“How do you think things are going for your party?” Letterman queried.

“Well, you know, we’ve had better days,” McCain acknowledged, trying to change the subject.

“It seems like now everybody has gone wacky in the Republican Party and I just wondered, was it the influence of the Tea Party, or am I over-examining this?” Letterman asked. McCain thought he was over-examining things, and that the lengthy debate process was good for America.

“It’s good to see whether somebody’s a wacko or whether they’re not a wacko,” McCain quipped.

“No shortage there.” Letterman snarked, without missing a beat.

RELATED: Mitt Romney Uncomfortably Fidgets During John McCain’s Joke-laden Endorsement

Letterman asked the Arizona Senator about how, when he ran against him in 2008, McCain had said Romney would say anything to win

“It’s a tough business. You know, it is a collision sport,” McCain observed. “Ronald Reagan and Bush Senior had a very spirited primary andm afterwards, Ronald Reagan chose George Herbert Walker Bush as his running mate.”

Later in the interview, McCain criticized George Stephanopoulos for asking Romney a question about contraception.

“Why would George Stephanopoulos ask about contraception?” he asked incredulously.

“I would guess for him trouble at home.” Letterman riffed.

Watch a clip of the Letterman interview below:

Stephanopoulos taking over the show is somewhat significant, as he served as host from 2002 to 2010, before moving on to Good Morning America last year. In announcing his move back to This Week, ABC said that Stephanopoulos would stay on as host of GMA, but likely on just a four-day schedule.

This Week has lagged in the ratings this season, behind Face The Nation and Meet The Press. With Stephanopoulos returning, ABC hopes to give the ratings a boost, especially as the election in 2012 approaches.

Most of this entire scenario, it should be noted, was reported by the New York Post last Friday.

Oh snap! Stephanopoulos’s zinger cracked up the entire GMA crew. Even the typically unflappable Robin Roberts couldn’t contain herself.

Watch the ABC News anchor’s slap at Batali below:

Stephanopoulos earlier asked Maher about his comments that he would bet $1 million dollars that Herman Cain would not be president.

“Yes, I think I would bet a million dollars against Herman Cain,” Maher said. “Wouldn’t you take that bet? He’s not going to be the candidate…and I don’t really have that kind of money to lose on a bet either. But, I mean, this is a guy wearing a pimp hat through a scandal, a sex scandal. So, I feel like that pretty much sealed my thing. This is a guy who has a tax plan that we found out was written pretty much by his branch manager at Wells Fargo.”

Maher’s comment about the ‘rising of the apes’ rubbed the Media Research Center’s Tim Graham the wrong way. “Couldn’t that be seen as a bit racist toward Herman Cain?” Graham noted. “We’re used to Maher slamming religious folks in that way, but “apes”?”

In Maher’s defense, his joke seemed to be a cheeky all-encompassing jab dissing the other conservative contenders he previously mentioned in the segment i.e. Perry, Trump and Bachmann but you be the judge.

Watch Maher’s comments on Romney below via ABC:

(h/t RCP)

Stephanopoulos noted that was one of the standard questions that everyone prepares for in a debate. “You have a host of Republican operatives out overnight saying this is a death blow to your campaign,” Stephanopoulos observed.

“Well, the bottom line is we’re going to get up every day and go talk to the American people. and they know that there’s not a perfect candidate that’s been made yet and I’m kind of proof positive of it every day — that people make mistakes when they debate,” Perry answered. “People make mistakes when they make statements,” Perry explained. “If they’re looking for the best debater or the smoothest politician, I might not be it, but if they’re looking for someone that is a principled, fiscal conservative, they can count on me every day.”

Stephanopoulos’s next question cut to the quick of Perry’s biggest liability. “Did you fail to understand what kind of preparation it would take?”

“Absolutely, from the standpoint of presidency, it is a long slog and a hard slog,” Perry conceded. “But absolutely — we gave complete and absolute thought to that. but again, the perfect candidate’s never been created yet. and there’s going to be people that make mistakes. and i’ll make mine — share of ‘em.”

