I watched the Chris Matthew Show, a small part of Meet the Press, and bigger part of ABC’s Sunday Morning, and Face the Nation. Meet the Press lost me when it had partisan strategists on their roundtable discussion instead of journalists. When it’s partisan strategists, all of their statements and opinions are so pointedly partisan, I don’t find that information useful for the most part. There was one statement by Ed Rollins on one of the shows in which he said that the Republicans wanted Sen. Clinton to keep going in her campaign, a sentiment that I found noteworthy, but all in all Once again, the presidential race was front and center.

Everyone seems pretty settled now that Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee. But, there still is a lot of discussion about Sen. Clinton and what she is up to. One discussion on the Chris Matthews show was very similar to my recent posting about the Clinton’s barnstorming in Western Kentucky in order to insure a place on the ticket for Sen. Clinton. As a matter of fact, this issue was discussed in virtually all of the shows – whether or not there was going to be an Obama-Clinton ticket. Mario Cuomo, a guest on Face on the Nation, made an impassioned plea for such a ticket. But, the discussion on the news shows had a very mixed tenor.

Some of the pundits say that Obama will not pick Clinton because she cuts against his main theme of “change.” I don’t find that argument very persuasive, because, being a female candidate for vice president is change in and of itself. I am more persuaded by the argument that she has higher negatives than Obama and by definition brings his up. I also don’t like the idea that it would be 2 (Bill and Hillary) against 1 (Obama) which would get wearisome to deal with.

And while I’m in the “I just don’t want ‘Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton’” camp, I think that the real issue here is older white middle to lower income females, who often vote, and who are crazy about Clinton. A really high percent of that demographic is saying that they won’t vote for Obama. I think that they feel that since Clinton came so close and ran so well, that she has earned the second spot, and if she doesn’t get offered it, that it is just one more sign of how women are being kept down, and they aren’t going to tolerate it. That’s a huge pressure for Obama. He cannot afford to alienate that demographic that actually get out and vote. With about half the superdelegates for Clinton, and with her pledged delegates, there is enough influence there to force things to happen. It going to be interesting. One of the pundits, a reporter, and I can’t remember which one or on which show, though, did make the comment that Obama saying “no” to Clinton could demonstrate the kind of backbone that people aren’t sure he has. I think there is some truth to that, but I still think, and again, this isn’t necessarily my personal preference, but the need for the ticket to have the high percent of older, white females (and not just white, but predominantly) which are currently supporting Clinton, is a pretty substantial need.

The other issue that was discussed on virtually every show was the dust up that was created when Bush made his speech in front of the Israel Knesset for their 60th anniversary as a nation. He made his now infamous comments that talking to terrorists, (and he was alluding to Iran) is “appeasement” and compared it to Europe trying to talk to Hitler before he started invading. It was without doubt a campaign tactic to try and paint Obama as being extreme for even considering talking to a country like Iran. I mean, the whole thing is silly for a number of reasons. For one thing, Bush has been talking to North Korea and Libya, to name two. So he’s once again a hypocrite. And second, and interestingly, the pundits were really down on this, it apparently violated some kind of unwritten protocol that a President not interject “domestic” politics when speaking in a foreign country. It was very interesting how down on Bush the Washington Press seemed to be on the protocol level.

But what also was discussed a lot, and to me, was a huge blunder by McCain, and many of the pundits agreed, was his embracing it and basically using it as a tag team to try and beat up on Obama. All that does is tie him to Bush, something that any rational person would say is about the dumbest thing he could do. If he keeps this up, he’s going to make it easy for Obama.

I can't believe that Meet the Press had Huckabee as a guest. I didn't watch a lot of that, so I don't know if Russert questioned him about his comment, but his comment about Obama ducking when a gun is pointed at him was so evil and off the wall that if NBC had any moral compass at all, it would not have allowed him on the show. Pox to you, Meet the Press, for having him on.

Peggy Noonan, on the Stephanopolous ABC Sunday Morning show roundtable, made a very bizarre comment about Obama's "Kentucky" flyer, which shows him standing at a church pulpit in front of a giant cross, that people may think that he is just doing it as a sham to fool everyone into thinking that he isn't Muslim. Now, we're heard the "Obama is a muslim" comment from enough people around here to know that this is a smear with legs. For Noonan to even hint that there might be some legitimacy to the notion, even indirectly like she did, was so inappropriate, Stephanopolous should have said something, but he didn't.

One last comment is that race is becoming a very talked about issue. Considering that the USA Today reported that exit polls in West Virginia found that 20% of the Democratic voters said that race is an important issue, it’s about time that we get down to the nitty gritty and talk about this. And, the press is beginning to talk about it seriously. Beginning is the key word there. No huge breakthroughs, but just the fact that it is being brought up is a step forward.