by Mark Silva

ST. PAUL, MIinn. - Now you know the story's moving.

Katie Couric is leaving town.

And Charles Gibson. Brian Williams, too.

Anderson Cooper, he of "360:'' Making a 180 for New Orleans.

FOX's Shep Smith? Heading South.

With a curtailed Republican National Convention, reduced to nothing but procedural business on its opening day here Monday, and a vicious Hurricane Gustav enveloping the Gulf of Mexico and threatening the Crescent City, the anchors of the network news programs are pulling up sets and heading South.

"Whether they will be heading north at all depends on the strength of the storm at Monday's expected landfall,'' the Associated Press' TV writer, David Bauder, writes.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney both have called off trips to St. Paul, with the president traveling to Texas early in the morning to see relief-staging efforts and then returning to the White House Monday night to monitor events.

But the anchors?

"We're going to go with the biggest story of the day tomorrow," says Jay Wallace, a news vice president at FOX News Channel, "and right now the biggest story of the day is the storm."

by Frank James

DENVER -- One of the oddest things about last night's Hillary Clinton speech had nothing to do with the senator.

The Secret Service shut down access to the hall while Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer was delivering his rousing attack on John McCain, leaving hundreds of people unable to get past the party volunteers posted as guards at each of the doorways into the seating area on the first and second levels.

This left hundreds if not thousands of people in the corridors where they had to watch Clinton's speech on TVs stationed around the facility. I nearly became one of those people forced to watch the speech on TV even though the real thing was happening only a few hundred feet away.

After speedwalking around nearly the entire arena and bouncing between floors, I finally made my way to Tribune's broadcasting booth and watched Clinton's speech from there.

This led to one of the evening's best moments, for me at least. Not only did I get to witness Clinton's historic speech, but I got to see WGN-TV anchor Allison Payne, an old acquaintance who I used to bump into on news assignments in Chicago. She was one of several Tribune TV journalists providing coverage of Clinton's speech.

by Mark Silva

DENVER -- Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania, who was a Hillary Clinton supporter in the primaries, suggests that media coverage of the contest made it tougher.

"Certain media outlets were openly partisan,'' Rendell says in this interview on FOX News. They portrayed Barack Obama as "the savior,'' he says, and "he is not a savior.''

Who was not biased? "Shockingly,'' he says: FOX. "Fair and balanced.''

"I"m going to get in a lot of trouble for this.''

For dissing the network (MSNBC) the Clintons love to hate?

by Josh Drobnyk

DENVER -- Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball,showed up at the Pennsylvania Democratic delegation breakfast this morning, but was quick to dismiss the suggestion that he was laying the groundwork for a U.S. Senate bid.

"I have a professional responsibility to cover the campaign," a smiling Matthews said as he departed. "And you're trying to put it in another context."

Some saw the visit a different way. "He talks about it," Pennsylvania Democratic Committee executive director Mary Isenhour said about a Senate run against Republican Arlen Specter in 2010. "I think he's serious. It seems to be serious to me."

If it is, and Matthews' visit to the delegation Tuesday was an attempt to work the state's political heavy hitters, it appeared to work. He was twice singled out by speakers as he sat eating breakfast. And few in the room could miss the crowd that formed around the political commentator. Several politicos, including Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, swung by his seat to pay their respects.

But Matthews was coy when asked what he was doing there.

"I am here this morning because ... this is the most interesting state delegation there is and I want to find out how it is moving," he said. "This is the most important state. I've talked to people at the top of the Republican campaign and they have a check list. ... New Hampshire, Michigan and then Pennsylvania, that is the plan. If they get Pennsylvania, they win. That's what they think."

He continued: "Democrats have to hold this state. It is all about this state."

Asked repeatedly if he was considering a run for Senate, Matthews responded: "You know what I do for a living. I have this job."

The contract for that job, of course, expires next year.

by Mark Silva

On the opening night of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno will host a familiar guest:

The Republican candidate for president.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona will join Leno's guests, NBC says today.

Olympic medalists and legendary musicians will fill out the week -- silver-medal swimmer Dara Torres joining McCain on Monday, gold-medal gymnast Nastia Liukin on Tuesday, BB King on Tuesday and Chuck Berry on Friday.