Watch Perry’s interview below via ABC:

Bennett had appeared on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell last night and mentioned the phone call from the mysterious “Sharon.” “I had contact with a woman named Sharon in Chicago the last five days. I don’t know if it’s the same Sharon because I never got her last name. The Sharon I had contact with left a voicemail in my office one night indicating she had been harassed by Herman Cain while he was with the National Restaurant Association,” Bennett said. “When I called her back the next day, she said she had decided not to pursue it further. I then called her again yesterday to advise her that she could give her information confidentially if she wanted to. She said she’d think about it and let me know. I have not heard from her since then. It may be the same woman who spoke out today.”

Stephanopoulos also asked Bialek why she had not said anything when the incident occurred.

“There’s a couple reasons,” she responded. “Number One, I was embarrassed as many women are in these kinds of situations, and I just wanted it to go away. Number Two, I wasn’t employed with the educational foundation of the National Restaurant Association so I didn’t believe at the time there was any recourse. The most thing that I did was discuss it with two close confidants so I could kind of get it of my chest.”

Watch the interview below via ABC:

Abrams concern is by the multitude of possible outcomes, and by the evidence the prosecution has left over. He reminded that Knox’s case has always been a difficult one to read, and that the Italian appeals system allows for a number of different endings. As he lays it out:

First of all, you’ve got the prosecuters asking for a stiffer sentence than the one she already got. They’re asking now for life in prison, they’re saying now that there is other evidence, in addition to the DNA. Remember, the supreme court, the highest court of Italy could still hear this case. Prosecuters could appeal, they could say we want her to stay in the country while we’re pending an appeal here. The appeals court they’re in front of now could reduce the sentence instead of saying simply we’re going to aqcuit her.

So perhaps, yes, she could be let home, but, “there are all sorts of options here beyond just simply saying she could be set free.”

Watch the full segment, courtesy of ABC:

“The White House is responding,” Carville said, speaking of the harsher tone Obama took during yesterday’s Rose Garden announcement. “I want to make changes. Yesterday was a change.”

As Carville sees it, the White House functions like any other organization: it needs to identify and directly address problems. “You can’t just have the year that they had,” he says, “and say we’re just going to keep doing things the same way that we did them. You’ve got to do things differently.”

Yesterday, he suggests, they changed the administration effectively made changes to their communication strategy. And in the near future, Carville hints, there might be more substantial changes made to their economic team as well. “I think he is going to need some new people, and from everything I hear, I think there is going to be some new people coming in,” he told Stephanpoulos.

Watch the clip from Good Morning America below:

Unconcerned by the current crop of candidates in-party bickering, he sounded hopeful that any one of them could bring a corrective “authenticity” into the White House. ”We’re going to have a rigorous primary on our side of the aisle and I think that’s what the American people are looking for,” he told George Stephanpoulos, promising he would not play “referee.” “I think we’re sort of done with the staged speeches, the pageantry, and the talking.”

And of Obama’s leadership, which he likened to a rotting fish head, he said:

“I don’t think the president has led, I think that he’s frustrated even his own base. You saw that in New York just two nights ago when even Democrats are saying ‘Look, we don’t like the direction that even Barack Obama is taking this country.’ And he’s going to have to answer to that.”

Watch the discussion from Good Morning America:

 

Stephanopoulos had questioned Rove over several controversial passages in Perry’s political tome “Fed Up!” where Perry had dubbed Social Security a “ponzi scheme”, comparing it to a “bad disease” that had been “imposed on us for 70 years” and how the campaign was addressing the potential fallout from voters.

Rove thought the campaign’s explanation for the statements in the book were “inadequate” and that Perry hadn’t written “Fed Up!” with a presidential campaign in mind. He added that while Perry had formidable political strengths, his comments about Social Security would be his “biggest challenge” to overcome.

This is yet another attack on Perry from Rove, who had previously criticized Perry over his comments on Fed Chair Ben Bernanke.

(H/T Think Progress)

“We’ve heard the same reports that you have, George,” he said, when asked to confirm rumor that 95 percent of Tirpoli was under rebel control. “I can’t confirm from on the ground, but I think it’s clear that the rebels are winning and that it’s only a matter of time now until Gadhafi has to step down, before Gadhafi looses the entire country,” he said, noting their control of various instutions, including Libyan state television. And when asked if the U.S. had any clues as to Gadhafi’s whereabouts, he said that they did not, but that it “almost doesn’t matter.”

