret CIA assassination program.

Gibbs briefing cancelled today; Obama speaking himself ... about health care.

Late Update: We checked with the White House and President Obama will not be taking questions.

Gov. Mark Sanford's communications director decides to move on to a less humiliating line of work.

I was pretty stunned to see the beginnings of a compromise coming into place this morning that would have the 'card check' provisions pulled from the Employee Free Choice Act. At least in the superficial debate, the two have been treated as more or less synonymous, though that's clearly not case -- I don't think anyone would disagree that there are a number of other very important provisions in the bill.

Here's what TPM Reader JS has to say ...

I'm a labor attorney that has spent most of my career on management's side. If you Google my name, that's what you'll find. Recently, I've started doing some employee-side work. Fwiw, my opinion is that this EFCA compromise is really what organized labor wants and has always wanted. Business took the bait with the card check issue and thought they had won.

Michael Fox, a labor attorney and blogger, says that card check has always just been a stalking horse for the other planks of EFCA. In fact, what gives angst to some conservative legal scholars more than the card check is the forced arbitration. Someone wrote an article (it was in the WSJ, I think) that the arbitration provision would be unconstitutional. The quickie elections are important to. I don't agree with "stalking horse" exactly. To me it was more of a bargaining chip they were willing to sacrifice if needed.

The reason for this is clear to me: card check has not had a statistically significant impact on organizing success rates in jurisdictions where it has been tried. There are studies out there on Canada that show that. Getting a union recognized doesn't matter if they union can't negotiate a contract before people give up on them. Businesses will just hold out on a contract. This bill won't let them do that. As for the quickie elections, it doesn't give management enough time to wage their campaigns to be as effective in changing the vote.

If those two provisions pass, it's probably the biggest labor law reform since Taft-Hartley in 1948, and unlike that law, it's a huge win for labor.

If you look at Brian's update from this morning at TPMDC, there does seem to be a basic cleavage in the responses from the AFL-CIO and Andy Stern/SEIU. In any case, I know there are a lot of labor movement readers we have. So I'm very curious to hear what people think of today's developments.

Palin promises "less politically correct" tweets once she formally bails on governorship.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) on the stakes in delaying a health care vote past August: "If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

President Obama:

We have talked and talked and talked about fixing health care for decades. And we have finally reached a point where inaction is no longer an option -- where the choice to defer reform is nothing more than a decision to defend the status quo. And I will not defend the status quo.

Watch.

The commission created to investigate the structural causes of the financial collapse may be designed to fail -- but even if a few well-intentioned commissioners and staff try to make a real go of it, they'll have former Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA), the commission's co-chair and a legendary partisan knife-fighter, standing in their way.

Watch President Obama's speech yesterday to the NAACP. (Text here.)

If you take card check out of EFCA, what's left?

Three Dems joined all the Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee to vote against the health care reform bill: Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI), Earl Pomeroy (D-ND) and John Tanner (D-TN). It made it through committee anyway early this morning.

Pat Buchanan: White men built this country!!!

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: The 26th Mile

Blasts at two Western hotels in Jakarta Friday morning killed 9 and injured dozens.

You remember the C Street Group, the combo Bible fellowship and group home for members of Congress up on Capitol Hill. But it's been occurring to us that the C Street Group, which is an emanation of a shadowy religious outfit called "the Family", might not be a religious fellowship at all so much as a covert 12 Step Group from Republican Hound Dogs, womanizers and sex addicts trying to get clean during their tenure in the hallowed halls of Congress.

Less than a month ago, we had C Streeter John Ensign take a dive. Then just a week or so later it was South Carolina Mark Sanford, himself a C Streeter from his days in Congress. And in his tell-all (but not quite all) press conference just after his return from Argentina he said that he'd been working with the C Street Group to deal with his on-going affair, which I guess didn't help that much.

And today we have news of yet another C Streeter falling off the fidelity wagon.

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Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

The AP reports that Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons (R) is out of the state. His interim press secretary Gail Powell won't say where he is. And the Lt. Governor has been notified he's now in charge of running the state.

Indeed, Gibbons has a long history of hiking the metaphorical Appalachian Trail. But it would seem this case of the disappearing governor will have a more prosaic conclusion. Gibbons office is saying that the Pentagon wants a blackout on the governor's whereabouts, strongly suggesting he's in Iraq or Afghanistan visiting US troops in the field.

The AP responds to our questions about where it comes up with a $1.5 trillion price tag for the House health care bill.

From TPM Reader BH ...

