ABC’s Charles Gibson got stuck with the hammock slot in the Obama-tour sweepstakes, interviewing the candidate between Katie Couric’s first sitdown Wednesday and Brian Williams’ Q&A, scheduled to run after Obama’s much-touted Hoffnungundanderngespiele in Berlin today. Maybe for that reason—or just because hurricanes trump everything—ABC led with Dolly last night.
Gibson’s interview itself wasn’t especially news-making, though it, like Couric’s, focused on pressing Obama about his earlier statements. (Couric, about the surge in Iraq, Gibson, about his mention of an “undivided” Jerusalem, a word which—along with pretty much every word in the dictionary—is loaded when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.)
Unlike Couric, Gibson handed off the equal-time McCain interview, to David Wright. Wright’s questions were a little more challenging than Couric’s had been (he led off asking McCain whether he really believed Obama would rather lose a war than an election, which McCain didn’t answer directly), but neither were they especially enlightening. He included one of those meta-questions (about how it seems the campaign narrative is being driven by Obama’s actions), which always seem ridiculous coming from a journalist to a candidate: So, Senator, how do you plan to make me pay more attention to you? Why, I can feel my focus drifting even as we speak…
Beyond that, though, I didn’t see much worth comment, though I’m sure there was some egregious outrage that went entirely over my head, so feel free to weigh in.