When Christine O’Donnell won the GOP nomination for the Delware Senate race, some senior and influential Republican personalities came out with remarkably critical rhetoric toward her candidacy. Some even called the contentious relationship between outside Tea Party candidates (like O’Donnell) and the Republican establishment as a “GOP Civil War.” Appearing on CNN’s American Morning today, O’Donnell sound a bit defiant in calling her loss a “symptom of Republican cannibalism.”

CNN’s ratings have been low all year – really going back to the end of the 2008 election. But this quarter, the network’s morning show, American Morning, reached an all-time low in both total viewers and the A25-54 demographic.

It wasn’t the only CNN program in that category either.

A few people have asked us why no one’s written about this jaw-droppingly awkward interaction between American Morning co-anchors John Roberts and Kiran Chetry last week.

After some searching, we found what they were talking about. Wednesday morning, right before Roberts was set to interview David Axelrod, he sternly reprimanded her for some off-screen distraction.

Shirley Sherrod is angry and justifiably so. However, while some recipients of her scorn might not be entirely deserving, you can’t begrudge her for having a beef with Andrew Breitbart. Today on CNN’s American Morning, John Roberts and Kiran Chetry pressed Sherrod as to what she thinks the appropriate payback would be. After a little prodding from the CNN team, Sherrod didn’t mince words; she’d like BigGovernment shut down.

CNN anchor John Roberts spent time with BP COO Doug Suttles, on a chopper tour and on the oil rig, giving viewers an inside look at the spill and clean-up.

While the discussion was cordial, Roberts put Suttles on the spot on his own turf regarding the lack of BP transparency and more.

Earlier today, CNN announced it is bringing HBO boxing analyst Max Kellerman on board as a regular contributor. According to CNN, “Kellerman will provide his passionate perspective and insightful commentary on news related to sports and pop cultural issues for CNN’s American Morning program (weekdays 6a-9a ET), and other CNN programs.”

CNN announced this morning the hiring of RedState.com editor Erick Erickson as a political contributor for their new 7pmET program, John King, USA. The addition of Erickson to the team fits in well with John King’s idea of the program as a political rundown of every part of the nation with a variety of opinions (Erickson will be located in Atlanta). Yet given that King’s predecessor, Lou Dobbs, felt that as an advocate journalist he was not a good fit for the future of the network, hiring someone to the right of Dobbs as a contributor for that time spot may send some mixed messages.

While CNN’s prime time line-up continues to struggle in the ratings, sometimes finishing in fifth place on cable news behind even CNBC, their day time hours are solidly in 2nd place across the board (way behind Fox News).

But how about the three-hour morning block, American Morning? Multiple stories yesterday brought up the idea of changes at the program, and while CNN wasn’t talking, maybe it’s time for a change.

19-year-old Sarah Killen has become America’s most beloved celebrity-for-no-reason since Levi Johnston and this time, the love isn’t ironic. Killen, whose life changed dramatically when a bored, unemployed Conan O’Brien decided to follow her on Twitter at random, has been making the internet media rounds since last Friday, and today she made the jump from the internet to national television, sitting down with CNN to try to explain why tens of thousands of people now want to be in the know about her life.

To commemorate the first anniversary of the signing on Obama’s stimulus bill, DNC chair and former Virginia governor Tim Kaine made more television appearances in one 24-hour cycle than it felt like he had during the entirety of his tenure before today. After waiting for so long, what did Kaine bring to the table at Fox and Friends, Morning Joe, and American Morning? The gameplan for victory Rachel Maddow gave him the night before.

CNN is not about opinions, they’re about news. So listen, NASA, there’s this movie out about the world coming to an end in 2012, and we know you’ve been out trying to debunk this possibility.

But we need facts, and T.J. Holmes guest anchoring American Morning is going to be our fact-finding vessel.

Now that Pres. Barack Obama got that Nobel Peace Prize victory out of the way, it was time to bomb the Moon. As predicted on Office Hours yesterday, the entire event, taking place this morning at 7:30amET, was mostly hype, at least in terms of usable video.

Still, every cable and broadcast news morning show took it live, with team reporting. Here’s a look at how each show dealt with the anti-climactic Moon bombing:

Often when The Daily Show goes after cable news, it looks at each of the big three – Fox News, CNN and MSNBC – and highlights a common theme to ridicule. That wasn’t the case last night, when Jon Stewart looked at why CNN might currently be “getting their asses handed to them by Fox News,” and now being edged by MSNBC in prime time.

Stewart’s conclusion – “slangtastic” new segments that don’t really work.