Hi TPM - Just wanted to give you a big thank you, and to Andrew Pincus a huge kudo for his excellent writing on the Sotomayor process. His work was concise, but very readable and understandable for the lay person. Excellent writing - have him do more, please!

Sen. Sessions (R-AL): "Senator Leahy and I are talking during these hearings, we're gonna do that crack cocaine thing that you and I have talked about."

See the video here.

Just watching the Sotomayor hearings, it seems they've dug up our old friend Linda Chavez, last heard from making a pretty penny on a bunch of highly dubious political action committees, to do the old 1980s song and dance one more time.

Late Update: Still watching Chavez here in these hearings. My God. I'd forgotten just how far into rabbit hole of the GOP race racket this woman had gone. I'm glad she's at least on the sham political organization gravy train to make up for the damage to the soul. eessh ...

Bob Bork says "wise Latina" comments should disqualify Judge Sotomayor from being appointed to the Supreme Court.

Robert Reich on Goldman Sachs' and JPMorgan's big bonanza.

The AMA just sent Rep. Rangel a letter saying they support the House Dems' health care reform bill. Public option and all.

TPM is now accepting applications for our Fall Internship cycle. The deadline for submitting applications is July 23rd. For details on how our internship works and how to apply, click here.

Sen. Nelson asks Obama for more time to scuttle health care reform.

Abraham Foxman, on Obama's approach to the Israel-Palestine quagmire: "I continue to sense that the administration is putting too much weight on solving the conflict."

It turns out that Doug Hampton, the Senate staffer whose wife had an affair with Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), did not report on his Senate disclosure form the $96,000 "gift" he and his wife received from Ensign's parents.

Zack Roth gets us up to speed on the latest developments surrounding that secret CIA assassination program hidden from Congress -- and a look at why it might have been so radioactive.

I find it kind of comical that Craig Crawford says that the upshot of the Sotomayor hearings is that Obama is now free to go "hard left" in his next Supreme Court appointment. But the rest of his post is actually right on target.

"Racially-tinged inferences, snide liberal bashing and the shameless pandering to anti-intellectual sentiment that once won the day for Republicans are now falling flat," he writes. Indeed, the attacks have "showcased just how narrow and out of touch their political base has become."

This is actually a very acute takeaway from this entire drama.

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Karenna Gore Schiff is knocking down a report in Roll Call today that she's looking at running for Congress from New York. A Gore family spokesperson tells TPMDC that Gore Schiff "has no intention of running for the House of Representatives."

Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY) Tom Coburn (R-OK), both MDs, have an online show they cleverly call "The Senate Doctors Show."

It's a write-in show designed to pushback on health care reform. So no questions about your chronic skin condition or mystery ache or pain.

Late Update: TPM Reader MR has more pressing questions:

But will they be taking questions about personal relationships? You know, how I should tell my wife I'm having an affair, or how best to break off that affair, or how to reconcile with my wife and family after the affair becomes a major news story?

They might have gotten off to a slow start but it's pretty clear that the new media operation Obama had during his campaign is now set up in the White House and starting to hit on all cylinders. Here's an example: a tightly produced video of the President's visit to Ghana that's been posted to the White House website.

Is Lindsey Graham (R-SC) laying the groundwork for a "yes" vote on Sotomayor?

Al Gore, Jr.'s daughter, Karenna Gore Schiff, is reportedly eyeing the New York House seat expected to be vacated by Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) so that she can challenge Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY).

Late Update: Gore Schiff's spokesperson says not true, that she has "no intention" of running.

Robert Reich says the House got the tax equation right on health care reform.

Jon Taplin isn't so sure.

The AP keeps reporting that the cost of the House health care bill will be $1.5 trillion -- even though the neutral Congressional Budget Office pegs it at 2/3 that much: $1 trillion.

Watch as Newt Gingrich and others pick up the AP's higher price tag and run with it.

Colbert demands his turn as Olbermann's "Worst Person In the World."

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Not That Hot Seat

As you may know, at the end of last month, we put out listings for seven new editorial staff positions. (See the full listings here.) So I wanted to give people a quick update.

To date we've received a little over 250 applications for those seven positions. And we are definitely still taking applications. Collectively speaking, they're definitely the best group of applications for any jobs we've advertised for before. And all that from the single post on TPM.

More details on where we are in the process after the jump ...

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Slideshow: Obama Throws Out First Pitch at All-Star Game.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

Get your live Sotomayor confirmation blogging here, from appellate attorney Andrew Pincus.

More on how this is looking from TPM Reader JL, from the financial services industry ...

