The Minnesotan billboard caper plot thickens. It took a few weeks of anonymity to discover the culprit’s of last month’s mystery, where a jovial George W. Bush waved at commuters on Interstate 35 with a caption asking “Miss Me Yet?” This time around, however, it isn’t so much of a joke as a direct conservative message: “Remember Real Hope and Change?” it asks, with a picture of Ronald Reagan in a cowboy hat.

On Wednesday night’s Countdown, Keith Olbermann called out several conservative blogs for responding to his Special Comment about the Tea Party’s lack of diversity (without addressing similar charges leveled at his own network). One of the blogs he called out was Hot Air, so I thought I would give Ed Morrissey the chance to respond to Olbermann.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked the burning question “Is Keith Olbermann Losing it?” While I was concerned more with the Countdown host’s loosening perspective, several media critics have since wondered if the show’s ratings portend its imminent demise. As the LA Times’ Andrew Malcolm puts it, are we counting down the last days of Countdown? More importantly, can Countdown be saved? Yup and here’s how.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is is upset that, for the second time, the President mentioned Las Vegas as a place not to blow your money if you can’t afford it. Oddly, the President has a seemingly unlikely defender in the person of Ed Morrissey, one of the most influential conservative bloggers in existence. Are the President’s pleas for bipartisanship breaking through?

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.

President Obama has a lot to talk about during his State of the Union address last night. Perhaps most notably he didn’t get around to talking about health care until more than 30 minutes into the address. Also, he didn’t get heckled this time around…technically speaking. Here’s a look at some of the reactions from across the board.

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.

Newspapers are dying, magazines are dying: this is the story of 2009 where the media is concerned. However, the future of media, such as it is, does not look quite so dim. Or dim at all, really. Obviously, the brave new media world that we are slowly moving into (some at a quicker pace than others!) will look entirely different in twelve months’ time, likely in large part due to the efforts of the folks we listed on our online editors of the year poll. So who gets the final nod? Our picks below: feel free to add yours in the comments section.

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:

If 2009 was a tough year for magazines and newspapers — and boy, was it ever — it was a bang-up year for the editors of the blogs listed here. Now we are asking you, our loyal, smart, and attractive readers to share your thoughts on who had the biggest year in the Online Editor category:

George Stephanopoulos‘ move to Good Morning America has left open the plum assignment of Sunday morning talk-show host. The This Week gig is not just a big break for the eventual host, but a real opportunity for ABC News to break NBC’s ratings stranglehold on Sunday mornings.

On a very short list of rumored Stephanopoulos replacements sits ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper.

On Monday night’s “Countdown,” Keith Olbermann granted the Worst Persons gold to a quartet of conservative figures for jumping the gun when tweeting about White House visitors on Friday. Mediaite has exclusive reactions from three of them: Amanda Carpenter, Mary Katherine Ham, and Ed Morrissey. Why? Mostly because we can.