The cast of NBC Television's "The West Wing" with former Vice President Al Gore. Clockwise from Gore are Bradley Whitford, John Spencer, Richard Schiff, Allison Janney, Martin Sheen. (Photo: NBC handout.)

by Maeve Reston

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- It turns out that hobnobbing with liberal blogger Arianna Huffington and the cast of NBC's "The West Wing" on the left coast can be a risky proposition for a Republican with White House ambitions.

In Jersey City Friday morning, John McCain emphatically denied a report by Huffington on her blog that he confessed, during a Beverly Hills dinner party in 2001, that he had not voted for George W. Bush after his bitter defeat in 2000. But "West Wing" cast members -- who said in published reports they supported a Democratic ticket -- back up Huffington's story.

"It's nonsense," McCain said this morning when a reporter asked about the matter in the Liberty Science Center. "I voted, campaigned for, worked as hard as I could for President Bush's election in 2000 and 2004. I voted for President Bush. I said so at the time." And McCain is proud of what he saw as his help in getting Bush elected. "I know we're already in a silly season--but my record stands very clearly of campaigning all over this nation on behalf of the candidacy of President Bush," he said. "I think that some people believe that contributed to the fact that he won that election, and also in the 2004 election."

On Monday, Huffington posted an entry on her website asserting that McCain confessed during the 2001 party that he had not voted for the President. On the Huffington Post website, she explained her long silence by saying ...

... she "felt it was time to for me to tell what I knew," because the press was giving McCain "a pass."

by Frank James

If you want to show that you have a subtle understanding of the world economy, when asked why gas prices are high you might want to offer an answer that mentions world oil demand, the declining dollar etc.

But those weren't among the reasons Sen. John McCain, the all-but-official Republican presidential lnominee, offered during his interview with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News Channel last night. It's the fault of the oil "cartel," meaning the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, he said.

"I think it's because of one fundamental problem. It's because you have a cartel that controls virtually all of the world's oil supply. And they, obviously, can set the price of oil to the highest level that can sustain it," McCain told O'Reilly.

Many problems with that answer. One, OPEC is responsible for about 40 percent of the world's oil exports, not "virtually all" the world's supply, as McCain said.

Also, as indicated earlier, economists place much of the blame for high oil prices on factors other than OPEC. There's demand in rapidly developing countries like China and India, for instance.

by Josh Drobnyk

Curious what Chris Matthews' brother thinks about the Hardball host entertaining a run for Senate? Ponder no more.

"I think it is great," Republican Jim Matthews, a Montgomery County Commissioner, said in an interview Thursday.

"We are all surrounded by dead people who just plod along and don't even investigate their dreams. It is kind of neat to see a guy at the top of his game contemplating a complete change in direction," brother Matthews said.

The prospect of a Chris Matthews run for Senate has come up before, and a 2010 challenge of Republican U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter has again tickled the attention-starved chattering class in Pennsylvania now that the presidential primary has left the state behind.

The MSNBC star stoked the rumor mill when he told Stephen Colbert last month that he wants to be a senator. And with his contract soon set to expire, many are asking what might come next for the 62-year-old former Hill staffer.

"His intrigue with the idea is certainly on his mind," Jim Matthews said of a Senate run. "That is real."

But Jim said his older brother isn't yet taking any formal steps towards a run.

"Of course he has had dialogue with friends," he said. "He has friends he has dialogue with about the Phillies too. ... You talk with friends and it comes up now and then."

Walking away from the millions that are likely to be thrown at him this summer, though, won't be easy, Jim Matthews suggested. "He is at the top of his game now and I think he is going to have opportunities in broadcasting that he doesn't even understand are out there right now," he said. "If you are handed $20 million or $30 million on a long-term contract with somebody, it is pretty tough to think about [making] $160,000."

Sen. John McCain speaks with host Jon Stewart during a break at a taping of The Daily Show on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 in New York. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

by Frank James

Jon Stewart of the Daily Show claims not to be a journalist though many who watch him evidently perceive him as such.

So the Project for Excellence in Journalism decided to examine the Daily Show's content and found, lo and behold, that the comedy show covers many of the same stories as traditional journalistic organizations.

Here's what the researchers found:

• The program's clearest focus is politics, especially in Washington. U.S. foreign affairs, largely dominated by the Bush Administration's policies in Iraq, Washington politics and government accounted for nearly half (47%) of the time spent on the program. Overall, The Daily Show news agenda is quite close to those of cable news talk shows.

• The press itself is another significant focus on The Daily Show. In all, 8% of the time was made up of segments about the press and news media. That is more than double the amount of coverage of media in the mainstream press overall during the same period.

by Mark Silva

Calling an election is a risky business.