It's a fitting forum for McCain, who informally kicked off his campaign last year with an appearance on CBS' Late Night with David letterman.

by Mark Silva

Sens. John McCain, who was raised as an Episcopalian and attends a Baptist church, and Barack Obama, a Christian who had a public falling out with the fiery former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ , appeared back-to-back on the same stage last night -- a televised platform -- to confront questions about their faith.

During the two-hour forum at Saddleback Church in California, Obama told Pastor Rick Warren that it was "above my pay grade" to define when a baby gets human rights, while McCain quickly answered, "At the moment of conception." And each spoke of their own morale failures: Obama, his drug use as a youth, McCain, his failed first marriage.

Among the 2,800 members of the evangelical church in Lake Forest in attendance, McCain drew frequent applause with remarks underscoring his conservative credentials. Among evangelicals nationwide, one poll shows, McCain holds a 67 percentage point advantage.

Explaining what it means to him to be a Christian, the junior senator from Illiinois spoke of "walking humbly with our God... I know that I don't walk alone, and I know that if I can get myself out of the way that I can maybe carry out in some small way what he intends.

Asked about his own moral failure, Obama cited drugs and alcohol in his youth: "When I find myself taking the wrong step, I find that a lot of the time it is because I am trying to protect myself and not do God's work."

The senior senator from Arizona, an Episcopalian who attends a Baptist church in Phoenix, has faced crtiticism from evangelical leaders for failing to speak as openly about his faith as Obama has, hewing instead to his oft-told tale about finding God as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He held that course last night.

Asked what it means to be a Christian, McCain said: "It means I'm saved and forgiven."

Without elaboration, he said that his greatest moral failure was his first marriage. McCain divorced his first wife in April 1980 and married his second, whom he had met the year before, in May 1980 -- a marital history that one pro-Obama group, the Matthew 25 Network, was underscoring with an ad aired during CNN's cable broadcast of the Saddleback event, noting that Obama has "stood by families... including his own.''

For more on McCain and Obama at Saddleback, see the Los Angeles Times account here:

by Frank James

Jerome Corsi, author most recently of the "The Obama Nation," was on Larry King the other night with Paul Waldman of Media Matters for America. I didn't get to see it in real-time (the Olympics were on, after all, and I was probably watching beach volleyball since NBC is under the mistaken impression that the American appetite for beach volleyball is insatiable.)

Anyway, Media Matters sent around video of the Corsi-Waldman encounter and after viewing it, I would award the match Waldman who won because he had the most defensible case and defended it well. He also delivered a memorable soundbite. "You can put slime in the covers of a book and it's still slime."

Anyone who's been following the controversy over the book or who watches this Larry King segment or, better yet, who has seen the infamous New Yorker cover featuring the Obama caricatures, already knows pretty much all they need to know about the contents of this book. Through innuendo, it forwards the rumors that Sen. Barack Obama is a crypto-Muslim and that his wife Michelle is the spiritual twin of Angela Davis.

I haven't fully read Corsi's book yet; I've only skimmed it. Life is short and there are some other books I'd really like to get through this summer. (If you haven't read Robert Fagles's translation of the Iliad, you owe it to yourself.) But it seems that Corsi's "scholarship" leaves a lot to desired.

by Katie Fretland and Bob Secter and updated

Nation, many of you have heard about the satirically pompous late-night TV comedian who claims that politicians who brave an appearance on his show will be swaddled in electoral mojo.

Well, in all truth (or truthiness, for that matter), it appears there actually might be something to the so-called Colbert Bump, the phenomenon ascribed to faux right-wing talk show host Stephen Colbert.

A new study in a journal of the American Political Science Association concludes that there's a financial benefit for Democratic House members and candidates in submitting to "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central.

"Candidates who went on the show raised about 44 percent more money than like candidates who didn't in the 30 days after the show," explained the study's author, University of California at San Diego political scientist James Fowler.

This may, indeed, be the season when the traditionally detached discipline of academic research collides with our traditionally undisciplined fascination with tabloid celebrity gazing.

The Colbert findings seem particularly intriguing since Democratic leaders in Congress, among them House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rahm Emanuelof Illinois, once warned colleagues to steer clear of Colbert. A spokeswoman for Emanuel said they feared comments made on the show could be taken out of context.

