If Obama were ahead of his Republican challenger by double digits ala Dukakis at the same phase of the election cycle in 1988, I'd be buying this (He isn't and I'm not).

No, Obama is doing this to stanch the bleeding from the wounds that were inflicted last night, and to preemptively steal some of the thunder from McCain's speech. Nothing wrong or underhanded here, in fact, it's tactically astute, but he clearly is not acting from a position of either confidence or strength.

Oh and another thing. I don't think that Aug 26 Diageo Hotline poll says quite what you say that it does. Actually kind of a mixed bag for Obama, wouldn't you agree?

I think Dennis Miller feared O Reilly will give Obama the same pass he gave Hillary when he kept pursuing the "stay tough now" line...

Obama wouldn't face a Rush or a Hannity...

Anjin-san, speaking of who watches Fox…did you see the Pew Research Center poll last month which found that Fox News' audience is more balanced than either CNN's or MSNBC's?

Did not see that. I have little interest in Cable news really, its much closer to entertainment than journalism.

The real action is right here on the intenets...

Try to tell yourself the truth before trying to convince someone else.

But truthfully, whether it is balanced coverage or not is unmeasurable - it's qualitative. Viewership polls indicating party affiliation are measurable, however, and I would argue they're a good indicator of approval of balance of coverage. (In other words, if you think it's biased, you won't likely watch...)

Right?

Not necessarily. There was a study not too long ago (which was discussed here) that found that Democrats were more likely to read blogs they felt were right-leaning than Republicans were to read blogs they felt were left-leaning. If we assume that the same impulses work for cable news, that would explain the difference in viewership.

Right?

While Fox certainly leans to the GOP, it’s the most balanced: 39% of regular viewers declared themselves Republicans compared to 33% declaring themselves Democrats. That's like a 4:3 ratio.

Um, viewership doesn't tell you anything about how "balanced" their coverage is. If you went by that, you'd probably see that both the DNC and the RNC were politically "balanced".

Obama Met With Fox News Executives

The Obama/Fox detente is interesting. I think the folks at Fox realize that they don't want to be frozen out of an Obama administration, and Obama realizes that a lot of people watch Fox...

Anjin-san, speaking of who watches Fox…did you see the Pew Research Center poll last month which found that Fox News' audience is more balanced than either CNN's or MSNBC's?

While Fox certainly leans to the GOP, it’s the most balanced: 39% of regular viewers declared themselves Republicans compared to 33% declaring themselves Democrats. That's like a 4:3 ratio.

The study found that 51% of CNN's regular viewers are Democrats, compared to 18% Republicans, or about a 5:2 ratio.

Surprisingly to me, MSNBC's regular audience is slightly more balanced than CNN’s, at 45% Democrat and 18% Republican.

So perhaps Obama recognizes, like Hillary did, that there is a viable audience there.

the Pew link is http://people-press.org/report/444/news-media

O'Reilly: What I do on my show is just an act, just an act.

Colbert: If you're an act, what am I?

Should be interesting. If O'Reilly can't break Senator Obama’s resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the rest of the angry Right never will.

Now, I like O'Reilly about as much as any other liberal Democrat, but was this really necessary?

It is not unusual for the day after a convention for the opposing party candidate to get back at it.