Calling a campaign, even a bigger gamble.

CBS News got about as far out as possible the other night in calling the contest between Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in Indiana. This bulletin moved soon after the polls closed: "CBS NEWS PROJECTS INDIANA FOR SEN. CLINTON - 8:09 EDT.''

It was another five hours before the rest of the networks, the Associated Press and yours truly were able to make such a call, with a narrowing vote in the hotly contested state that wasn't clear in its decision until well after midnight.

But, before it was all over, NBC News, or one of the best-known practitioners of the news trade there, was making another call: "We now know who the Democratic nominee is going to be,'' NBC's Tim Russert said when the voting in North Carolina and Indiana was finished. "Sometimes in campaigns, the candidate is the last to recognize the best timing... It's very much like being on life support.''

He was speaking, of course, of Hillary Clinton.

"Once they start removing the systems, you really have no choice,'' Russert said. "If, in fact, these reports of Sen. Clinton giving her campaign more money are true, then the Clintons have a big decision to make...Their ability to raise money, after the events of tonight, are going to be very difficult, as opposed to what happened after Pennsylvania, when the money roared in because people saw a realistic chance.

"That no longer exists,'' he said, with the finality of an unequivocal caller's call. "They know it. Obama knows it. And the voters who have been covering this race very intensely, following it very closely, now know it as well.''

So, with several primary elections yet to be held, and with Clinton still claiming that she can make the case to the party's superdelegates that she is the electable one - yet with the math of the delegates, pledged and super, and the popular vote as well, weighted in the favor of Barack Obama - someone already has called this campaign.

At the end of the night, the audacious call of CBS News proved right - and there is nothing quite like being right. At the end of the campaign, the seemingly less bold call of the man from NBC News may well prove right as well.

And there is nothing quite like it, in the news business, for the folks who will gladly tell you: You heard it here first.

by Mark Silva

Well, doesn't Esquire magazine have a sense of timing?

"Ready, Set, Obama,'' declares the headline on the June issue, reaching newsstands May 13.

The featured story inside - "The Cynic and Senator Obama'' - explores the message of hope and inspiration that Obama has framed for his presidential campaign. "The cynic will need to be convinced,'' warns the lead-in to the long impressionistic article by Charles P. Pierce.

"The cynic likes the stump speech,'' he writes, following Obama through Wisconsin in the days before the Rev. Jeremiah Wright or Chicago powerbroker Tony Rezko had occupied the headlines. "Even the fourth time around, and even though it's oddly impervious to the immediate events of the day....

"The cynic had been in the hall for Obama's big speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2004,'' Pierce writes. "It was beautifully written, impeccably delivered and its rhetoric was thrilling.''

Like the Democratic Party's presidential contest itself, we'd be giving something away if we told you how this curious story ends.

We'll leave that to Esquire and its readers, with thanks to the magazine for an advance look and the cover.

by Mark Silva

Chris Matthews is famous for playing Hardball.

But was he playing a little softball for Barack Obama last night, with a speech at a Harvard University forum in which the MSNBC star news commentator and interviewer was pressed about perceptions of bias in the cable network's campaign coverage?

When asked by a member of the audience at an Institute of Politics forum about how he responds to claims that MSNBC officially supports Obama, the Harvard Crimson notes today, "Matthews responded with typical Hardball wit: "Well, it's not official.'''

The Crimson correspondent also reports that Matthews sang Obama's praises throughout his speech, calling the Illinois Democrat a symbol of the change that the country needs. "We need to elect a president who has been a student of the world and is a student of the world," Matthews said.

See the report in The Crimson.

by Don Frederick

Fair is fair.

On the heels of Barack Obama's starring role Thursday in the Top Ten segment on the Late Show with David Letterman, CBS has announced that Hillary Clinton will get the same slot on Monday's show.

Obama had delivered a Top Ten list back in January, but Clinton is a veritable mainstay for Letterman. The CBS release announcing her latest appearance notes that it will be the 11th time she's been a part of the program.

And, actually, perhaps there is a fairness question surrounding the chance Clinton gets for friendly exposure on a broadcast network on the eve of the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.

Got to give her campaign credit, though: It's getting better at this gambit. On the eve of the crucial Ohio and Texas primaries, in early March, her chance to soften her image was confined to cable -- a guest spot on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Don Frederick is a Washington editor for the Los Angeles Times and wrote this for Top of the Ticket, the L.A. Times political blog.

by Mark Silva

Stephen Colbert was sifting through the restraining orders in his morning mail searching for that wedding invitation from Jenna Bush.

