THE PRESS IS STILL IN THE TANK FOR McCAIN

If you don't believe me, just look at what journalists and commentators are openly admitting.

JOE SCARBOROUGH:

MATTHEWS: Now, it'll die, as we said, it'll jump the shark. Two days ago, no, we're all talking about -- you're waving the tabloids around, come on. Two days from now -- I want to ask you, what will we talk about two days from now?

SCARBOROUGH: Whatever the McCain campaign wants us to talk about, because the McCain campaign is assertive.

CHUCK TODD, NBC News Political Director:

"I think the McCain campaign is laughing, laughing their butts off this morning. That any of us have taken the bait on this lipstick thing, I mean, this is a joke. It is laughable."

MARK HALERIN OF TIME MAGAZINE:

HALPERIN: Stop the madness. I mean, this is, I think -- with all due respect to the program's focus on this and to what David just said -- I think this is the press just absolutely playing into the McCain campaign's crocodile tears. I wouldn't --

COOPER: Crocodile tears?

HALPERIN: Yeah. They don't think this is sexist.

COOPER: They know exactly what it is.

HALPERIN: They know exactly what he was saying. It's an expression. And this is a victory for the McCain campaign, in the sense that, every day, they can make this a pig fight in the mud. It's good for them, because it's reducing Barack Obama's message even more.

But I think this is a low point in the day in his -- and one of the low days of our collective coverage of this campaign. To make even -- to spend even a minute --

COOPER: Right.

HALPERIN: -- on this expression, I think, is amazing and outrageous.

JAY CARNEY, TIME Washington Bureau Chief:

CARNEY: Well, this is the cynical brilliance of the McCain campaign strategy. They're throwing this stuff out there. It's false. It's ridiculous. It's a common phrase, but they know they've got Obama trapped. He'll get righteously indignant and respond, which means then the discussion is all about whether or not Obama is calling a female --

SCARBOROUGH: Whether he's sexist or not? Right.

CARNEY: -- candidate a pig and whether he's sexist or not. It's not about issues. It's not about other things. They've done the same thing with this education ad they've put out, which is, you know, essentially calling him -- you know, that he wants to teach kindergarteners sex education before they learn how to read. Again, a complete --