Thanks David for posting the members of the commission that will investigate the financial crisis.

Not telling you anything you don't know, but it looks like this will come down to Brooksley Born vs. Peter Wallison. Born, of course, was the former head of CFTC who argued vehemently that her agency should regulate derivatives, an idea that was deep-sixed by Bob Rubin with an assist from Larry Summers. Wallison is the AEI scholar who promoted the canard that Fannie and Freddie are the prime culprits in the subprime fiasco. Should be interesting. I'd put the odds of a consensus report coming out of the commission at about zero.

Lots of developments today in the negotiations over health care reform and the political push to get this done. President Obama will be speaking momentarily as part of the White House media campaign to pressure Congress. Brian Beutler is tracking things closely for us at TPMDC.

Bamboozling Sinclair Broadcasting apparently near bankruptcy.

Reid and Pelosi announce their six appointees to a latter-day Pecora Commission to probe the origins of the financial crisis.

Late Update: McConnell and Boehner are out with their appointees, too.

Pics from Obama's appearance last night at the MLB All-Star Game (where the National League lost failed to win for the 13th straight year ... grumble).

I'm often asked why the right doesn't have a muscular online news presence that mirrors the reporting-intensive, fact-heavy websites that have emerged on the left. The explanation is complicated, but one part of the answer is very simple: Most of the right-wing "news" sites have no interest in being journalists. That's not what they're about and that's not what they see as their primary function, which is advocacy.

You see it in the emails from right-wing media outlets (and others) to Gov. Mark Sanford's office -- while he was still "missing" -- offering friendly venues for the governor upon his return and ridiculing the critical coverage from other outlets.

The State newspaper in South Carolina, which obtained the emails from the governor's office through public records requests, has a new batch out this morning, and they're especially telling in one respect.

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Sonia Sotomayor: "I'm not an expert at Marijuana growing."

Among those emails from media outlets to Gov. Sanford's office during his "hike" on the Appalachian Trail is one from ABC's Jake Tapper criticizing rival NBC's coverage as "slimy" and "insulting."

Late Update: Jake has been twittering this morning about the email. Not good.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Judicial Temperament

Behind the Scenes at the White House, June-July 2009.

Obama's approval numbers sagging under the weight of bad economic news? Alan Abramowitz looks at the latest Gallup data and finds that Obama's 2008 coalition is holding up almost perfectly.

Compare Sen. Lindsey Graham's obnoxiously aggressive cross-examination of Judge Sotomayor today with his obnoxiously obsequious questioning of Judge Alito in 2006.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

We've posted the CBO's preliminary analysis of the new House health care bill.

Lanny Davis resurfaces as lobbyist/spinmeister for Honduran coup plotters.

President Obama, speaking today:

I love those folks who helped get us in this mess, and suddenly they say, "This is Obama's economy." That's fine. Give it to me.

Former OLC Chief Jay Bybee: John Yoo was "the White House's guy" on national security matters.

Steele on bringing minority voters into the GOP: "My plan is to say, 'Ya'll come!' I got the fried chicken and potato salad!"

See the video.

Here's a fun moment from this morning's hearings. Remember that scene in Annie Hall where the Alvy and Annie are waiting in line at the movie and Alvy is going nuts listening to the pontificating blowhard going on about Marshall McLuhan and then Alvy pulls McLuhan himself out from behind the movie poster to tell the guy he's an idiot. Not quite identical and Sotomayor could have driven the point a bit harder but Judge Sotomayor managed to pull off something like that.

Judge Sotomayor schools Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) on the use of nunchuks.

This is simply one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. You remember those surreal few days when Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) was missing from his state and no one knew or could explain where he was. A lot of the media was far too credulous in accepting the increasingly ludicrous explanations for the governor's absence. But in emails recently obtained by The State newspaper, through a FOIA-type request, it turns out that before Sanford got caught sneaking back into the country from Argentina, a slew of right-wing reporters from Fox, the Wall Street Journal ed page and Washington Times were telling the governor's staffers to hang tough, that the whole story was stupid and generally asking how they could help.

Late Update: When we first published this piece we had yet to get a response from the Washington Times. But we've now heard from the Times John Solomon who says that the emailer from the Times was not from the newsroom but from a member of the marketing staff trying to book Sanford for the magazine's radio show. Full details in the post.

I'm thinking that Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), rising GOP star the House and rumored presidential aspirant, is either conflicted or sending out some mixed messages. His PAC (the vehicle in place for his prez run) is called Every Republican is Crucial, i.e., "ERIC."