"May 10th is just around the corner, and I couldn't be more excited,'' said Colbert, who has written himself a "Save the Date'' card for the wedding of one of the first twins and Henry Hager at the Bush family ranch in Texas. The host of Comedy Central's Colbert Report also played a snippet of Laura Bush's actual wedding-day adivce for daughter Jenna, from CBS' Early Show:

"I think the main advice is just to be there, to think about every minute,'' mom told her daughter in that interview.

"It is true,'' Colbert said. "It is so important to be at your own wedding. Let me tell you, people hate to hear, 'I do,' coming over a speaker phone.

"Of course, everybody who is anybody is going to be there,'' said Colbert, who, of course, won't be. "Dick Cheney is gong to be there, throwing rice... well, firing rice.''

by Whitney Blair Wyckoff

He couldn't win a single state, but it looks like erstwhile presidential hopeful Ron Paul is beating the other candidates at something.

Paul's book,The Revolution: A Manifesto, is topping the charts on Amazon.com. Right now, it's the No. 1 seller on their Web Site.

Other politicians, such as former President Jimmy Carter and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have books in the Top 50.

But, the closest any of the presidential candidates come to Paul's standing is Barack Obama with The Audacity of Hope, which sat at No. 108 on Amazon's best seller list at the time this was posted.

"If it should become a publishing phenomenon, The Revolution: A Manifesto can fuel our revolution for a long time to come," said Paul in a letter posted on his campaign Web site.

The book was officially released yesterday, according to a release.

by Maureen Ryan

Sen. Barack Obama will present the Top 10 list on The Late Show with David Letterman tonight.

According to a spokeswoman for the show, Obama read the list earlier today from South Bend, Ind., via satellite. I'll be posting his Top 10 here at about 4 p.m. CDT today, check back here later if you want to read it before the broadcast.

Here's the press release from CBS: "Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) presents the Top Ten List on the Late Show with David Letterman, Thursday, May 1 [10:35 Central Time] on the CBS Television Network.

"This will be Sen. Obama's fourth appearance on the CBS late night broadcast. He last appeared on the Late Show on Jan. 24, 2008, presenting the Top Ten List on the broadcast."

by Whitney Blair Wyckoff

Democrats are splitting their allegiances between the party's two presidential candidates, and the staffs of major women's magazines seem to be following suit.

Folio: magazine reports that the division is causing some office discord:

"It's come to screaming matches in our office," said Marie Claire editor-in-chief Joanna Coles during a Mediabistro panel (see: "High Profile Magazine Editors Drink Whiskey, Discuss Industry's Gender Gap") in New York on Tuesday. "There are some knockdown arguments."

Some Marie Claire staffers "feel that being the wife of the president is tantamount to being president," she said. Others support Obama, with younger female staffers, in general, favoring the Illinois senator.

"It's completely divided our readers" and staff, Coles said. "It's a house divided."

Other women's magazine editors spoke of similar fault lines at their titles, and the existential crisis female staffers are having when their colleagues move to support Obama.

"I think she was so unfairly vilified," Elle executive editor Alexandra Postman said of the media's treatment of Clinton earlier in the campaign. "It was this stealthy sexism that was just so unfair." If Obama faced the same vilification, it would've been "completely unacceptable."

This, she said, has galvanized her staff, more so than any election before. Coles said the readers have also been more engaged in the tight race.

The article also said that women's magazines are having a tough time covering politics because of their production cycle. To counteract this, Glamour has launched its own politics blog, Glamocracy.

by Mark Silva

When Rob Lowe wanted to get ahead of news that his nanny was going to be accusing him of sexual harrassment, who did he call?

Arianna Huffington.

Huffington, founder and editor-in-chief of the online Huffington Post, has amassed a stable of 1,800 bloggers who contribute to a certain online sensation that's also in the business of some serious political reporting - see the recent work in these e-pages of HuffPo's Tom Edsall, for instance. And you first read about Obama's words about the bitterness of working classvoters, voiced in a closed-door San Francisco fundraiser, at HuffPo.

And, Huffington notes, the first venue that Obama chose to confront the controversy surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was with his own blog on.... The Huffington Post. "Before he went on TV, he did a blog post on The Huffington Post, where he could actually say exactly how he saw the Reverend Wright controversy,'' she notes. "And then he went on TV and talked about it.

"The idea, originally, as you know, when we started was to provide a platform for any interesting voice,'' Huffington said in an interview with Barbara Walters airing on Sirius Satellite Radio. "People were too busy to have their own blogs, or even too busy to write an Op-Ed for The New York Times... and that's really what happened.''

They started with 500 bloggers with their own password to the site and now count 1,800 - "people who use it to get their view out before something bad happens like Rob Lowe,'' Huffington told Walters. "You know, Rob Lowe called me on a Friday and said, you know, I want to write something by Monday morning. He knew that their nanny was going to be accusing him of sexual harassment. He wanted to get his view out ahead of that...''

