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Barack Obama attracted attention from reporters on all three networks as the week ended with a "jovial rally--sorely needed by a campaign enduring tough headlines and dipping poll numbers," as NBC's Lee Cowan put it. The joviality arose from the endorsement of Obama by former rival Bill Richardson, the Governor of New Mexico. ABC's Jake Tapper noted that it was Obama's speech on race relations on Tuesday that Richardson cited "as having meant a great deal to him." The endorsement included this call: "It is time, however, for Democrats to stop fighting amongst ourselves." Tapper called that "a nudge towards the exit" for Hillary Rodham Clinton.
CBS anchor Katie Couric interviewed former Democratic operative Joe Trippi, now her network's in-house political analyst, about Rodham Clinton's chances for a late comeback to win the nomination. Trippi's calculus was that, assuming she wins in Pennsylvania in April, she must then win in Indiana and North Carolina in the first week of May: "The whole campaign may come down to that."
As for Obama's speech on race relations, Dean Reynolds (no link) checked on a new CBS News opinion poll, which measured "a corrosive effect" from the controversy surrounding the Rev Jeremiah Wright, his longtime minister on Obama's image as a national uniter. However, 70% of all voters polled said Obama's relationship with Wright has not changed their opinion of the candidate and 63% said they agreed with the precepts outlined in his speech. ABC, by contrast, went for the non-scientific approach, sending John Berman (embargoed link) to hang out in an Allentown bowling alley frequented by "retired steelworkers and prison guards" in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. Of the two dozen bowlers Berman spoke with, none had listened to Obama's speech, almost all had heard inflammatory soundbites from Wright's sermons and only one was even considering a vote for Obama.
Meanwhile for campaign fun, NBC sent Roger O'Neil to the offices of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to celebrate the editorial cartoons of Mike Luckovich. "Every four years it is candy store time for the twice Pulitzer Prize winner," exclaimed O'Neil. Luckovich likes John McCain because "he is, like, the cranky old guy"…Rodham Clinton because of Bill, the "big hound dog"…and Obama's "big ears, big smile and long face."
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