What was most clear in Feltman’s message was a hopefulness for change in Libya after nearly six months of revolts. “The overwhelming vision that we are hearing from people across Libya, from civil society, from the government, from tribal leaders, is that they want a Libya that is modern, that is secular, that is unified — independent Libyans controlling Libya’s future in order to ensure that a moderate, secular Libya is the one that emerges from 42 years of Gaddafi’s tyranny.” Beyond hope, with information coming out of Libya scattered and often too quick to confirm, it’s still too soon to tell.

You know the scene….we would be tending bar (with razor sharp comedic timing); maybe Roger Ailes would show up each night as the curmudgeonly-yet-cuddly common sense guy alongside George Stephanopoulos or Rachel Maddow with their charmingly know-it-all selves. No question, the foppishly droll (or is it drolly foppish?) Piers Morgan would probably be a regular as well. We would have a good time while gathering stories for the site, and perhaps even learning a little about ourselves. And there would be a laugh track.

Alas, while all those people probably went there, we didn’t see them and The Lion never became the Mediaite version of the Algonquin round table (which is a shame because I do a stunning Dorothy Parker impersonation.) We did all get to go out to dinner there on Dan’s dime one time, which was pretty remarkable given how hard it often is to get Dan to spend money.

Regardless, any entree to having him pay for our entrees (and not pizza in our conference room) is welcomed. So when we read that the “team behind the Lion” was set to open a new place on the Upper East Side we thought, maybe this will be the place! We even suggested that Dan take his hard working staff out again to celebrate our ridiculously amazing traffic after just two years at his brand new joint!

When we brought it up last week, we were surprised to learn that it was yet another dream dashed, but this time for a different reason: Dan casually responded that he and other co-owner Dave were not actually involved in this new establishment called Crown. Huh? Wait, aren’t Dave and Dan the key players in the “team behind The Lion”? And so isn’t it pretty newsworthy (in our tiny micro media world), that this “team” is going uptown without them?

While Dan didn’t seem to think so, we kind of do. After all, haven’t we read about some conflict between the “D’s” and some non-media, non-fabulous investors? 

So rather than have some other entity scoop us on “news” connected to our founder, we insisted on some answers from Dan (and politely requested them from Dave) and received the following responses:

From Dan: “I am very proud of the enormous success we continue to have at The Lion and am confident it will thrive for years to come. Dave and I are pursuing another exciting restaurant project downtown and you will be the first to know if and when I have an announcement to make. Now get back to work.”

From Dave: ” I have nothing but admiration for John DeLucie and our other partners, and I look forward to sharing our successes”

Blah blah blah. Bottom line, Dan and Dave are probably starting their own restaurant thing downtown, while Crown will try to cater to an Upper East Side crowd. Great so this time around will the BFF’s create a media place for us to eat and drink too much and where “everyone knows our name?” We aren’t counting on it.

(Photo Via)

Sadly, the whole back-and-forth is likely to alternately reinforce pre-existing notions about Bachmann, and the mainstream media that many feel are biased or out to get conservative candidates. However, let’s look at the facts and see what we can determine on our own.

When Bachmann initially made the comment about our country being founded on diversity, she was largely ridiculed by many for what seemed like, at best, her rounding of pretty big historical corners in making a larger rhetorical point about what she feels makes this country great. But did she actually say that our Founding Fathers worked to end slavery. Not exactly — she used different, looser language like “forbearers” and “the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States.” So while she literally did not say “founding fathers worked to end slavery,” it’s not at all unfair to interpret her comments as such, which earned her a healthy dose of criticism. (Watch the portion of her original speech in which she addresses this issue here.)

Stephanopoulos appears to take some restrained glee in his blog post titled “John Quincy Adams a Founding Father? Michele Bachmann Says Yes.” It is true that John Quincy Adams is not a Founding Father, but a smart follow-up question might be, does the average voter know the difference or even care? The answer is probably not, so to hold Bachmann’s feet to the fire over confusing John Quincy Adams with the Founding Fathers, one of whom was his father, John Adams, the second president of the United States, is certain to be viewed as her supporters as overkill. For everyone else, it’s just another Bachmann gaffe for the pile.