Walters, on the Monday evening program, Barbara Live, on Sirius Stars Channel 102, asked Huffington what she makes of Tracy Ullman's impersonation of the inimitable Huffington on Ullman's new TV show, State of the Union.

"I actually loved it,'' Huffington said. "You know she's a friend of mine, in fact she was at ... my home in L.A. on Thursday having a cup of tea and collecting more info because she's doing another series and she does a really good imitation of me... And you know....she ends a lot of her imitations of me by saying "blogs and kisses," which is kind of something pretty good. I like that.''

by Mark Silva

If Barack Obama can venture on to the FOX News set -- breaking a two-year-long "Obama Watch'' with his appearance on FOX News Sunday with Chris Wallace -- Hillary Clinton cannot be far behind.

Clinton will sit with FOX News Channel's Bill O'Reilly for an interview in South Bend, Ind., that will start airing on The O'Reilly Factor at 8 pm EDT Wednesday and conclude on Thursday same time. "This will be Sen. Clinton's first-ever appearance on The O'Reilly Factor,'' the network says with some pride.

"Sen. Clinton is expected to address questions about her ongoing campaign for the Democratic nomination, her competitor, Sen. Obama, as well as questions about her position on domestic and foreign policy,'' the network says -- well, at least she knows what the questions are.

The O'Reilly Factor bills itself as "the highest-rated program in cable news for more than seven years. Going beyond just the headlines, the Factor uncovers news items from the established wisdom and goes against the grain of the more traditional interview style programs.''

by Mark Silva

Jimmy Carter admits that he'd like to sell some copies of the book he has written about his mother, in time for Mother's Day.

Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, commended the former president for his new book, A Remarkable Mother, in a Comedy Central appearance last night. "I want to thank you, Mr. President,'' Stewart said. "I, for Mother's Day, was going to get my mother ,maybe a card, maybe some flowers. Thank you for making my gesture look incredibly pitiful.''

"I hope everybody in America will buy it for Mother's Day,'' Carter said. "That's why I wrote it, to help people like you with your decision.'' He also offered a serious homage to his mother, the unstoppable Miss Lillian. "My mother... was innovative. She was spirited. She was indomitable. She was very courageous.

"She implanted in me a decision not to let public opinion deter me from what is right,'' Carter said. "She always thought Billy was the most brilliant child in the family,'' he added of his brother with the gas station in Plains, Ga. "And I can't dispute that.''

Could he have won the presidency in today's media environment, Stewart asked the 39th president, a one-termer from Georgia.

"No, I don't think so... I didn't have any money, and I was a very poor campaigner,'' he said. "The way I won was sneaky.... Every Monday morning, I and my wife and my three sons and my mother would go out on the campaign trail,'' crediting his mother for the best campaigning. "I had won Iowa and New Hampshire and Florida before the other candidates woke up to the fact that I had a remarkable mother... I won by that much, and if it hadn't been for my mother, I wouldn't be president.''

Carter's work isn't sitting too well with the sitting president -- who suggested today that the terrorist-political organization, Hamas, likes to say one thing about peace but act in another way when it comes to Israel, in response to Carter's recent trip to Israel in which he met with leaders of Hamas. "How do you get a meeting with Hamas?'' Stewart asked. "Do you call and say, 'Hey what's up?''

"Well, I didn't call the White House,'' Carter said.

Can he understand why the White House might be upset -- how would he like it if, during the Iranian hostage crisis, Richard Nixon had gone to talk with the Iranians?

"I would have thanked him,'' Carter said -- See the Hamas part:

by Mark Silva

In the Rose Garden, in the East Room and even back at the ranch in Texas, there is a tradition of playful presidential sparring with reporters. But today, the president may have gotten under the skin of the press with some of his humor.

First the setup: Bush gently tried to hush Martha Raddatz, a reporter for ABC News attempting a follow-up to a question from her front-row perch in the Rose Garden this morning. Cut off her mic, the president joked. Off it went, but it came back on.

"The question you asked me,'' Bush insisted, was the same one that he had answered "in the exclusive I gave you at the ranch... What I told you before is that I think we're making progress in Afghanistan, but there is tough fighting.''

When Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times rose to ask her question, she joked that she still is waiting for her exclusive interview.

Bush, often ready with a retort, appeared truly tongue-tied as he smiled, looked up and admitted: "I'm at a loss for words...

And then he found them: "If only you'd been at the White House correspondents' dinner, I would have invited you,'' he said, calling it "an inside joke.''

The joke is that the Times, citing ethical concerns, has boycotted the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents' Association, which was held Saturday night, a black-tie forum for jokes about the president, by the president and for the president.