Every Republican is Crucial, especially me! Every GOPer is so crucial the message is an acronym for my name!

Finally, Sen. Feinstein brings it up ...

"I am puzzled why Mr. Estrada keeps coming up. Mr. Estrada has no judicial experience. The nominee before us has considerable judicial experience."

I know, I know. Republicans want to say they like Hispanics too. But it's getting a little ridiculous, no?

Late Update: Here's the video of Feinstein's remarks.

I'm listening to Sen. Hatch (R-UT) browbeating Judge Sotomayor on the Ricci case. And I'm reminded of the ever-present nature of the exchanges between senators and nominees in this exchanges -- brain vs. brawn.

It's not that senators are dumb. A lot of them are extremely sharp. But certainly not all of them. And more to the point, with all but a few exceptions, they are at best amateurs at judicial interpretation. On the other hand, across the ideological spectrum, the Supreme Court nominees are almost without exception, extremely bright people, trained in a discipline that sharpens the skills of logical reasoning and argument. And they really, really know constitutional law. I would almost say this is a big shortcoming of our current system. I don't think there's any question that a number of great Justices from earlier in the 20th century never would have made it on today's court.

In any case, on almost every front of intellect and knowledge, the judges have the senators wildly overmatched. And yet, the senators have the power.

It was hard to listen to Hatch's questioning without this coming painfully to mind, though certainly it's applied to many judges and senators, of all different partisan mixes over the years.

And speaking of amateurs vs. pros, for more expert Sotomayor hearing blog, don't miss Andrew Pincus's live blog here.

Mark Blumenthal has a good write up on the recent small but clear downward trend in President Obama's approval ratings. The chief culprit: a recent spate of bad economic news. For better or worse, six months in, President Obama is starting to 'own' the bad economy.

Sen. John Ensign (R-NV): Not only am I not going to resign, I'm going to run again in 2012.

The second day of the Sotomayor hearing just got under way. And today is the main event, the real questioning. You can watch live video and our live blogging expert legal commentary from appellate lawyer Andrew Pincus here.

Can any Republican go five minutes without bringing up Miguel Estrada.

My nominee for most absurd moment in CNBC's checkered history was a segment late yesterday designed to mock environmentalists for thinking that Obama isn't "radical" enough. The designated target for this "Taking Aim" segment was our buddy Chris Hayes, Washington editor of The Nation, though, as you can see, anchor Dennis Kneale couldn't even get that part right.

Yesterday in 100 Seconds: Balls and Strikes

We knew there was a rebranding afoot. And here we have the first roll out of Sarah Palin, policy wonk. The Post agreed to run her new column on cap-and-trade.

On TPM Reader TG's advice, I checked out Sarah Palin's SarahPac, her political action committee.

And it turns out he's right. Palin does seem to have a plan for drawing a giant stencil of the state of Alaska on the mainland United States. Perhaps even removing entirely a series of midwestern and rocky mountain states.

Late Update: As TPM Reader JS points out, this may simply be an artist's representation of a the great inland sea that will form due to expedited rising sea levels under the future Palin regime.

The New York Times is also reporting now that the secret Bush-era CIA program kept from Congress and terminated last month by CIA Director Leon Panetta was a plan to assassinate top al Qaeda officials that was never implemented. This is additional confirmation of the Wall Street Journal story that essentially reported the same basic outlines of the still-classified program.

The Times compares the program to drone attacks against al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. "This was another effort that was trying to accomplish the same objective," Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), ranking member on the Senate intel committee, tells the paper.

But as a former CIA counterterrorism chief told TPMmuckraker today:

"The CIA runs drones and targets al Qaeda safe houses all the time," said Cannistraro, explaining that there's no important difference between those kinds of attacks and "assassinations" with a gun or a knife.

So regardless of how you might feel about targeted assassinations, it's not at all clear why this particular program would be so radioactive -- compared to what the U.S. was, and still is, doing more or less openly -- that (1) Cheney would demand the CIA not brief Congress about it for eight years; (2) Panetta would cancel it immediately upon learning of it; and (3) Democrats would howl quite so loudly when finally informed.

Or to think about it another way, put yourself in the seat of a Democrat on one of the intel committees after 9/11. If you had any doubt about whether the intel agencies were targeting al Qaeda leaders, wouldn't you have demanded that they show you proof they were? And if you didn't have any doubt that they were, why are you complaining now about not being briefed?

It doesn't add up. There's more to this story to be told.

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

As we get down to the wire on health care reform, Brian Beutler assesses the state of negotiations.