Watch the clip below, courtesy of ABC News (transcript of which follows the clip):

Transcript below (via):

Stephanopoulos: Sarah Palin in Iowa, President Obama in Iowa, one step ahead of them – Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. She made it official in Iowa yesterday. This morning she is in New Hampshire. Thanks for joining us congresswoman.

Bachmann: Thank you George, it is great to be with you this morning.

Stephanopoulos: In your announcement you said ‘my voice is part of a movement to take back our country.’ From whom?

Bachmann: Well, from the people all across the nation. The voice that I learned growing up in Iowa was a very reasonable common sense voice and that is one that I’ve learned, that I’ve taken to – very successfully to the halls of Congress. And now I want to take that to the White House so that we can get the country back on the right track and get job creation going. That’s the message that’s resonating with people and that’s why so many people have been going to my new website that we launched, michelebachmann.com. They are joining up on Facebook and Twitter. It’s really a growing movement, we’re in New Hampshire today and we’re on our way down to South Carolina to start our bus tour so we are very excited with the response from people all across the country.

Stephanopoulos: You have been making a lot of progress, also getting a lot of scrutiny. I am not going to get too deep into the “flake” flap from Sunday. But as you make progress in this campaign everything you say is going to get more scrutiny. And the Pulitzer Prize winning website, Politifact, has found that you have the worst record of making false statements of any of the leading contenders. And I wondered if you wanted to take a chance to clear up some of your past statements. For example earlier this year you said that the Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence worked tirelessly to end slavery. Now with respect Congresswoman, that’s just not true. Many of them including Jefferson and Washington were actually slave holders and slavery didn’t end until the Civil War.

Bachmann: Well you know what’s marvelous is that in this country and under our constitution, we have the ability when we recognize that something is wrong to change it. And that’s what we did in our country. We changed it. We no longer have slavery. That’s a good thing. And what our Constitution has done for our nation is to give us the basis of freedom unparalleled in the rest of the world.

Stephanopoulos: I agree with that…

Bachmann: That’s what people want…they realize our government is taking away our freedom.

Stephanopoulos: But that’s not what you said. You said that the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery.

Bachmann: Well if you look at one of our Founding Fathers, John Quincy Adams, that’s absolutely true. He was a very young boy when he was with his father serving essentially as his father’s secretary. He tirelessly worked throughout his life to make sure that we did in fact one day eradicate slavery….

Stephanopoulos: He wasn’t one of the Founding Fathers – he was a president, he was a Secretary of State, he was a member of Congress, you’re right he did work to end slavery decades later. But so you are standing by this comment that the Founding Fathers worked tirelessly to end slavery?

Bachmann: Well, John Quincy Adams most certainly was a part of the Revolutionary War era. He was a young boy but he was actively involved.

Stephanopoulos: Well let me move on to another one of your statements on the issue of jobs which is so central to this campaign. You said back in 2005 that taking away the minimum wage could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment. Where is the evidence for that?

Bachmann: You know I think what we need to do is, again George, focus on job creation. I’m a former federal tax litigation attorney. I worked for years in the federal tax court system and watched how devastating high taxes are on business and individuals and farmers. And I’m also a job creator. My husband and I started from scratch a successful small business. That’s really the focus that I’m hearing today in New Hampshire. People are very upset that the president has us at 9.1 percent unemployment. That is not acceptable. He promised us that we wouldn’t see unemployment go above 8 percent. We’ve lost millions of jobs, people are suffering, they are hurting and I feel their pain and I want to make sure that what we do going forward is actually to address this and turn the economy around and get it on the right track because that’s really what people care about – that’s what they’re talking to me about all across the country.

Stephanopoulos: I think that’s what everyone wants to get this unemployment down but do you still believe that eliminating the minimum wage could virtually eliminate unemployment?

