During a pre-debate appearance on MSNBC’s Hardball, host Chris Matthews pressed former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to explain where the President really stands on issues like Medicare reform, and bluntly asked, “Is President Obama a liberal?”

Gibbs took offense to Matthews’ suggestion that the President’s stances are unclear, calling Matthews’ accusations “crazy and unfounded,” and Matthews took offense right back.

With the time for Sarah Palin to put up or shut up drawing increasingly near, those in the business of studying what her impact on a Palin campaign could mean for the field are working hard to figure out where the battle lines will be drawn for the other candidates. On yesterday’s Hardball, host Michael Smerconish and the panel predicted good things could come for Mitt Romney if Palin triggers a battle for the Tea Party vote Romney has already largely alienated.

While the thousands of pages of email correspondence released this week from the years Sarah Palin was governor of Alaska have yet to provide any smoking guns, they certainly have their amusing moments, as Rachel Maddow explored last night. Among them, messages about controversial religious figures, some notes about rumors surrounding her family, and invitations to concerts that suggesting bringing “beef, tequila, and condoms.”

Washington, DC is often referred to as “Hollywood for ugly people,” but in recent years, the town has enjoyed one night of the year when it blossoms into a Hollywood swan: The White House Correspondents Dinner, aka “Nerdprom.” As the dinner’s profile has risen, so has the demand for tickets to see, and be seen, at an event that is ostensibly a celebration of DC’s least glamorous denizens. Even as this year’s Seth Meyers-headlined fete has had to compete with the Royal Wedding, the clamor to get in has reached an all-time zenith.

On Monday night, conservative media watchdog Newsbusters published a column denouncing Mother Jones’ David Corn for making what they called an “anti-Semitic remark,” and whacked Hardball host Chris Matthews for laughing at it. Corn responded with befuddlement at the charge, and by Tuesday evening, the original post had been deleted from Newsbusters. Much to his credit, [...]

Although it seems to have originated at right-wing media watchdog Newsbusters, an accusation of anti-Semitism against Mother Jones‘ David Corn and Hardball host Chris Matthews is rocketing around the conservative blogosphere like a coked-up Ricochet Rabbit. Corn, who is Jewish, stands accused of making an “anti-Semitic remark,” while Matthews “laughs hysterically.”

There ought to be a special word for falsely accusing a Jewish person of anti-Semitism. Maybe “anti-Semitism³?”

Today on Hardball, Chris Matthews further discussed Mike Huckabee’s “claptrap narrative” in a recent radio interview in which he talked about the Mau Maus and theorized how President Obama’s views on the British were affected by “growing up in Kenya” (a Huckabee spokesperson has since said he “misspoke”).

Chris Matthews today was furious with Republican Mike Huckabee for his comments regarding where President Obama grew up, regardless if Huckabee later corrected them. Liberal commentators David Corn and Joan Walsh joined Matthews and blamed Huckabee’s recent uncharacteristic behavior as a result of being “immersed in those trashy dirty waters” amongst right-wing Fox News Channel commentators.

Reaction to President Obama‘s Wednesday remarks on the situation in Libya was roundly negative, characterized by Chris Matthews and panel’s suggestion that the statement was “weak.”

Right-wing media watchdog Accuracy In Media took AIM at Countdown host Keith Olbermann Wednesday, tweeting that Olbermann “still has a hard-on for ‘teabaggers.’”

Olbermann took exception, noting the irony of AIM’s use of sexual slang to decry the once-popular term for the Tea Party, but AIM’s bigger problem is in accusing Olbermann of “twisting the poll numbers” to tie the Tea Party to violence, while twisting those same numbers, and my commentary, to illustrate their point.

On Monday night’s Countdown, host Keith Olbermann delivered a followup to the Special Comment he made in the wake of the mass shooting in Tucson. He covered a lot of ground regarding the nine days since the tragedy, but the segment was most notable for the fact that he singled out John McCain as the only political/media figure who had risen to his challenge to assume personal responsibility for their own rhetoric, and called out President Obama by name as one who hasn’t.

On Monday night’s Countdown, host Keith Olbermann cited a new Daily Kos/Public Policy Polling survey that showed that 13% of Tea Party voters think that violence against the current American government is justified, versus 6% of Republicans, and 5% of Democrats. He discussed the results with Mother Jones’ David Corn, and how they relate to the discussion on violent rhetoric in the wake of the mass shooting in Tucson.

