video Who told Joe Biden he'd be performing at the Chucklehut tonight? It's been awhile since the VP notorious for misspeaks and off-color jokes was allowed to go off-book, and tonight he got a whole 13 minutes on stage at the annual Radio & Television Correspondent's Dinner to hang himself by. And boy did he use every second of it. Cue the music! (more...)

America's reign as a world power is coming to an end, soon. This the latest from Newsweek, where Newsweek Poland correspondent Andrew Nagorski is warning that the collapse of the United States is imminent. "It's harder now to shrug off the America-in-decline theories than ever before," he notes, citing such rock-hard evidence as the fact that New York Times columnists are mopey, Greece is close to bankruptcy, and "there's even something in the air." Hope your passport is ready! (more...)

Thanks to a badly timed 'settlement' announcement during Vice President Joe Biden's recent trip, followed by a strongly worded admonition from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Israel is firmly back in the headlines (alongside, the 'demon pass'). (more...)

MSNBC host Chris Matthews is going on the road - traveling to Jerusalem to interview Vice President Joe Biden during his trip to the region. It's an interesting decision for the Hardball host, moving away from the Washington D.C. confines and getting a chance to conduct a truly news-making, exclusive interview. (more...)

It took a few decades, but Amtrak has finally given Vice President Joe Biden the opportunity to be the company's semi-official mascot. Biden, famous for having taken Amtrak to work as senator “over 7000 times” from Delaware to Washington, has penned a piece in the January/February issue of the Amtrak-owned Arrive Magazine about his love for the travel medium and its importance in the American economy. The reasoning that Biden the private citizen has a right to his opinion is valid, especially when he is praising something his government has a stake in. But there is something improper about the Vice President of the United States writing a commercial for a government-owned company, especially in the context of the General Motors bailouts that brought many to accuse the Obama administration of corporate micromanaging. (more...)

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Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown and his daughter Ayla may be the most masterful self-promoters in America this side of Snooki and The Situation. In a move perfectly in sync with the happy-go-lucky everyman character he created for himself on the campaign trail, Brown had proposed to President Barack Obama in his victory speech that he could defeat him in a two-on-two basketball game with college basketball star Ayla on his side. Now, Politico reports the Brown family is claiming they are "serious" about the challenge, and have found a good reason to stage the event: helping out the victims of the earthquake in Haiti earlier this month. (more...)

video Cable news was all atwitter with the back and forth between Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Dick Cheney yesterday, and Fox News' Geraldo At Large was no exception. However, guest Ann Coulter's unique take on the sitting vice president was rather remarkable."It almost is kind of effective to send out this drunken Irishman to respond to Dick Cheney. It's like sending out the White House dog." Woof. (more...)

Its the battle of Vice Presidents, past versus present, and NBC's Meet the Press vs. ABC's This Week. Vice President Joe Biden was a guest on MTP this morning, and fired the first salvos towards former Vice President Dick Cheney, who has been a vocal critic of the Obama administration, particularly with regards the handling of the Christmas Day Bomber and the trying of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Biden said "Dick Cheney's a fine fellow. He's entitled to his own opinion. He's not entitled to rewrite history." We can expect Cheney's response, and perhaps further attacks, during his appearance this morning on ABC's This Week. (more...)

video John Stossel has really embraced the Fox culture since moving from ABC News onto Fox Business. So far, we've seen him join Bill O'Reilly's War on Christmas bandwagon, adopt a Glenn Beck-esque "green phone" (for Al Gore, of course), and drive around the News Corp building in a government-subsidized golf cart, visiting his buddies' programs on Fox News when he's not on Fox Business to tell them all the immoral free stuff they can get from the government, and why they shouldn't. The golf cart made another appearance last night on The O'Reilly Factor, but rather than being a simple goofy representation of the perils of over-sized government, it represented something much more sinister. (more...)

video Recently elected Sen. Scott Brown was sworn in today by Vice President Joe Biden, giving Massachusetts a brand new senator. Microphones caught post-oath chit-chat between the two politicians in which Biden was heard to say "I want to talk to you about your kids." Brown made a bit of a stir during his victory speech a couple weeks ago when he notoriously pointed out to a national television audience that his "daughters were available." (more...)