Bachmann: I think what we need to do is bring economists together, people who have been in this field to let us know what are the job killing regulations that could help us in turn put the economy on the right track. And so I think we need to across the board look at all of the regulations of various departments and do that. Unfortunately under President Obama we’ve seen a tremendous expansion of even more government regulations, that’s lead to even fewer jobs being created. So there’s several tactics we need to look at, one is the tax code, another is the regulatory burden that adds approximately 1.7 trillion of burden on job creators. If we could lift that then I think we’d see more people get higher wages, better benefits and more jobs because what we want is more job growth in America rather than to see jobs transferring overseas.

Stephanopoulos: Let me try one more time, so you are saying that the minimum wage is one of those regulations you’d take a look at, you’d try to eliminate it?

Bachmann: Well what I’m saying is that I think we need to look at all regulations, whatever–whatever ones are inhibiting job growth that’s what we need to –

Stephanopoulos: And the minimum wage is one of them?

Bachmann: All regulations George. I think every department. We have just too much expansion of government and so what we need to do is tamp that down so that the American people can keep more of what they make.

Stephanopoulos: Just a couple more questions. Do you think that Sarah Palin is trying to rain on your parade by coming to Iowa today?

Bachmann: You know I think that it’s wonderful that the governor is coming to Iowa. I think that they’ll enjoy her, she’ll certainly enjoy them. People in Iowa are just such wonderful transparent people and it’s their values and their character and their morals that they poured into me when I was growing up there as a little girl. That’s the voice that I want to take to the White House because that’s a voice that has been missing for a long time. We need that kind of common sense again and that – that happy, fiery optimism and I’m looking forward to taking that to the White House.

Stephanopoulos: Finally one—one final question. I think one of the most impressive things that people find in your background is the fact that you and your husband have helped raise 23 foster children and I know you want to shield them but are they prepared and are you prepared for the loss of privacy that comes with the president campaign? And is that something you are concerned about for them?

Bachmann: Well when we were making this momentous decision we sat down for a long time as a family and contemplated what this was meaning and yes, we are ready. We have five wonderful biological children. Our last one is off to college our oldest one is a doctor. And then we had great – a great 23 foster children in our home as well. And as you can imagine and appreciate we’ve tried to keep a good handle on their privacy and we will do that, we will respect their privacy. We are thankful that we had them but we also want to observe their privacy and that of their families.

Stephanopoulos: Okay Congresswoman thanks so much for joining us again this morning.

Bachmann: Good morning, thank you.

One of the biggest pieces of evidence the Prosecution has is search history on Anthony’s computer for terms like “how to make chloroform.” These would seem to prove that the death of Caylee Anthony was pre-meditated. However, yesterday, Cindy testified that she now remembered that the search results were hers, something she hadn’t said when the case started a few years ago. Both Abrams and Grace were dubious of these claims, pointing out that no one’s memory gets better after three years. Grace in particular was outspoken, saying that the elder Anthony woman seemed to be just a mother doing anything possible to save her daughter from lethal injection and that the Defense may have put her at risk for perjury charges.

However, the segment didn’t go completely smoothly as Abrams and Grace disagreed on how the Prosecution should have handled Anthony after her testimony. Abrams felt the attorney had been too hard on her and had risked making her seem sympathetic to the jury.

Watch the clip from ABC below:

George Anthony had been brought back to the stand and had received a very antagonistic line of questioning from Casey Anthony’s attorney, Jose Baez. Grace even pointed out that she “thought they would come to blows.” Abrams pointed out the reasoning and risk of this strategy:

“The defense has claimed [George Anthony] is a child molester who may have disposed of the body here. So, it’s not surprising then that the defense attorney would treat him with some degree of disdain. The problem is, you’ve got to be careful not to get the juror’s disliking the attorney. So, it’s a fine line, but I do think that, if you take this defense seriously, that Jose Baez has to be aggressive. Very aggressive. And maybe even disdainful.”

