A week and a candidate removed from Iowa, and less than a week away from the make-or-break state of New Hampshire, six of the remaining Republican candidates (alas, Buddy Roemer was excluded yet again!) are reconvening at St. Anselm College for another debate. This debate, hosted by ABC News, Yahoo! News and WMUR-TV airs tonight on ABC at 9PM ET, but you can watch along with us here by clicking below.

In an interview with ABC’s George Stephanpoulos, President Barack Obama conceded that in the approach to the 2012 election, “I am the underdog.” And although readily willing to acknowledge that Americans are “not better off” than they were four year ago and that the flagging economy will be his biggest obstacle, he showed little sign of concern. “I’m used to being the underdog,” he explained confidently. “At the end of the day people are going to ask — who’s got a vision?”

ABC News and Yahoo! just announced plans to launch a “strategic online news alliance” that will “blend ABC News’ global newsgathering operation and unrivaled lineup of trusted anchors and reporters with Yahoo! News’ unmatched audience, depth and breadth of content.” The announcement was just made on-air of Good Morning America, a video of which will [...]

While most of her opinions– from her opposition to raising the debt ceiling to her foreign policy positions– have resulted in their fair share of controversy, it has been Rep. Michele Bachmann‘s comments on the LGBT community that have gotten her into the most hot water lately. In response, the gay conservative group GOProud has extended an invitation to the Tea Party leader to sit down with them and, among other things, “discuss issues important to gay conservatives.”

Good news for Aol competitor Yahoo: according to an email by Brian Robinson, the senior director of Yahoo Media Network strategies and insights, the traffic experienced by Yahoo blogs over the past few months tops that of the Huffington Post and Gawker.

As the relatively recently-formed Aol / HuffPo hybrid prepares to fold Aol News into the Huffington Post, the company has revealed that it will replace Jai Singh with longtime “HuffPostian” Nico Pitney as the sites’ managing editor.

Yahoo is making major moves to ramp up itsoriginal content: this morning, Yahoo launched three new blogs to spin off of  The Upshot. It’s a big move for the Upshot, which is only seven months old and helmed by Andrew Golis, formerly the deputy publisher of Talking Points Memo. The three new blogs include The Cutline, [...]

Everyone knows that these Jay Leno-esque “Man on the Street” interview videos are baloney, right? After all, it’s easy to ask questions to a large number of people, then edit together a video that only includes the stupidest answers people gave. Still, the following clip is worth sharing—if only because it’s incredible that in it, someone confuses Harry Reid with Harry Truman.

Tis the season for polls. Here is the latest. A new one out from ABC News/ Yahoo! reveals that the majority of those surveyed think the media is to blame for the ever-widening national political divide. Meanwhile, contrary to what you might have concluded from said media, President Obama gets high marks for cooperation from the nation.

Americans are facing one of the toughest economies of their history, and finding a job just isn’t what it used to be. In a move that appears to indicate a hiring freeze in the reality TV and Elvis impersonation industries, former Illinois governor and America’s sweetheart Rod Blagojevich has landed a gig as a panelist during Advertising Week 2010, discussing his “unique take on trust.”

The panel, named “Advertising Week Trust Forum,” will also include representatives from Facebook, Google, and Yahoo! Organizers have provided the scintillating proposition that, among all the tech darlings, Blagojevich will offer “his experience and unique take on trust. A must-see event.” Meanwhile, his publicist told the AP (via NBC’s Ward Room Chicago blog) that “The Rod Blagojevich brand was completely attacked and he went about restoring it – and did so successfully.”

On his radio program yesterday, Rush Limbaugh took a segment to sing the praises of the recently deceased George Steinbrenner, a “cracker who made a lot of African-American millionaires.” It didn’t take long for Al Sharpton to call for an apology and liberal websites to go on the offensive, and now Limbaugh tells Yahoo! News’ Michael Calderone that the fact that he is being attacked for this is a sign of “how bad things are for the left.”

Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz is known for telling it like it is. For those wondering, that means she drops the F bomb a lot. Good for her. If only more CEOs used gutter talk instead of PR talk, the world would probably be a much better place. It’s no surprise then that a discussion between Bartz and TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington in New York today ended up getting a little blue.

Famous young internet journalist Michael Calderone has penned an in-depth analysis of famous young internet journalists and their newfound relevance in the media market– and what it means for the older, established class of print reporters. Needless to say, the people who spent most of their twenties reporting on lost puppies and local fires are not too happy about the success of people like Ezra Klein and Chris Cillizza.

Because logging on to your Facebook app from your smartphone wasn’t easy enough already, now Yahoo (slogan: We’re still pissed at Google about YouTube) has teamed up with Mark Zuckerberg‘s social-networking site so you can update your status from your email. Synergy!

A colleague (who is handsome and wise) recently discovered an old Media Metrix report delineating “World Wide Web Audience Ratings” for December 1998. It’s a remarkable study, categorizing thousands of sites and conglomerated web companies. all of the component elements, but it’s unrecognizable. As though they’re all brands made up for movies.

In case you haven’t heard, this year’s Vanity Fair Hollywood issue is extremely monochromatic; nary one person of color made the cover. But something else VF staffers failed to note? Two of the actresses in their “New Decade: New Holly” article were featured in 2008 as “Hollywood’s New Wave.” Guess they are still up-and-coming?

The year 2009 had many media bright spots, break-out stars, dominating networks and game-changing technologies. The Mediaite 50 collects the finest, most exemplary innovators and influencers of the year, defining a media moment in time and setting the agenda as we move forward. See the full list after the jump:

Can it be possible the Microsoft-Yahoo saga has finally come to a close? After over a year of backing and forthing, and court visits, and proxy therapists the two sides announced this morning that the long talked-about partnership has come to pass.