We watched Chris Matthews, parts of Meet the Press and ABC Sunday Morning (I’m still mad at WSIL TV out of Carterville, Illinois, for changing the time for broadcasting ABC Sunday Morning so that it now conflicts with Meet the Press.)

Chris Matthews had the exact same panel as last week. It’s not a bad panel, but I have to say I’m not that much of a fan of Gloria Borger. I’ll just leave it at that. Basically, the Matthews show focused a good bit of its time on what the first year of an Obama and McCain presidencies would look like. I thought it was an interesting discussion.

The question was put forth as to, if Obama wins the election, what will be his very first actions as president. Eugene Robinson, African American columnist from the Washington Post, gave the first answer, and he said, very astutely, that Obama’s first move would be to, even if only the action is small enough to be in practicality a symbolic move, he will bring some troops home from Iraq. I agree with Robinson on that. Obama built his campaign and his upset of the Democratic establishment on his position on Iraq.

After that, it was agreed by all of the panelists that it will depend on the economic conditions at the time he takes office. If the economy continues to worsen, as many are predicting, or least saying is a possibility, such as both former Sec. of Treasury under Clinton, Rubin, who was speaking on behalf of Obama, and Fiorini, former CEO of HP, speaking as a McCain economist on Face the Nation (I’ll get to that later), then it is agreed that both Obama and McCain would have to set aside issues such as health care, energy, and the environment and focus on protecting what is left of our economy. It seems to me that the candidate that rolls the economic issues up in energy, health care, and the environment so that they all get addressed in an economic saving package will have a better chance of attracting voters.

Race as an issue came up in every show. The clip of Obama saying to a crowd that his opponents would try to scare the public by a variety of methods, including the fact that he doesn’t look like the other presidents that have been on a dollar bill, was played in about every show. Only on the ABC roundtable discussion, did Donna Brazille reveal, and I would assume that it is true because no one tried to refute her, that McCain, at least in some markets, had already run a TV ad which put Obama’s image on a $100 bill. That fact seems so relevant to this discussion that I’m surprised that not one of the mainstream reporters include that tidbit in their analysis of what Obama said. I’m surprised Obama didn’t include that fact in his statements, because that would have immediately put the discussion back in McCain’s camp. Nevertheless, McCain was able to dodge the race issue and point back at Obama, which did put him on the defensive on an issue that he should always be on the offensive. Obama has to eliminate these kind of mistakes or he could lose.

The “Bradley effect” was discussed, and everyone agreed that it was a factor. George Will said that the polls are missing the young voters and the high probability of a massive African American turnout, which could help produce a wide margin of victory for Obama not being reflected in the still close polls. Donna Brazille was the only pundit I heard that actually said that Obama has to talk about race, the, as she called it, “800 lb. gorilla in the room.” She did note that he has to talk about it gently and not accusatory. I agree with Brazille.

David Gergen was on the roundtable on the Stephanopolous show on ABC. In a discussion about VP picks, he actually said both what I have written more than once and am becoming more and more convinced of as time goes on, which is that Obama needs Hillary Clinton on the ticket. If Clinton will do it, he needs to pick her. Not one other pundit even mentioned it as a possibility, but Gergen, acknowledging that the conventional wisdom now has it that Clinton isn’t in the running for the VP, says that this CW needs to be revisited. He stated that Obama could use a fighter like Clinton to go and do Obama’s dirty work of taking on McCain, and allow Obama to stay above the fray and talk about issues. No doubt, we all learned that Clinton is indeed a fighter, and I agree, for a number of reasons, that Obama needs her. He needs to be pragmatic in this decision and not personal. While a lot of the pundits say that having Clinton as a running mate will undercut Obama’s theme of “change” and being a new voice in DC, I believe that Obama could simply say that Clinton, with a high probability of becoming the first female VP, along with an (at least part) African American president, is change just by virtue of being the first female VP. I think Obama needs to think about it carefully.

Finally, I said that I would revisit the FACE the Nation discussion. Bob Schieffer, who tries to come off as the totally objective, sweet, loving grandpa of the Sunday News Shows, seemed to lean strongly Republican today. Oh, he started out objective, having Robert Rubin, former Sec. of Treasury under Pres. Clinton, speaking on behalf of Obama. In response to him, Schieffer had Carly Fiorini, former CEO of HP, speaking on the economy on behalf of McCain. Fair enough. But then, for the last segment of the show, he had David Brooks on alone, and acted as if Brooks was some kind of objective voice. That couldn’t be further from the truth, and Brooks took advantage of it, spending his time basically smearing Obama, at the same time trying to come off as some kind of objective analyst. So, Schieffer gave the Republicans two bites at the apple in response to Obama’s representative, and gave the Obama campaign no rebuttal at all. Shame on you Shieffer.