Now that the dust has settled over the initial and headline-making revelations of the new campaign book Game Change, a number of people are beginning to question how authors John Heilemann and Mark Halperin managed to get all the juicy quotes they included in the book. Halperin described the process to Time managing editor Rick Stengel: (more...)

Who says no one is reading books anymore! Washington is still reeling today from revelations made in the uber-gossipy yet-to-be-released Game Change penned by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann. A copy of the book, which was technically under embargo until today, was discovered by the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder in a D.C. bookstore who shortly thereafter began posting the "juiciest bits" which shortly thereafter made international headlines. Not to be outdone the NYT apparently shortly thereafter got their hands on a copy and whipped up an embargo breaking review that called it "a spicy smorgasbord of observations, revelations and allegations — some that are based on impressive legwork and access, some that simply crystallize rumors and whispers from the campaign trail." It's true! Thus far the headlines sound like D.C.'s version of the behind the high school gymnasium gossip mill. And who could resist that. (more...)

video Past is prologue? Just in time for the 2010 mid-term election bonanza comes the much-anticipated Game Change, by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. So anticipated in fact that what is billed as a "sweeping, novelistic portrait of this historic and unusual race" is under embargo until Monday. Ahead of the release the two are being interviewed on 60 Minutes this Sunday along with John McCain's former top campaign strategist Steve Schmidt. Additionally, Drudge has devoted a entire box to it, including what yesterday looked like an excerpt, but which appears to have since been removed. (more...)

I started out this year wondering if the white-hot intensity of the 2008 campaign could be even partially sustained, a daunting question for a $10-a-post blogger trying to hustle his way into a career in journalism. I'm ending it as a White House reporter and political correspondent for two national online publications, well on my way to going from Pinocchio to real boy. Along the way, I learned some lessons and saw some things that I'd like to share with you. This isn't a roundup of the (Best/Worst/Most) of 2009, but rather a peek behind the curtain.

My story starts in the middle of the year. It was mid-June, and I had just gone through a well-publicized breakup with Politics Daily. I was sitting in the front row of the White House press briefing room, tapping away on my laptop before the briefing, when Lynn Sweet approached me.

Lynn had been my stablemate at Politics Daily, and we had only met for the first time a few weeks earlier. During that initial meeting, she talked to me for almost an hour, dispensing frequent "razz the new guy" barbs and journalistic lessons learned. I considered it a profound honor to have my chops busted by a legend like Lynn Sweet, whose work I had enjoyed so much during the campaign. If someone has to tell you "Go cover City Hall, kid," you could do a lot worse.

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A year ago tomorrow the nation went to polls and elected Barack Hussein Obama the 44th President of the United States. It was a joyful occasion, celebrated the world over, and variously compared to New Years Eve, the Yankees winning the World Series, the opposite of 9/11, and the proper beginning of the 21st Century. The national political mood of Election Day 2009 would likely not be recognizable to the Obama-happy nation of 12 months ago. What a difference, etc. And yet, it's hard to believe it's only been 12 months! And a mere nine-and-a-half months of actual presidency. And truly it is only a slight exaggeration to say that in the interim it's been all Obama, all the time. With that in mind let's take a look back at the Barack Obama highlights (and some lowlights) of the last year. (more...)

developing VP Joe Biden is in Upstate New York, campaigning for the Democratic candidate Bill Owens in the hotly-contested 23rd district congressional race today. And after he went on the attack against Rush Limbaugh and specific GOP politicians, Limbaugh fired back even harder on his radio show just now. (more...)

Before there was 30 Rock, there was Mean Girls, Tina Fey's look at the vagaries of high school relationships - and Lindsey Lohan's last competent performance. The above clip (produced by a much more energetic fan of the film than myself) isolates one of the most memorable lines: "Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen! It's not going to happen!" Since seeing this movie, I've applied that line to approximately 45 million things. John McCain, stop trying to make Palin happen. It's not going to happen! Microsoft, stop trying to make Vista happen. NBC, Leno's not going to happen. Etc. Try it for yourself. It's fun. Oh, incidentally - Slate, stop trying to make Bidenisms happen. It's not going to happen. (more...)

