No need to worry about my getting a swelled head from my four minutes of fame. I immediately drove home, took off the makeup, finished up the laundry, gave a snack to the dogs, and Kate and I watched The Incredibles with a bowl of popcorn.
HARRIS: Ok, let's talk more about these big endorsements. They are big, in case you missed it during Suzanne Malveaux's live report at the top of the hour, here's the skinny.
The "Des Moines Register" and let's keep it real here, this isn't some college paper. It's the big paper, the statewide newspaper endorsing Senators McCain and Clinton for the 2008 Iowa caucuses and "The Boston Globe" is endorsing Senators Obama and McCain.
We have roughly 18 days until the caucus. Is that enough time for the other candidates to jockey into the top position? Let's bring in the bloggers.
On the right, Amanda Carpenter from townhall.org. Amanda, good to talk to you. You're usually on Howard Kurtz's show, right?
AMANDA CARPENTER, TOWNHALL.ORG: I've been on there a couple of times. I'm on with you tonight.
HARRIS: You're going to have more fun on this show. To the left, Pam Spalding from pamshouseblend blog. Good to talk to you.
PAM SPALDING, PAMSHOUSEBLEND BLOG: Nice to talk to you, Tony.
HARRIS: All right let's, Pam, ratchet up the energy a little bit. We go at it here all right? Stay with me now.
The "Des Moines Register" goes for Hillary and McCain. Amanda, let's start with you. What's the impact, let's start with the Clinton campaign?
CARPENTER: I think it gives Hillary a little bit of help. I mean, she's been hurting a lot this week with Obama. Obama has been tearing up. There was a great story in the "New York Times" yesterday, talking about how he has this new confidence. He's speaking much crisper. And McCain, that's interesting, too, because I think he's getting some momentum under the radar.
HARRIS: Do you really?
CARPENTER: I do, because his theory about the surge is being proven true right now and New Hampshire is taking notice as well.
HARRIS: Hey Pam, what do you think about these endorsements?
SPALDING: I think the Clinton endorsement was not particularly surprising. The McCain one is kind of surprising, though if you think about it, the Republican party is having a really tough time this cycle trying to find a candidate that's going to be palatable to the American public.
HASRRIS: What's with your candidates Amanda? Pam says all of them are problem-plagued.
CARPENTER: You know, I think this process is great. The Republican Party is putting our own candidates through the ringer. We're getting a lot more interesting discussion on the issues. We have a great pool of candidates.
Mitt Romney, a former governor, John McCain, with these great credibility on the war issues, Rudy Giuliani, seeing things, cleaning up New York. I think our pool is great, I think our pool is strong. And it's good that we're taking a long time to make up our minds.
HARRIS: Yes and Pam, did you see these endorsements coming for John McCain?
SPALDING: I did not. I mean, quite frankly, I think that he is probably the safest. He's also had trouble with fund-raising and his campaign was tanking quite early on. So I know this is a big boost for his campaign.
HARRIS: Pam, one more for you: Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. If you have been following the newscast at all today, you know this news here, officially independent, votes in caucuses with the Democrats, is set to come out tomorrow and endorse John McCain? Huh? What happened here?
SPAULDING: Oh, holy Joe. Yes. I'm not surprised at all at that. It's almost like the circle is now complete, the conversion is now complete. It's a surprise from the perspective that I don't think anyone heard anything about this prior to now.
HARRIS: Yes.
SPAULDING: But I'm really interested to see what the Democrats have to say about that particular -
HARRIS: Well, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, his reaction was basically, "huh?" Amanda, what do you make of this?
AMANDA CARPENTER, TOWNHALL.COM: I think it's interesting. I'm wondering if Hillary will have a Republican in her back pocket to endorse her.
HARRIS: Nice. Let's move forward here a little bit. The endorsements, let's talk about the endorsements in Iowa, that's the first big stop here. Does this have the net effect of moving us away from this cult of personality the last couple of weeks. We got Oprah in Iowa. We got Kevin Bacon in Iowa. We got Tim Robbins in Iowa. Does this new, this set of endorsements from "The Register" effectively get us back to talking about issues, talking about candidates and focus us on the people who perhaps are best to lead the country?
CARPENTER: I don't know about that. Their debates sure did it in the last week.
SPAULDING: No, not at all. We're talking about the media bubble, where we have people who are political junkies, mainstream media looking at the horse race aspect of this, and quite frankly, I don't think most of the American people are tuned in.
HARRIS: Well, we just had a report from Suzanne Malveaux that seemed to indicate that the people really are tuned in.
SPAULDING: Well, in Iowa, they are, but they are states, and I don't think that everybody is engaged around the country. Just remember, 50% of the folks don't vote at all. So I think that you're just going to have to see what happens. I think for insiders in the media, this is an incredibly interesting development. And there's going to be a lot of buzz around it, no doubt.
HARRIS: Amanda, what do you think?
CARPENTER: I disagree. I think people are very tuned in to this election. But unfortunately, I think it's become a little bit more about political entertainment with figures like Oprah and Chuck Norris getting more play than actual issues. Unfortunately.
SPAULDING: I agree with that.
HARRIS: You agree with that. What about the undecided? For example, in Iowa, my goodness, what are we 18 days away? Pam, and you're undecided. What are you waiting for at this point, a bolt of lightning? What happens here?
SPAULDING: Maybe a bolt of lightning would help jar some of these folks. Because I think everything is so political.
HARRIS: Are you as amazed as I am that we get to the end of these races and there's still like huge blocks of undecided voters out there?
SPAULDING: Well, absolutely. I think that there is an element and desire for change, which is why the republicans feel the struggle quite a bit, and there's quite a bit of unanimity and excitement among the Democrats. I think the folks who are backing Democrats are going to have a hard choice and that's interesting and I think it's good for (inaudible).
HARRIS: Amanda, I saw you burrowed your brow there. You made faces. What was all that about?
CARPENTER: Well you know, I wouldn't be as grim as our friend Pam is about the republican party. Like I said before, I think we have a great pool of candidates and people are watching for someone to make a big mistake. If you judge from "The Des Moines Register" endorsement this weekend. At the end, if nothing happens between them, they might be going with the establishment, which is McCain and Clinton.
HARRIS: All right. You know what, Pam, anything? Any last word here?
SPAULDING: No, I just think that when people start seeing things happen after the caucuses in New Hampshire I think you're going to see things shake out a little bit differently. Endorsements alone I don't think is going to make or break anyone.
HARRIS: What do you think, Amanda? Last word to you.
CARPENTER: We'll see in Iowa if the Huckaboom is a Huckabuster or not.
HARRIS: There you go. I think I saw that a couple of places this weekend. Pam, Amanda, great to see you both. That was fun. Thank you.
CARPENTER: Thank you.
