Andrew Sullivan, who I think may pay even more attention to the family von Palin than even Joe McGinniss, thinks readers should take the latest tabloid report on the rekindling of Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston’s romance “with a grain of salt…along with all other information about the Palin famille.”

As much as any public figure Democratic strategist James Carville can probably take credit for leading the charge against the Obama administration’s apparent lack of action in the first weeks of the BP oil spill. 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.”

Commence the BP criminal investigation! One suspects the Obama administration is hoping to redirect the nation’s anger of the Gulf oil spill where (they feel) it belongs: squarely on the BP exec whose, possibly criminal, behavior may have resulted in this catastrophe. Despite originally planning to hold off until the leak was capped, the Justice Dept has instead decided to launch a criminal investigation now. Says Mike Allen: “The administration divorced BP yesterday, going public with the criminal investigation earlier than planned.”

James O’Keefe is back. O’Keefe, who made a name for himself when he filmed ACORN workers and edited the footage to utterly damning results last year, returned this morning to Good Morning America accompanied by stalwart supporter (partner in crime?) Andrew Breitbart.

Fresh off of the nuclear arms treaty signing with Barack Obama , Russian President Dmitry Medvedev appeared on Good Morning America this morning, and told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that President Obama is “thinker” unlike “other people.” Lots of mutual respect between Medvedev and Obama gets revealed in this interesting clip, the transcript and video after the jump:

Professional provocateurs and political pundits Al Sharpton and Ann Coulter were invited on Geraldo At Large last night, to debate whether or not RNC Chair Michael Steele played the “race card” when he agreed with a question he received from George Stephanopoulos that he has a “slimmer margin” for error because, like President Obama, he is African-American. Coulter and Sharpton talking race politics? What could go wrong!

The best part of the GMA clip below may be the subject line of the ABC News alert email which contained it that just landed in my inbox: “Palin: Love or Hate Her, She’s Here to Stay.” No kidding. 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.

Will Washington survive this weekend’s health care vote? The news has been packed with stories this morning about the pressure the Dems are under to pull together enough Yes votes for this Sunday’s epic Health Care vote. Double that for Bart Stupak who is holding on to his No vote come hell or highwater. No Air Force One rides will sway him! Or will they?

Remember the other week when the political phrase du jour was “reconciliation” and Rachel Maddow spent not a little amount of time illustrating how the Republicans who were in an uproar over the “nuclear option” were actually total hypocrites who had had no problem implementing the procedure when it suited there aims? Well, looks like the shoe is currently on the other foot (color us shocked).

You remember Congressman Bart Stupak, he took a starring role in the health care debate back in November when he strong-armed his Stupak amendment into the House version of the Health Care bill. Well, he’s back. Big time.

George Stephanopoulos‘ political contacts paid off for ABC today. The network scooped everyone with news that former President Bill Clinton had been hospitalized with reported chest pains. ABC News broke into Oprah to report the news. Stephanopoulos reported that Clinton had been admitted to Columbia Presbyterian hospital and “that it is related to his heart and likely a stent procedure.” Video below.

NBC’s decision to put Jay Leno back in the 11:30 slot has revealed the worst side of media critics: taking for granted any successful or smart decision, while relishing the chance to boo every mistake. In any other world this sort of experimentation and admission of failure would be lauded. Instead the entertainment media has gleefully bared its gnashing teeth with “Zucked this up!” headlines. But if these guys are suddenly free to admit they’ve made bad decisions, which TV personalities should be most concerned?

Season’s greetings? Speaking on This Week With George Stephanopoulos this weekend, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman warned that there is still a “reasonably high chance” of a sharp economic contraction in 2010. As optimistic as the financial markets have been, Krugman said that he doesn’t see “where it’s supposed to come from,” and is especially worried about the second half of the year. Video after the jump:

After weeks of speculation, ABC has finally confirmed what everyone knew all along: George Stephanopoulos has been named host of Good Morning America, headline a series of moves that effectively reshuffles the ABC talent assignments. The other big news is that fan favorite Chris Cuomo will now host 20/20. Cuomo’s spot at GMA will now be filled by JuJu Chang. Full press release after the jump.

Did President Obama’s Sunday media blitz make a difference? It’s hard to tell, though the headlines would suggest that the takeaway thus far seems to be split between issues of race and Obama’s ability to manage the media. So what if anything did this uber media savvy President have to say about the press is spends so much of his time courting? Mostly that the media loves rude. And he said it a lot.

George Stephanopoulos responds to the Politico story which reported that he, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel, and former Clinton advisers Paul Begala and James Carville share a daily, morning conference call. And a quote from the original story, which if read closely doesn’t actually say the four are on the phone at the same time

ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos appeared last night on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor to talk about health care.

So that’s what they talked about – but the question is why is an ABC anchor going on a Fox News program? Maybe because nearly four million people watch it every night.

For the first time in more than 10 years, ABC’s This Week was the top-rated Sunday morning public affairs show last week in both total viewers and the A25-54 demographic.

Since David Gregory officially took over NBC’s Meet the Press in December, the race each week has tightened between NBC, ABC and CBS’ Face the Nation. We asked This Week‘s anchor George Stephanopoulos for his thoughts on the reason for the win, Bill Clinton’s return to the spotlight and more.