The Jerz The corruption sweep that put New Jersey under a national spotlight this past summer was massive even by the Soprano State’s standards. Citizens seem to be holding Gov. Corzine partially responsible for enabling a climate of corruption. His opponent, Chris Christie, who spent seven years as a U.S. Attorney in Newark, was largely responsible for the massive sweep that resulted in 44 arrests, including three mayors, five rabbis, and two state assemblymen. The busts caught national attention, catapulting Christie into the limelight. He's riding a wave that has him leading in polls despite being a Republican in an otherwise Democratic leaning state. (more...)

VIDEO Long before The Daily Show, long before The Colbert Report, Saturday Night Live was making fun of the news in a way that no one had ever seen before. Suddenly, establishment journalists like Barbara Walters were fair game. Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd riffed on the seething hostility between co-anchors. Heck, they even took on the 70s trend of sign language interpreters popping up in newscasts. Oprah, Dateline, Geraldo Rivera... SNL's had distinctive takes on almost every major media presence over the years. And SNL's news spoofs aren't just entertainment: it's arguable that more Americans made up their minds about Sarah Palin based on SNL's Katie Couric/Sarah Palin interview than on the original interview itself. Stephen Colbert and John Stewart have done a lot in the news satire biz, but they still have some catching up to do. In honor of the premiere of season 35 of SNL, we've pulled together 35 of SNL's choicest news anchor spoofs and Weekend Updates, spanning all seasons. Shoot us a comment or a tip if you think we've missed a good one. We're seriously counting on a good Glenn Beck skit... Here it is. (more...)

For most eleven-year-olds, scoring an interview with a guy running for Vice-President would be pretty good. For 11-year-old Damon Weaver, it's way down the list of his career accomplishments. After interviewing Biden on the campaign trail, covering the Inauguration, appearing on national television and earning a full scholarship to college, Weaver just scored a sit-down with President Obama. You know, his homeboy. (more...)

exclusive Yesterday, Mediaite's Robert Quigley posted a list of 8 gaffes (later reduced to 7) by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, along with the assessment that Gibbs "largely gets a free pass from the media for his many blunders." I thought it was only fair to give Gibbs a chance to respond, so I emailed him to see if he had any reaction to the piece. While he said he had "no real response," and that he was "happy to get the criticism," he did have a few factual corrections for us. Let's see how Gibbs' fact-check stacks up against our double-fact-check. (more...)

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs seems like a nice enough guy. He has a sense of humor about his work, he maintains a friendly banter with reporters, and he was even the goalie of the North Carolina State Wolfpack soccer team. But Gibbs largely gets a free pass from the media for his many blunders. Just this past week, his attempts to brush off Sarah Palin's comments on health care backfired, and he gave Iranian election protesters a major slap in the face when he referred to Ahmadinejad as "the elected leader" of Iran. Both times, there was a bit of hubbub that quickly blew over. (more...)

POLL Judd Apatow was going to be on the cover of Time this week (and he's still in the issue for his latest film Funny People), but health care is on the tip of everyone's tongue so the funnyman got subbed out for President Obama in a lab coat. It's entirely possible that if we picked up this issue of Time we'd learn nearly everything we need to know, or could stand to know, about the ongoing health care debate. But where's the pop? (more...)

In today’s cutthroat media environment, stories break fast and spoil faster. It doesn’t take long to go from big news to scraps of news to contrary opinions that seem cooked up solely for shock value. News Decay charts the strange and rapid declines wrought by the 24-hour news cycle.

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VIDEO So, the President, a cop, and a Harvard professor walk into a bar...er, a picnic table. By this point you probably know the rest. Was there other news yesterday? Who knows. The Presidential "it's not a summit" "Beer Summit" dominated from morning to night. At one point CNN split the screen into six windows in order to cover all the angles, literally. And while cable took to the story like alcoholics to an open bar, print reporters all seemed slightly apologetic that they were devoting this much energy and attention to it. But devote they did. Especially after Joe Biden made an unexpected appearance requiring some quick on-the-spot investigating to determine what he was drinking (Buckley's, it's a non-alcoholic beer -- Biden doesn't drink), and Gates who threw a wrench into the best laid plans by opting for Sam Adams Light at the last minute. (more...)

We here at Mediaite understand one universal truth about all media strategies — sex sells. Every so often (read: every day) we notice how some of our friends across the Internet use sexy headlines and photos to drive traffic. And what better way to celebrate these recession-busting decisions than in a regular feature? Welcome to SEX WATCH! (more...)