Where Are The "Boys on the Bus"?

That, and other news, in today's Political Panorama.

I'm a little late today, tied up with a few assignments...

Campaign Trail: Despite unpredecedented coverage of the presidential race, there actually are fewer reporters on the trail with the candidates this year, as newspapers cut back on coverage, reports the New York Times.

Katie's Debate Boost: As the only network not to host a debate, CBS News looks to boost their fortunes with a Katie Couric moderated forum in North Carolina.

McCain and the Media: Neal Gabler writes in the New York Times about why the media so loves John McCain. "Seeming to view himself and the whole political process with a mix of amusement and bemusement, Mr. McCain is an ironist wooing a group of individuals who regard ironic detachment more highly than sincerity or seriousness. He may be the first real postmodernist candidate for the presidency — the first to turn his press relations into the basis of his candidacy.

"What makes 2008 different — and why I think Mr. McCain can be called the first postmodernist presidential candidate — is his acknowledgment of the symbiosis between himself and the press and, more important, his willingness, even eagerness, to let the press in on his own machinations of them. On the bus, Mr. McCain openly talks about his press gambits. According to Mr. Lizza, Mr. McCain proudly brandished an index card with a “gotcha” quote from Mitt Romney that the senator had given Tim Russert of “Meet the Press,” a journalist few would expect to need help in finding candidates’ gaffes. In exposing his two-way relationship with the press this way, he reveals the absurdity of the political process as a big game. He also reveals his own gleeful cynicism about it.

"The candidates who are dead serious about politics, even wonkish, get abused by the press for it. Mr. McCain the ironist gets heaps of affection. In this race, though, it has forced some press contortions. While John McCain 2000 was praised for being the same straight talker off the bus as he was on it, John McCain 2008 is praised precisely because he isn’t the same man. Off the bus he plays to the rubes (us) by reciting the conservative catechism; on the bus he plays to the press by giving the impression that his talk is all just a ploy to capture the Republican nomination."

Making Sense: Variety's Brian Lowry writes that Obama's race speech left many cable news commentators, well, speechless. How do they respond when they are programmed for the trivial?

Lowry writes, "The Project for Excellence in Journalism neatly summarized the Obama coverage, saying that "perhaps the most intriguing element was watching the media culture try to deal with a speech that was so complex it defied the TV panel debate, the skills of the veteran political writer or the parameters of a 90-second nightly news segment."

Church & State: Jack Klugman, Michael J. Fox, Wendie Malick and Dan Lauria taped a special program in D.C.'s Penn Quarter on the separation of church and state, reports the Washington Examiner's Yeas & Nays.

MoveOn Moment: MoveOn and Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films will deliver more than 200,000 petition signatures to NBC in New York and ABC in Washington on Thursday asking the networks not to "parrot Fox's right-wing smears during the critical 2008 election."

Morris' Plans: The Politico's Jeffrey Ressner writes that director Errol Morris plans an online site featuring an archive of unredacted photos, interview transcripts and court papers related to Abu Ghraib. Morris is working on a new documentary, "S.O.P.: Standard Operating Procedure."