Al-Maliki's Rhetoric

"It's now official: John Edwards is the new anti-Hillary. If you're not familiar with the term, 'the anti-Hillary' is the shorthand used by political junkies to describe the Democratic candidate who will inevitably emerge as the principal alternative to Hillary Clinton, whose money and star power make her the dominant force in Democratic presidential politics . . .

"His anti-Hillary bona fides were sealed on Saturday, when a Democratic National Committee (DNC) panel approved a plan to bookend the New Hampshire primary with contests in Nevada and South Carolina, creating a schedule that seems tailored to Edwards's strengths . . .

"More generally, Edwards has a unique message that takes advantage of two of Clinton's vulnerabilities. He has moved left on the war like Feingold, but he maintains an aura of general-election electability like Warner. And perhaps most importantly, he has the experience of running once before without the fatigue factor that sometimes hampers a repeat contender."

Sure, but has he ever lived in the White House?

Check it out: NYT Editor Admits Bias!

Namely, "a bias toward the rich and their shopping habits. And my answer is that while I do not think the paper, in its news section, is biased toward liberals, or biased in favor of (or against!) Israel, I do think, in cultural matters --- of which fashion and, more broadly, style, is one expression -- we are biased (in terms of space devoted to coverage, photography and so on) toward the rich. And the reason we are is that The Times, though not to my mind a simply liberal paper or a pro- or anti-Israeli paper, is an urbane, cosmopolitan paper edited from the world capital of urbanity and cosmopolitanism, Manhattan, which means we are biased in favor of change, possibility, mobility, individual liberty and going to bed late --- oh, and the rich, who are rather concentrated among us. So, philosophically, guilty as charged."--New York Times Magazine Editor Gerald Marzorati .

In light of my item yesterday on how blogger Patrick Hynes was praising John McCain without disclosing he was on the payroll of the senator's PAC, Kos has a good chuckle:

"Ha ha! Conservative blogger was a paid shill for John McCain and failed to disclose it. He was also one of the jokers who criticized me for working for Howard Dean in 2003 -- even though I DID disclose the arrangement."

Is game-show winner Ken Jennings an ungrateful clod? HuffPoster Joel Keller fact-checks Jennings's claim that he was just kidding around in a recent blog post:

"You wouldn't get that impression if you read about it at the Associated Press. '"Jeopardy" champ Ken Jennings blasts game show' was the headline that ran with the AP article, which went on to state that Jennings 'has a few unkind words to say about the show.' When I saw that, I went back to the blog entry, thinking I read it wrong. But I still didn't see a trace of bitterness or any sense that he was 'blasting' the show.

"But then one of my colleagues at TV Squad posted a note about an article by New York Post entertainmet writer Michael Starr which takes quotes from Jennings' blog entry out of context, then concludes that Jennings was biting the hand that fed him. It made me wonder from where exactly the AP had gotten their story.

"So I called the AP to find out. I spoke to Media Relations Manager Jack Stokes and asked if the reporter had read Jennings' blog entry in full. He told me he'd get back to me; within the hour, I got this response from entertainment editor Jesse Washington: 'While Jennings' comments are obviously meant to be humorous, his jokes had more than a little bite to them. We tried to reflect that in our story, although our choice of the word "blasts" in the headline was unfortunate. And we updated the story a few hours later with Jennings explanation of his posting.'

"Fair enough. But nothing in the original AP story indicated that the piece was humorous. For instance, when they mention his obviously tongue-in-cheek line about how Alex Trebek 'died in that fiery truck crash a few years back and was immediately replaced with the Trebektron 4000,' they presented it as if Jennings wrote it with deadly serious intentions."

Well, that's a relief that Alex Trebek isn't a robot.

I'm off for awhile. See you back here later on.