When I first saw word within the last hour that Steve Rattner was stepping down as car czar, my first reaction was that the other shoe is about the drop in the sweeping pension fraud case in New York and New Mexico that has entangled Rattner and his former investment firm, Quadrangle. But the Treasury Department's announcement and the media coverage seems very focused on this being a natural move now that Chrysler and GM have emerged from bankruptcy, with the pension fraud case being a minor mention (if mentioned at all). Maybe my muckraking antenna are oversensitive. Then again ...

For a number of reasons, many of which we outline here, the reports that the secret Bush-era CIA program concealed from Congress for eight years involved targeting the leaders of Al Qaeda for assassination don't ring true. Or at least it seems likely to be only a part of the truth.

Now a former CIA counterterrorism chief tells TPMmuckraker there would be no need for a special CIA program or separate legal authorization since we've been targeting Al Qaeda leaders for years. Remember all the drone attacks still going on in Pakistan?

Photos of the last leg of the President's foreign trip.

Hillary Clinton blazed the trail for how high-profile freshman senators can succeed in the Senate: keep your head down, immodestly and constantly proclaim your humility, and focus on your constituents. Sen. Al Franken's opening statement in today's Sotomayor hearing was a paean to Hillary Clinton. For example, he used the word "learn" (as in, "I have a lot to learn") five times in his short statement.

Read Sonia Sotomayor's prepared opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Watching senators making opening statements will make you pull your hair out. So we're posting the texts of the prepared statements. See what your senator is saying. Pick out the themes of the attacks and defenses to come. Much faster than watching the bloviation.

Despite some new reports over the weekend, details about the CIA program the Bushies concealed from Congress remain exceedingly scarce. Zack Roth runs through what we think we know -- and what still doesn't add up.

Late Update: Robert Gibbs, just moments ago in a White House daily briefing, refused to say whether President Obama has been briefed on this program.

Robert Reich says that President Obama has to get the Senate Finance Committee cracking this week and reporting a bill the week after or health care reform might be done for.

Dahlia Lithwick overcomes her mourning of the retirement of David Souter long enough to tell us what to expect this week from the Sotomayor hearing.

AP's Fournier mind-reads for racial subtexts.

We're hearing that the planned unveiling of the health care draft bill in the House, originally scheduled for last week but put off until this afternoon, might not actually happen until tomorrow.

Late Update: House Dems will have a health care "event" this afternoon, but the draft bill will not be unveiled there.

Are the Republicans on the committee under the misimpression that this hearing is about Miguel Estrada?

Some pretty rancid comments from Sen. Kyl (R-AZ) right now. And is it just me or are the Republicans all coming to their comments with some conservative Hispanic jurist to knock Sotomayor over the head with?

11:23 AM ... Also interesting to note that both Sessions and Kyl have essentially accused Sotomayor of being prejudiced against whites -- sort of the kinder, gentler version of Newt's 'racist' charge.

Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA) is touting $4.2 million cash-on-hand for a primary challenge to Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA). Specter has $6.7 million cash-on-hand. How much of that he raised as a Republican before his switch and might have to refund to GOP donors is not clear.

As you know, the confirmation hearings for Judge Sonia Sotomayor are getting underway momentarily. And in addition to our regular reporting, video and the rest, we're going to be bringing you live blogging of the hearings with appellate lawyer Andrew Pincus, who frequently argues cases before the Supreme Court.

See his first post here. Tthe live-blogging page is auto-refreshing. So no need to refresh once you go to the live blog page.

You can also see the new posts on our front page down and to the right, under "Sotomayor Hearings".

McCain on Palin: "I don't think she quit." Watch.

The New York Times reported over the weekend that following the 9/11 attacks then Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to withhold from Congress information about a top-secret intelligence program. Should Congress investigate the matter or let this one slide? We look for answers in today's Sunday Show Roundup ...

Full-size video at TPMtv.com.

In case you're wondering, ground zero of the current round of Sarah Palin supplication is this article by Carl Cannon in AOL's Politics Daily, the upshot of which is that the true villain of the almost-year-long Sarah Palin train-wreck is the media itself, whose collective liberal bias led them to have it in for Palin from the git-go and strive since then to take her down.

How soon we forget how hard reporters worked at first at grading Palin on a curve and talking around her manifest disqualifications for high office. My only question on reading the piece is whether Cannon actually believes this malarkey or whether he's like all those other conservative talking heads who talk Palin to the stars on camera and then more or less lavishly concede she's simply unqualified for high office.

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