(Continue reading for expert analysis and interviews with politicians who appeared on show)

by Mark Silva

Oprah Winfrey, one of Barack Obama's best-known supporters, plans to be on the field when Obama accepts the mile-high Democratic presidential nomination in Denver, but an associate says Winfrey will have no stage role.

Good friend and colleague Gayle King told Entertainment Tonight that Winfrey will be in the expected audience of 75,000 people at Invesco Field the presidential nomination night of Aug. 28, but expects no starring role in the historic event.

"Oprah has not been asked to introduce him, is not expecting to be asked to introduce him and I would doubt that she would want to introduce him,'' King said. "She thinks this is his moment. I know that she is planning to be there."

King will be in Denver as well. She will take her Oprah and Friends XM Radio program on the road and broadcast live from the convention starting Monday, Aug. 25. King appears regularly on Oprah, is Editor-At-Large of O, The Oprah Magazine and host of The Gayle King Show on Oprah and Friends, channel 156 on XM satellite radio.

She told ET: "I've been to Democratic conventions before, but I've never felt the way I'm feeling now about going to this convention. I think we have a chance to make history."

by Mark Silva and updated.

Bill Kristol, conservative commentator and magazine publisher, tells FOX News Channel today that retired Army Gen. Colin Powell, who served as President Bush's Secretary of State, plans to endorse Democratic candidate Barack Obama -- and "may well'' do so at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

"I am hearing from people who talk directly to the Obama campaign that Colin Powell will endorse Senator Obama and he may well give a speech at the Democratic National Convention explaining his endorsement of Obama,'' Kristol, who also is a contributor to FOX News, said on the cable news channel today.

"People are very confident that Powell will endorse Obama, and they think it may well be the case that Powell will speak on Wednesday at the Democratic Convention,'' Kristol added. "That's the national security night, that's also the night the vice presidential nominee will speak."

Kristol said this of such a move by Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who once was considered a candidate for commander-in-chief himself: Powell "obviously served the first term in the Bush administration; I don't think that was a happy experience honestly for Secretary Powell, and, for whatever reason, I think he has decided that he is going to endorse Obama."

For his part, Powell told ABC News this in response:"I do not have time to waste on Bill Kristol's musings.... I am not going to the convention. I have made this clear."

And Powell wrote this in an email to the Washington Post: "I am not attending either political convention,. As I have said for some time, I know both candidates and I am studying their positions and statements. I have not decided who I will vote for."

So what about that endorsement?

Zbigniew Brezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, and one who stays in touch with the "realist'' camp of Republican foreign policy experts such as Brent Scowcroft, who served the former President Bush, told the Huffington Post this about a Powell endorsement of Obama: "I sort of expect he will.''

by Mark Silva

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher who ran for president but admitted that he had "majored in miracles,'' is gearing up for a weekend cable TV show set to debut on the FOX News Channel this fall.

"I can say it's gonna be unlike anything else that's on Fox and maybe on cable," the Republican told an Arkansas newspaper over the weekend.

Huckabee, promising a live audience for the show, suggests that "politics will be a part of it, but it certainly won't be all of it.''

But what if Sen. John McCain wins the White House in November. Will Huckabee forfeit FOX for a Cabinet post, perhaps?

"Why would I want to do that?" Huckabee replies. "I'm gonna have a good life out here in the private sector. Why would I go back to telling everybody in the world how much money I make and . . . barely surviving to have some obscure Cabinet post and have some 20-year-old from the White House telling me what I'm gonna do?"

by Mark Silva

Former Sen. John Edwards' extramarital affair started well before the former candidate for president and nominee for vice president has admitted, according to Pigeon O'Brien, a friend of Edwards' campaign videographer and mistress, Rielle Hunter.

It started early in 2006, months before Edwards has acknowledged, O'Brien said in an interview broadcast this morning by CBS News' The Early Show.

Maggie Rodriguez, co-host of the show, has raised the question about "just how forthcoming'' Edwards been about his affair with Hunter, a videographer hired by Edwards' now-defunct campaign. O'Brien has answered it.

O'Brien also contends that Edwards is the father of Hunter's child, which Edwards has denied -- with O'Brien maintaining that Hunter was in love and would not have the child of someone she didn't love. She went into all of this in great detail on the air today.

