Day 19: October 27

8 days to Election Day

The show opens with an assessment of McCain's supposed three-front battle (only two of which are mentioned initially) -- McCain v. Obama, McCain v. Bush, and McCain v. Palin. The first is a description of attacks made by McCain on the grounds of the economy, saying that it would be "dangerous" to leave it in the hands of liberals. He also makes an effort at dissociating himself from Bush's economic policies. Richard Wolffe is there to talk primarily about Obama's "closing argument" speech; he's asked whether Obama is doing a better job of "closing the deal" than he did in the Democratic primaries, whether it's symbolic in some way that Obama delivered the speech first in Ohio, what the meaning is of the five polls in Virginia showing Obama far ahead and whether they should be surprising, and whether there is any new information about the upcoming Obama half-hour commercial. This is all interpretation, and the discussion of the polls is more game schema, with McCain as the "candidate falling behind."

Jonathan Alter then comes on to have a similar conversation about McCain. He's asked about McCain's closing argument: whether it's "one of 'nots,'" that he's not Bush, that the people should not elect three Democratically controlled parts of government, and that they should not elect "a tax happy liberal." He's also asked whether the geography of where the candidates are still campaigning -- almost exclusively in states Bush won in 2004 -- is the key story, and why McCain is trying so hard to win Pennsylvania. This is all speculation and interpretive journalism.

Next comes a segment about claims from within the McCain campaign that Sarah Palin has "gone rogue," that she is deviating from scripts and ignoring advice and orders from the campaign. Olbermann says also that it's been reported that one McCain adviser called Palin a "diva." Chris Hayes joins the show to discuss: he's asked whether the McCain campaign is sending the message that they've already lost, what Palin could do other than going "more rogue" to help the Democrats, whether critiques of Palin from inside the campaign will "boomerang" back at McCain since he chose her as his running mate, and whether the division within the campaign (and between former Romney supporters and the rest of McCain's staff) is indicative of a coming larger split in the Republican Party. Again, this segment is all interpretive journalism. There's also some political bias, with Olbermann making fun of Elizabeth Hasselbeck (who appeared with Palin and supposedly is advising her now) and Hayes admitting to "schadenfreude" in watching the disarray within the McCain campaign and the Republican Party.

Next comes a discussion with Chris Kofinis about whether the Republican National Committee should consider shifting its money away from the McCain campaign and into down-ticket races, and if so, whether they should concentrate on the House of Representatives or the Senate, as well as why it took the Republicans so long to realize that McCain's was a failing campaign. This is mostly interpretation, but there's a little political bias mixed in, since Olbermann mocks the Republicans a bit. The interpretation is the more egregious sin here, though.

In a rare moment, "Worst Persons" today is not 100% an avatar for political bias. The first two winners (the Washington Post, for changing a caption on a photo of Bill O'Reilly, and Joe Lieberman, for switching sides again and claiming respect for Barack Obama) are typical. However, the third, Chad Michael Morissette, makes the list for hanging a Sarah Palin mannequin with a noose and burning a John McCain look-alike. Olbermann calls it "as unacceptable if it is McCain as if it is Obama," and says it's in "the spirit of violence." After that, it's hard to criticize this segment.

The day's Campaign Comment is equally admirable. Olbermann delivers a plea to John McCain to step forward and say something about the Ashley Todd hoax, in order to stop the divide between races from widening immeasurably and destroying the campaign altogether. He does it rationally and fairly -- though it's all opinion, it's delivered with respect toward McCain and with a compliment on his past effort to do the same thing in Minnesota, when he was asked if Obama was an Arab. In terms of Patterson's critique, this is one of the best Special Comments I have analyzed so far.