Day 9: October 13

22 days to Election Day

The show opens with implications that the McCain campaign is collapsing around them. Sarah Palin is made to look foolish; she scolds supporters asking her to speak up when she thinks they're protesters, and she's booed at a Philadelphia Flyers game. Olbermann jokes about this, saying that "They went to an anti-Palin rally and a hockey game broke out." Funny, but the mocking shows political bias.

He next talks about McCain's claims that with all the hardship the campaign has seen, and with the media writing him off, he has them right where he wants them. Again, Olbermann mocks the statement, saying, "But don't worry, Senator McCain claiming he's got his opponent and the media, if not the electorate necessarily, right where he wants them."

Richard Wolffe joins in at this point, saying of the Palin incidents that "when things go wrong, they tend to go very, very wrong." The dominant theme of the segment is speculation: Why does McCain claim that he has "them" right where he wants them? Is the conflict over the unveiling of McCain's new economic plan indicative in some way of turmoil in the campaign? Are we moving into a point in the campaign where Obama is more easily trusted to handle crisis than McCain? Wolffe's interpretations gain little ground.

Next, Olbermann discusses the now not-so-latent racism that's infusing the Republican base in its attacks on Obama. After McCain briefly tried to stop his supporters from attacking Obama on racial/religious terms, as Olbermann says, "McCain Classic is back." McCain, in an interview, didn't take an offered opportunity to repudiate a claim made by the GOP chair in Virginia that Obama and Osama bin Laden "both had friends that bombed the Pentagon," referring to Bill Ayres. Chris Hayes of The Nation joins the segment, and he and Olbermann appear quite angry at the supposed race-baiting and attack the McCain campaign on the issue. Hayes calls the campaign "gross." Olbermann asks why McCain doesn't "have the stones" to confront Obama directly on the Ayres issue. The segment sounds a bit like two people gossiping about a friend who'd been insulted; it's pretty clear political bias.

Chris Kofinis is the next guest; he comes on the show to talk about disarray between McCain specifically and his base, surrogates, and the rest of the Republican Party. Olbermann asks, "What does it mean when the Republican governor of Florida decides he is too busy to help the GOP nominee get in the White House?" Charlie Crist, evidently, skipped a McCain event in Florida in order to go to Disneyworld instead, and even Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are giving advice on how to save the supposedly sinking ship. Kofinis speculates that the reason this is happening is because "McCain's campaign has the stink of loserdom on it," and that these events are feeding a perception that McCain cannot win. There's a sense of glee between the two, especially when Kofinis says that Palin "is a disaster" and Olbermann asks if she could somehow secretly be working for the Democratic Party. There's also some speculation on what McCain's campaign should do to try to fix their issues, but mostly this segment is just schadenfreude about the Republicans' problems -- more political bias.

The next segment is probably one of the better ones I've seen on this show in terms of real reporting. Wayne Barrett of The Village Voice comes on to talk about reporting he has done as to whether Sarah Palin committed an ethical violation by having the subcontractor who built a sports complex in Wasilla (a project commissioned by Palin) pay for and build her new family home in the same area. There's some inappropriate snark -- he asks "isn't it odd..." that the house and complex were built at the same general time by the same people -- but aside from that, there's no political bias or speculation here.

"Worst Persons" involves "Bill-O the Clown," who's mocked for calling out Obama on not voting for an amendment to a bill so as to avoid alienating MoveOn, when Obama actually did vote for the amendment (and McCain didn't). The winner is Rev. Arnie Conrad, who Olbermann claims committed blasphemy by claiming that God should make McCain win so that people of other religions (supposedly praying for an Obama win) wouldn't think their gods were better than the Christian God. Olbermann responds with biting wit: "In other words, Lord, if McCain loses, it's your ass. " As usual, his targets are all Republicans; thus, the segment is politically biased.

Finally, comedian Richard Lewis appears to essentially spend six minutes riffing on John McCain. This segment is not even remotely unbiased. The two men spend the entire segment just making fun of the Republican ticket. Lewis even compares suicide bombers in the Middle East to the extreme right wing (specifically, racists). In terms of journalistic value, there's nothing in the final segment.