The Washington Post's The Trail also credits Edwards for a certain measure of chutzpah in taking Hunter on the campaign trail - noting wire service photos posted online by technology blogger Robert Scoble showing that Edwards took his mistress with him on the plane during his late 2006 presidential campaign announcement tour.

From The Early Show, courtesy of CBS News:

RODRIGUEZ: Is John Edwards still lying about his affair with your friend?

Ms. O'BRIEN: As of--as of his statement on Friday evening, he is lying about the timeline of the affair and other details about it, yes.

RODRIGUEZ: She told you it started in February or March of 2006.

Ms. O'BRIEN: Yes.

RODRIGUEZ: He says it started five months later when his campaign hired her.

Ms. O'BRIEN: Yeah, that's not true. That's not true. It started in the winter of '06. They became involved at that point, not later in the summer when she was hired to work for the political action committee.

RODRIGUEZ: It started in the winter of '06?

Ms. O'BRIEN: Correct.

by Mark Silva

The contest for president remains as close as it is in national polls, Sen. Dick Durbin suggested today, because most people haven't started paying attention yet.

"This is about where the polls were a month ago,'' Durbin (D-Ill.), said in an appearance on FOX News Sunday. "You and I live and breathe politics. But most Americans have a life to lead... They're really not going to focus on it until we get close to the election...Americans want change. They know John McCain is more of the same.''

Durbin was asked why former President Bill Clinton has appeared so reluctant to speak up for Obama's candidacy.

"Well, I can tell you, I think Bill Clinton is hurting. I'll be honest with you,'' Durbin said. "His wife did not prevail in the primary. He worked hard in it, was involved in some controversial statements. But trust me, when people judge Bill Clinton and his presidency, what it did for America in terms of building this economy and moving us forward, he's going to do quite well.

"I believe, before the end of the day, he's going to be an active supporter of the Obama campaign just as Hillary Clinton is today."

Will the admitted extramarital affair of former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the party's candidate for vice president in 2004, hurt the party?

"There is weakness when it comes to both political parties,'' said Durbin, noting that Edwards has announced through a spokesman that he will not be attending the party convention in Denver this month. "I feel very bad for John and Elizabeth.''

Durbin, one of Obama's closest allies in the presidential campaign, also spoke up in defense of an oil profits windfall tax today.

Why single out the oil industry and say their profits are excessive? FOX News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked the senior senator from Illinois this morning.

"Because they have reported record-breaking profits,'' said Durbin. "The amount of money they are taking in profits at the expense of families and farmers and the business of our overall economy... the profit taking that they are experiencing is at the expense of this economy.

"I'm not an accountant, but those who are have dug into the books,'' have round that "the profits of the oil company are not (largely) being used to find new oil and gas.. They are buying back their stocks... They are paying dividends... They are plowing it into their pockets.''

Republican candidate McCain, the senior senator from Arizona, opposes a windfall profits tax, instead calling for new oil drilling, ending the ban on exploration on the Outer Continental Shelf.

With the revenue from an oil tax, Obama proposes to give middle class families a $1,000 rebate. Durbin said: "Barack has said, give those families a fighting chance.''

Our friends at MediaCurves.com conducted one of their on-line focus groups of Paris Hilton's satirical ad and found that it may help rehabilitate her reputation, if that's possible.

Evidently, a majority of the 311 self-identified Democrats, Republicans and Independents thought the satire would boost her stock with the public. Not sure I understand why that would.

Maybe it's because it shows her to have a sense of humor. But who thought that she didn't? Maybe it's because she proved that she's at least smart enough to read a TelePrompter. Again, who knows?

Anyway, who am I to argue with the wisdom of crowds?

Another thing. When you look at the curves graphing the respondents' reactions to the satire, note how the curves fall when she's reading the travel magazine, meaning the respondents found that last interesting and then surged when she offered "her" energy policy.

The curves for all the groups by political identification spikes. This happens despite the utter illogic her "solution;" drilling can't be a bridge to hybrids and other new technologies since the stopgap is needed presently and it would take years to get the oil from offshore drilling.

But why am I even taking her statement seriously?

Anyway, here's the MediaCurves press release:

Flemington, NJ, August 8, 2008 - Results of a national focus group conducted among 311 self-reported Democrats, Republicans and independents revealed that a majority of all parties believe that Paris Hilton new political ad will help her reputation.