Lawrence O’Donnell‘s Last Word dedicated a segment to understanding Sarah Palin and her “blood libel” claims in light of President Obama’s comments, and needless to say that O’Donnell and his panel– David Frum and Mother Jones’ David Corn– took a bit of an issue with it. But for Frum, her comments weren’t offensive– they were proof Palin was eroding– like a “big melting iceberg.”

At Tuesday’s White House briefing, Jon Stewart‘s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear,” along with President Obama’s appearance on The Daily Show,was a hot topic. Among Press Secretary Robert Gibbs‘ revelations were that, like Glenn Beck‘s  “Restoring Honor” rally, Gibbs had not discussed Stewart’s shindig with the President, the Daily Show appearance was booked long before the rally was conceived, and that the President would not be making an appearance at the rally.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell‘s remarkably honest confession to National Journal‘s Major Garrett that “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president” got kicked around at length during Tuesday’s White House briefing. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs‘ responses seemed designed to shame the opposition into post-midterm cooperation, but several reporters, myself included, wondered from whence this  hope sprang. The voters seem poised to reward McConnell’s party for two years of obstruction, so what is their incentive to do anything differently?

Chris Matthews is in awe of how much influence Rush Limbaugh has on the Republican Party. From Michael Steele to John Boehner, Matthews has been searching far and wide for a Republican who will disagree with the talk radio titan on anything from Barack Obama‘s monarchist tendencies to the claim that Times Square bomber Faisel Shahzad is a registered Democrat. He found one in former New York government George Pataki, but flanked by Media Matters President Eric Burns and David Corn of Mother Jones, he’s launching a campaign to drag them all out of the woodwork.

Mother Jones Washington Bureau Chief David Corn, who also writes a column for Politics Daily, is a well-known author and journalist who broke early news on the Valerie Plame affair, and provided memorable coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign. In the most action-packed Inside the White House Press Corps ever, Corn talks about covering the White House, his Twitter dominance, and tells us what he misses about the Bush White House, all while fending off chaotic distractions.

The Founding Bloggers? Or an Internet tea party? Take your pick. This morning news broke that a group of “politically diverse group of [high profile] bloggers” were so impressed with last week’s question and answer session between President Obama and the House Republicans that they have banded together to call on the president and the Congress to make it a regular thing.

It’s the end of the year, the time for handy lists and timelines recapping the touchstones of the past 12 months, freezing them in our ever-shortening collective memory.

Of course, some people just have to be different. Mediaite contributor and White House reporter Tommy Christopher pulls back the curtain on covering politics in 2009, and shares photos and videos that have never been seen before. Find out who the Secret Service did manage to keep out of the White House, what Joe Biden told his young mentorees, and much more.

The age of Twitter has spawned new rituals, among them the watchdogging of reaction to the death or illness of polarizing figures. Rush Limbaugh’s chest-pains scare from last night was no exception. We’ve got a sampling of each for you, including some very good behavior by the left’s most visible media figure:

AOL’s Daily Finance blog has signed a third ex-Portfolio staffer to join its Daily Finance team, further indicating that the Web 1.0 online giant is serious about expanding — and spending the money to do so.

Where other sites are being forced to cut back and do more with less, AOL seems to be merrily picking up name-brand talent in what is becoming a regular habit.

In today’s Washington Post, Howard Kurtz paints AOL’s Politics Daily as a fantastic wonderland of six-figure salaries, 5000-word articles, foreign correspondents who actually go overseas, and a distaste for the “hyperpartisan.” Sounds great, but can it turn a profit in an environment where traffic for articles like “Strippers Compete in Palin Look-alike Contest” is likely to dwarf Afghanistan coverage for the foreseeable future? If not, what is AOL trying to pull?

In a fascinating Washington Post column this week, TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington described how AOL is scooping up some of the best print reporters from short-sighted print publications. Is racking up writing talent part of Tim Armstrong’s vision for preparing the massive online entity for spin-off?

Yesterday we wondered about Robert Gibbs‘ statement that Twitter was blocked on White House computers: If it was, then how did the White House Twitter feed get updated? Well, mystery solved — thanks to White House Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton, who laid to rest some of the extrapolated conclusions drawn from Gibbs’ comment, notably that White House staffers were banned from Twitter (they’re not), that the same people are responsible for both @WhiteHouse and @BarackObama (they’re not) and that nobody tweets from the White House (they do!). It’s true, children: It’s coming from inside the house.