Watch the full clip from ABC in which they also talk about the emotion Casey Anthony is displaying during the trial below:

These days the Today Show has alternated primarily between two male substitute hosts: Morning Joe’s Willie Geist and CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla. So what happened to Gregory? In 2008, Gregory was given the prestigious job hosting the Sunday political powerhouse Meet The Press. No small job to fill Tim Russert‘s shoes at the number one weekend political program. But a New York Times piece covering his move made it clear the Today Show was still part of the deal and part of Gregory’s future. Bill Carter wrote: “Under his new contract, he will continue to have a presence on “Today,” serving as the regular substitute host for Matt Lauer.” The Today Show clearly intended to have Gregory move from Meet The Press to the Today Show ala George Stephanopoulos if Lauer ever left.

With speculation now rampant that Lauer might actually pack his bags at the end of his contract, insiders are speculating publicly about Geist. Quintanilla, Lester Holt, Al Roker even ABC‘s Chris Cuomo but very little mention of Gregory. While Gregory has been thrown the occasional fill-in bone as of late, he has been far from a regular host on the show, the way he once was.

Did Jeff Zucker‘s departure shift Gregory’s star trajectory? We contacted NBC for comment and a spokesperson told Mediaite “Matt Lauer is under contract and has a long time left at the TODAY show. We prefer not to comment on speculation.” That’s probably true, but that doesn’t mean that the media soothsayers haven’t noticed the shifting narrative of what “insiders” have been speculating. One has to wonder if that is a source of frustration for the multi-talented Gregory. Stay tuned.

Boehner declared that “the EPA is out of control” and that he refuses to allow taxpayer money to fund electable abortions. And in any case anyone had doubts, he wanted to make clear that “there’s no daylight between the Tea Party and me.” Eventually there will be a deal according to Boehner, but until then, if a shutdown does take place Boehner forcefully stated that members of Congress “shouldn’t be getting paid, just like federal employees shouldn’t be paid.”

Watch the clip from ABC below:

Watch the exchange here, from ABC:

In the meantime, here’s what President Obama told George Stephanopoulos yesterday regarding Pastor Jones’ determination to burn a bunch of Koran’s on Sept 11.

If he’s listening, I just hope he understands that what he’s proposing to do is completely contrary to our values of Americans. That this country has been built on the notions of religious freedom and religious tolerance. And as a very practical matter, as commander of chief of the Armed Forces of the United States I just want him to understand that this stunt that he is talking about pulling could greatly endanger our young men and women in uniform who are in Iraq, who are in Afghanistan. We’re already seeing protests against Americans just by the mere threat… this is a recruitment bonanza for Al Qaeda. You know, you could have serious violence in places like Pakistan or Afghanistan. This could increase the recruitment of individuals who’d be willing to blow themselves up in American cities, or European cities. You know and so you know, I just hope that, he says he’s … he’s someone who s motivated by his faith.

Stephanopoulos also asked Obama whether it was frustrating to have to deal with this nonsense (my word, not his): “He’s a pastor who’s got 30 followers in his church. Does it make you feel helpless or angry?”

What Obama might have said here, with good reason, is he wouldn’t have to deal with the “fallout” if the media didn’t insist on using some nutjob pastor in Florida as hyperbolic filler to gin up reader and viewer response. However, what he actually said was, essentially, that this is the price we pay for freedom of speech.

It, well it is frustrating. Now, on the other hand, we are a government of laws. And so, we have to abide by those laws. And my understanding is that he can be cited for public burning. But that’s the extent of the laws that we have available to us. You know, part of this country’s history is people doing destructive or offensive or harmful things. And yet, we still have to make sure that we’re following the laws. And that’s part of what I love about this country.

Update: Added video below.

Lamo is a former computer hacker who is most famous for hacking into the internal computer system of (coincidentally enough) the New York Times. He had had numerous articles written about him and had reached a certain level of fame which led Manning to contact him. After Manning admitted the materials he had leaked to Lamo, the hacker decided to turn him in, a decision he has called “agonizing.” While speaking to Stephanopoulos, Lamo decried the actions of WikiLeaks as “tremendously irresponsible.”

From ABC News:

“Lamo echoed the Obama administration’s claims that the leaked information could harm national security and put lives at risk.

‘It has harmed what is most important to our intelligence community and that is our ability to trust the people we put out there to do critical and sensitive jobs,’ Lamo told me.

