The Open Season on John McCain and his running-mate-to-be Sarah Palin angers the McCain presidential campaign to a degree, that there is an outright defense battle going on. The campaign strategist Steve Schmidt is livid. The press is notching up the heat.

The Washington Post‘s Howard Kurtz reports:

I’ve talked to many political professionals over the years who were mad at the media, or me in particular. But I’ve never quite had a conversation like the one Tuesday night with Steve Schmidt. He was absolutely furious as he unloaded on the journalistic community for, in his view, unfairly savaging Sarah Palin.

[…]

Perhaps the greatest concern to the McCain campaign is that the constant inquiries, amplified by cable television debates over whether a mother with a pregnant daughter and four other children can effectively function as vice president, will create a perception that her nomination is in trouble. “We are being bombarded by e-mails and phone calls from journalists asking when she will be dropping out of the race,” Schmidt said. (read more)

John McCain has something to worry about. With the instinct of the newsman, even Rupert Murdoch has struggled hard to get on the right side of Barack Obama. He could achieve a tentative truce. The report indicates to me, that Murdoch expects Obama to do well in the elections. So the Murdoch/Fox bias, while not going away, will be sounding more muted, I expect.

Tomasky the self proclaimed amateur Murdochologist says:

The meeting had been sought for some time. Now, in reading that sentence, you assumed that I meant Obama sought the meeting. But it was the other way around! Now that takes a set, no? Read on: Obama, on the other hand, was snubbing Murdoch. Every time he reached out (Murdoch executives tried to get the Kennedys to help smooth the way to an introduction), nothing. The Fox stain was on Murdoch. Eventually, it happened. Rupert and Barack sat “knee to knee.” Obama started asking Murdoch about his relationship with his father. In due course Ailes took Rupe’s place, and Obama basically said to him, I’m not gonna waste my time talking to you as long as your network is just gonna slap me and my wife around. Wolff reports that “a tentative truce was agreed upon.”(read more)

Now it looks as if Obama plans to be on the O’Reilly Factor tomorrow, the day of McCain’s acceptance speech. Don’t miss it.

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