Day 8: October 10

25 days to Election Day

The show opens with a report of some breaking news: John McCain has been forced to "tamp down the fear and anger of his supporters," and allay suspicions fueled supposedly by McCain's campaign that Obama is a Muslim and a terrorist. Guest host David Shuster shows a relevant McCain ad which claims that Obama "worked with terrorist Bill Ayres," then lied about it. He says that Obama called a Philadelphia radio station to explain his supposed relationship with Ayres, and that Obama holds McCain responsible for the tone of the campaign; meanwhile, McCain's staff say that Obama is attacking his supporters. Shuster says that McCain has been "forced to reap what he has sown," and has had to reassure his supporters that they have nothing to fear if Obama becomes president and that he is not an Arab. Shuster's reporting is somewhat politically biased, mostly in his reactions to the information he's given.

Here Jonathan Alter joins in, to analyze the effect that this will have on the McCain campaign. He's asked whether this is "a campaign's worst nightmare," where the campaign can go now that the strategy of smearing Obama is failing, whether the McCain campaign is "in free fall," whether the strategy would have been effective even if it hadn't turned so ugly, and if more Republicans are embarrassed by the tactic or more believe the claims McCain has made. The second half of this segment is rife with interpretive journalism, though the first half has some pretty good descriptive journalism (though it's from a weak liberal slant).

In the next segment, Lawrence O'Donnell does more analysis of what this switch in tactics will do to the McCain campaign. He's asked where McCain should go now, and what McCain's new "presidential argument" will consist of tomorrow since he's giving up such a large part of his strategy, whether this pivot will alienate the far right, and whether it will play into Obama's hands by showing him to be erratic. This is more interpretation, though O'Donnell is able to mix in some political bias when he says that predicting McCain's actions "is the most difficult job I've been given on this show," with a laugh.

Next a columnist from the Anchorage Daily News, Michael Carey, comes on the show to analyze the findings of the Alaska Troopergate commission, news which Shuster breaks at the beginning of the segment. However, Carey says that he hasn't actually seen the report, so he's purely speculating based on what Shuster reported. He's asked what he's been able to figure out so far about the report, whether it can open the door to prosecution or to a civil suit, where the case will go next, and if the fact that she supposedly lied about the firing of the trooper not being related to family issues is the reason it has become such a huge deal legally. Again, though, Carey is purely speculating.

Lawrence O'Donnell returns now to give his reaction to the Troopergate report. He's also asked to speculate on whether there's any defense for the action that voters would be willing to accept, as well as whether the damage to her credibility as a "moral authority" is the biggest problem from this report. Again, this is all speculation and interpretive journalism.

Finally, Savannah Guthrie joins in, to similarly assess what her thoughts are on the scandal and the investigation, She's asked whether Palin has had a reaction yet (she hasn't since the release, but she's done a "preemptive attack" on the allegations), and whether Democrats can claim that she's cherry-picking the investigations that she will cooperate with (since the only one she's approved is one where some of the members of the investigative board were chosen by her). This is really half interpretive, half descriptive, and since Guthrie has been covering the issue for some time, her interpretations are a bit more acceptable.