Day 23: October 31

4 days to Election Day

The show opens with a recap of everything that happened overnight in the campaign. Obama is attacking in Arizona still, while widening a national polling lead and getting help from an appearance by Al Gore in Florida, the state that cost him the 2000 election. Meanwhile, the McCain campaign is claiming that they are statistically tied in Ohio polling, as well as attacking Obama over claiming in an Iowa speech that winning the caucus there "vindicated" his faith in the American people, with McCain claiming that means Obama has less faith than he does. Howard Fineman enters the ring here, to discuss these topics. Olbermann asks him whether a new McCain ad claiming Obama supports him on climate issues is counterproductive by making Obama look good, what can or will change over the weekend, and how much of Tuesday's outcome will depend on the campaigns' ground games. Fineman's answers are interpretive reporting, the polling discussion is based on the game schema (as, for that matter, is the term "ground game").

The next guest is David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist, who discusses the mood and strategy in Obama headquarters. Olbermann's first question is "Arizona? Why not Alaska?" which is a reference to the Obama team's activity in McCain's home state. He also asks Axelrod why the candidate is not visiting Pennsylvania, if he wishes Obama hadn't told Rachel Maddow that "we're winning," and whether Axelrod's opposite number Rick Davis's statement that McCain is in the midst of a comeback is true or a talking point. This last question sums up the segment, because Axelrod says it's a talking point -- but he's just spent several minutes giving out his own talking points, with no response from McCain. Rick Davis does not appear on the show. This is basically free airtime for the Obama campaign, unless the McCain camp has turned down invitations and Olbermann hasn't mentioned it.

Next, Olbermann discusses new evidence of Palin's effect on the Republican ticket: Republicans are endorsing Obama, either intentionally or by accident. Former Reagan chief of staff Ken Duberstein says that he's voting for Obama because "you don‘t offer a job, let alone the vice presidency to a person after one job interview. Even at McDonald‘s, you‘re interviewed three times before given a job." Former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger says that she won't be ready to take over as president as soon as she takes office, then backtracks on FOX News, saying that he "made a serious mistake," "wasn't thinking," and that "she's a quick learner." McCain then is quoted as saying that Palin is the new face of the party, either "as the vice president, or—OR..." which Olbermann and guest Jonathan Alter both take to mean that he's horrified at the idea of Palin as president. It's hard to take that seriously -- it's far more likely that his way of phrasing the comment was concerned with not wanting to discuss any other possibility, because that would necessitate his losing the election. This possibility is not mentioned -- not even in passing -- by either Olbermann or Alter. Taking the quote out of context and deforming it in that way is probably the most dangerous instance of partisan bias that I have yet seen while analyzing Countdown, because it is one that is not obvious to the political or journalistic novice. Calling Bill O'Reilly the worst person in the world day in and day out is one thing, but this is nearing intellectual violence that would enrage Olbermann himself, were it perpetrated against Obama.

The rest of this segment is more benign interpretive reporting. Olbermann asks Alter what the McCain quote meant -- as mentioned above -- as well as whether Palin has really united the Republican Party as McCain claims, and whether the vice presidential pick will become more important in all elections or this effect will be restricted to 2008.

Michael Moore appears in the next segment to talk about early voting and health care. Olbermann asks what the emphasis on early voting will do to voting on Tuesday, whether it hurts Obama to see polls released saying that early voting is leaning heavily for him (because it will cause complacency), and what the effect will be of the McCain adviser saying that current employer-provided health care is superior to what will exist under a McCain administration. Beyond just the fact that the guest is Michael Moore, this segment is filled with partisan bias because of the sense of camaraderie between Moore and Olbermann. Moore even refers to "people on our side of the political fence." The game schema is also employed by Moore when he makes an analogy between a fumble by football player Leon Lett and what could happen if Obama supporters become complacent.

"Worst Persons" tonight is predictably biased, but at least Olbermann is really good at doing impressions of people he doesn't like. The winners are O'Reilly, for continuing his ratings conspiracy claims; G.Gordon Liddy, for saying that Obama will rely on "the welfare class" to win; and Ann Coulter -- or, as Olbermann calls her, "Coulter-geist." Coulter makes the list for being the latest right-wing talker to compare Obama to Adolf Hitler. All three get impressions, and Coulter gets an eyepatch photoshopped onto her picture.

The final segment is a mostly useless (in a journalistic sense) conversation with Monty Python's John Cleese. Cleese talks about issues including McCain referring to Joe the Plumber as his "role model," where the glorification of the "everyman" comes from, Cleese's favorite moment from the campaign (it's McCain's "my fellow prisoners" slip-up), Karl Rove's tactics, and whether there's any hope for the American political system. Cleese also reads a poem that he wrote about Bill O'Reilly, much to Olbermann's delight. It's all very amusing as a throwaway segment, but not particularly useful in a news sense.