The Passing of a Legend

Senator Edward Kennedy died late Tuesday night. I have to give kudos to MSNBC (perhaps CNN and Fox did the same) for going wall-to-wall with early morning coverage without commercials.   From all of the comments about Kennedy's passing, one of the most heartfelt came from Joe Biden.

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For The Middle Class

The Obama Administration unveiled a new task force today to deal with issues impacting the middle class. On paper, it sounds like a good idea and Joe Biden seems a great choice to handle it.

Unlike Cheney’s energy task force, Biden’s middle-class task force will be transparent.

Since taking office, Vice President Joe Biden has taken several concrete steps to restore transparency to an office that was shrouded in secrecy by Dick Cheney. In the latest move, Biden’s new middle-class task force will provide the public with details of whom he meets with: Mr. Biden’s team is positioning the vice president to play [...]

MLK Day

Today was Martin Luther King Day...tomorrow is the inauguration of Barack Obama.  We spent today doing some much-needed "de-cluttering" around the house and I managed to order the textbooks for my return to college. All in all, we'll call it productive.

Reports are floating around tonight of a rather interesting last-minute "oops" from the Obama/Biden campaign.

Biden's Office: No, He Was Not Offered Secretary of State!

Joe Biden's office just put out this statement, doing some quick messaging/damage-control on Jill Biden's declaration today on the Oprah Winfrey show about how Joe was offered either the Vice Presidency or Secretary of State: "Like anyone who followed the [...]

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Saturday Sunshine

 We chased the nasty cold winds away and today turned out pretty darn decent - sunshine and 50-some degrees. A bit breezy, but I'm not gonna complain.  I can, however, complain about the Razorback basketball team.  After showing they had the talent and skill to defeat two of the top-rated teams in the country, they seem to have forgotten how to do it.  There were some good stretches in today's battle with Florida, but the good was outdistanced by the bad.  Sad.

Did watch a bit of the MSNBC and CNN coverage of the events leading up to Tuesday's inauguration. CNN has its anchors in some kind of semi-protected outdoor set.  Most were wearing gloves, but not everybody had on heavy coats. (UPDATE: Looks like it's getting colder. The coats have come out.) MSNBC, on the other hand, has a pretty snazzy indoor set that makes it look like they're outdoors.  And they're using football-style flying cameras for crowd shots, etc.  It's an impressive setup.  Now, if they were just doing it in High Definition......

The story today is the Obama/Biden train trip and MSNBC is using some new technology to cover it, tying together a half-dozen cell phones to let them go live from the train, while it's moving. It's not broadcast quality, there's a horrible lag when the anchor tosses to the talent, but it's neat to watch.  That being said, I do have to point out that the TV station I worked for in the early 1990's tried something very similar, using two cell phones to feed breaking video back to the station. Of course, you couldn't go "live" with that setup, but it did get tornado footage, etc back in an emergency. We stopped using it after a few months, when it became apparent that it just wasn't that effective. With higher-bandwidth cell technology, it's interesting to watch the concept get a second wind.

The crowds are certain turning out for Obama and Biden, and the President-Elect has been heaping praise on his VP -

Biden's Story Takes Center Stage

If it were not for the emotional threads of Barack Obama's personal story, it seems very likely that more attention would be paid to Joseph Biden's own deeply moving biography.The vice president-elect has largely kept to the shadows during and after [...]

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Change, Indeed!

Biden takes us back to the way things used to be.

Exclusive: Biden to limit role of vice president

The vice president-elect plans to restore the office to its historical role as adviser to the president and tie-breaker in the Senate [...]

Just Incredible

Here's a classic example of why some news people shouldn't be allowed to ask questions of politicians. Either she's totally one-sided or has a producer who is.  Biden does a great job..

Joe Biden shuts down GOP talking point-spewing machine

Joe Biden sat down for an interview with Florida television anchor Barbara West Thursday and got hit by a barrage of Sean Hannity's talking points, prompting him to ask at one point, "Are you joking? Is this a joke? Is that a real question?" [...]

And, from the other side..

Video: Angry Joe Biden Gets Grilled

It’s been linked elsewhere, but if you haven’t seen it yet this video is a real hoot, as Joe Biden is asked some very tough questions by WFTV reporter Barbara West—and proceeds to get angry and condescending: [...]

Pre-Debate Details

Looks like we get to see the attack dog version of Palin tonight. I'm not so sure that's the smart approach, but it might liven things up a bit!

Palin's new plan: Go after Biden

Sarah Palin plans to go on the attack in tonight's debate, hitting Joe Biden for what she will call his foreign policy blunders and penchant for adopting liberal positions on taxes and other issues, according to campaign officials involved in prepping her for [...]

The Latest Installment

Just in case you didn't catch the CBS Evening News tonight, Couric did it. Again.

Palin can’t name a Supreme Court case she disagrees with.

Tonight, CBS’s Katie Couric released her latest interviews with Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) and Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK), during which she asked both of them about Roe v. Wade and the Supreme Court. Palin could not identify any other Supreme Court case she disagreed with, but said as Vice President she “wouldn’t be in a [...]

Looking Ahead to Thursday

Some fascinating suggestions in this Howard Fineman piece in Newsweek. It's worth a read for the ideas he gets from a couple of people who should know.

Fineman: Advice for Palin and Biden

Vice presidential debates, like vice presidents, used to be low voltage. Now they are prime time, big time. Why? Two words: Dick Cheney. In 2000 and 2004, his debate performances (he played the calm, well-informed dinner guest) helped elect and re-elect Bush. In the White House, the vice's clout has been both unrivaled and reviled. Now comes Sarah Palin, Wonder Woman of Wasilla. This Thursday a huge audience is [...]