‘It’s almost inconceivable to me that this could not result in harm to both security and actual real life people because it is easy to hear ‘national security’ and think that it is a…buzz word but at the end of the day it is about people,’ Lamo said.”

Schmitt pointed out that his newspaper had been praised by the White House for their care in redacting parts of the leaked information that might have been dangerous to our armed forces in the published articles as well as letting the government know ahead of time what they had. He also remarked that they had persuaded WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange to be similarly careful and to hold some of the material. Still though, many will question the paper’s decision in the coming days.

Watch the GMA interviews below, but first vote in our poll: Did the NY Times make the right decisions?

Alas, the burden of unreasonable expectations about the head-to-head seemed to extinguish the flames of passion, as both Breitbart and Boehlert were not only on their best behavior, but sadly, were also kind of..well, boring. Mediaite was able to speak to both gentleman shortly after the taping, and both agreed that the meeting was not only respectful, but verged on convivial.

While heading to JFK to catch a flight back to his home base of operations in Los Angeles, Brietbart explained that the reason behind his low energy was due to lack of rest from the Shirley Sherrod story. “I honestly had not slept in 40 hours. So when I entered the studio i was in a dream-like state that seemed more surreal the moment I saw Eric Boehlert.” So – how was the first meeting of his mortal rival? Breitbart explains “he stuck out his hand, smiled and said ‘Mr. Breitbart!’ I answered ‘this was inevitable’ and then we taped the piece.” Before a dropped call abruptly ended the cell phone interview, Breitbart did offer one bon mot, claiming “Eric Boehlert’s beard is just as dreamy in person as it is in his Twitter avatar!”

Eric Boehlert concurred that the meeting was completely congenial, telling Mediaite that he wasn’t really expecting any sort of showdown, but he did get a polite shot in against his online foe. “Just because I think he’s pathological and a cancer on our nation’s politics doesn’t mean that I can’t sit at the same table with him and be civil.”

The interview, led by George Stephanopoulos, superficially covered the nuts and bolts of the Shirley Sherrod controversy with predictable sorties, obfuscations and parries by both Boehlert and Breitbart. Both individuals are acutely skilled in media messaging, and neither strayed from their own talking points – which made for an exchange that was more minuet than mosh pit.

Of course there is also great irony that a segment so focused on race relations in America is being held by three white gentlemen.

The report in question comes from US Magazine and says, among other things, that “now that Mama Palin is out of the picture and Bristol is on her own in Anchorage, they spend more time together than most people think.”

Fortunately for everyone involved Good Morning America did the dirty work and revealed in a “exclusive” that the two are working together as “as co-parents”: “Levi and I are turning a new page here as co-parents to this wonderful boy and putting aside the past because doing so is in Tripp’s best interest.” Which I happen to think is a much nicer, more encouraging story than rekindled romance. One that also happens to demonstrates a level of adult behavior one does not necessarily associate with political family debacles. Not that anyone touches on that aspect of it. Watch the “exclusive” below….you have to wonder if at times like these George Stephanopoulos doesn’t wish himself back on This Week.

Carville told GMA‘s George Stephanopoulos this morning that he thinks Obama’s address from the Oval Office tomorrow night (his first) is a chance for him to “hit the reset button.”

I think people are very anxious, they want to hear what the President has to say. I think he’s going to have a lot of eyes glued to the television set tomorrow night.

Carville says Obama needs to disclose an accurate estimate of how much oil is spilling, what the strategy is to clean it up, and how he plans to protect and save the wetlands “if this president seizes this initiative…that’s going to be a big part of his legacy.”

Perhaps surprisingly, Carville wants the moratorium on off-shore drilling to be lifted as quickly as possible:

“The moratorium is wrecking the economy down here…you take fishing and you take petroleum away down here and you don’t have a whole lot left.”

It goes without saying, that Carville thinks more “stringent regulations” should go hand-in-hand with a return to drilling but “properly regulated and properly done…it can be done much much better.” Watch below.

The focus of the investigation will be two-fold. One is finding out whether the company was criminally negligent and did not take the necessary precautions to protect the environment. Second, did they make false statements to regulators, something CBS reports, some senators already have accused BP of doing to to win approval for the rig. The latter will likely receive increased attention from both the media and the White House, in so far as if Justice can prove false statements were made it will give backing to the administration’s claim they were mislead early on by BP.

Meanwhile, Politico points out that BP is “under no obligation to keep quiet.” Meaning we could see dueling press conferences in the next few weeks as both sides struggle to ‘win’ the narrative. One suspects that as much of a bruising as President Obama is taking over this the country is still likely to side with him over BP. And last night George Stephanopoulos reported that despite AG Holder’s refusal to name names, as it were, “it’s pretty clear they have BP in their sites.” Watch below.

O’Keefe’s new target is apparently the Census Bureau, thought honestly if he wanted to put himself to any real use one suspects he should direct his ‘guerrilla’ talents toward the BP workers that are reportedly limiting access to the spill site.

This morning, O’Keefe conceded to George Stephanopoulos that he had committed a crime — “a misdemeanor” — during his foray into Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office earlier this year, though he also says he would do it again, if “differently.” He also noted that he is all about “speaking truth to power” and along with Breitbart pushed back against claims that he is a racist…according to Breitbart that was a Max Blumenthal “hit piece.” In fact, O’Keefe entire reason for being is to combat the sort of journalism propagated by the folks at Salon. Furthermore, O’keefe is “creating a movement of investigative journalists across the country.”

Watch the full interview below. Hopefully members of this ‘movement’ are heading to Louisiana as we speak.

Stephanopoulos: What do you make of Barack Obama the man?

Medvedev: Hes a very comfortable partner. its very interesting to be with him. the most important thing that distinguishes him from many other people. I won’t name anyone by name. He’s a thinker he thinks when he speaks.

Stephanopoulos: (laughing) You had someone in your mind I think

Medvedev: Obviously I do have someone in my mind I don’t want to offend anyone. He’s eager to listen to his partner, which is a pretty good quality for a politician.

To sum up Ann Coulter’s take: She love Michael Steele so much, and claims that the reason he’s being attacked by so many things is because he’s effective. In Coulter’s esteem “he’s attacked for the same reason Rush Limbaugh is, Sarah Palin is, I am, it’s because he is so great. He is is being held to a different standard by Democrats because they are trying to trick republicans into dumping the black head of the RNC who is doing a magnificent job.”

To sum up Al Sharpton’s take: He doesn’t see Steele being held to a different standard by Republicans or Americans because he’s black. He did not like Steele saying that Obama is being held to a different standard either. But, Sharpton added that “it is a social reality that you have a slimmer margin of error.”

Actually, the point of the article appears to be that no matter what ridiculousness Sarah Palin injects into the world, the world continues to eat it up (i.e. that it’s possible to repeal the Health Care bill…it’s not). To the possible detriment of the Republican party (unless, apparently you are John McCain). At least that’s what David Frum (he of last week’s ‘Waterloo’) told George Stephanopoulos this morning.

“I think a lot of Republicans have been a lot more focused on regaining the House and Senate than they were focused on saving the country from the worst consequences of this bill, and you see this now with this talk of repeal,” Frum said on “Good Morning America” today. “Repeal is literally impossible.”

As for Palin’s popularity ratings, Frum thinks it’s “‘it’s not helpful’ to have Palin as the face of the Republican party.”

Nevertheless, she’s here to stay…in case you were suffering any doubts. Video below.

Last night Stupak told Campbell Brown that his life was “a living hell” as a result of his no vote (also, probably in no small part to Rachel Maddow), and that he has to ‘unplug all his phones at night,” but that he also had no intention of making a deal. (Video below). However this morning Stupak talked to George Stephanopoulos who appeared to see a tiny glimmer of light and speculated Stupak may be ready to deal: “That was my impression after interviewing him on GMA this morning. Yes, he said, “I’m still a no.” But he also confirmed that there are lots of discussions going on to see if his group of anti-abortion Democrats to vote yes.”

Which causes one to wonder whether Sunday’s entire health care vote, something many people have suggested President Obama’s entire presidency is hanging on, may actually come down to abortion rights, after all. Oh to be a fly on the wall of the of this Saturday night’s backroom dealing. Video of Stupak’s GMA interview below.