Press Time

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Here's the Wrap (it's late, but it's long):

• The child in me enjoyed this headline: Recruiting Plankton to Fight Global Warming

• Sure to line Obama’s South Carolina pockets, Inez is in the senator’s corner. Meanwhile, Obama’s South Carolina visit included an ethical error.

• Prince Harry (you may know him as “The Cute One”) will soon be heading to Iraq. I’d say they can replace that “fear” he will be targeted by terrorists with “assured.”

• Corzine sorry for not wearing his seat belt.

• Wolfowitz, unlike Gonzales, can see the writing on the wall. He’s nearly ready to resign.

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• Legally Blonde: The Musical — no really!

• Condi may meet with Iran.

• Get it before it’s gone: Cobain’s stuff is going up for auction.

• Read It To Believe It:

Villagers at a wedding in eastern India decided the groom had arrived too drunk to get married, and so the bride married the groom’s more sober brother instead, police said Monday.

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Your tax dollars at work:

STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA

OFFICE OF MARSHALL, LANDON, BOLTON & BLAKE SANFORD

With the assistance of their mom, Jenny Sanford, and the Wachovia Foundation

Columbia, S.C. – April 30, 2007 – How old is the Governor’s Mansion? Why is the number eight an important symbol in our state’s history? Which First Lady is famous for sliding down the Mansion banister? Where does Cocoa the cat like to hide? Who is Ibra? How old are the oldest portraits in the Mansion? What does a local bank’s foundation have in common with South Carolina public school libraries?

Marshall, Landon, Bolton and Blake Sanford along with Jenny Sanford and the Wachovia Foundation invite you to their home on Monday, April 30th at 12:30 pm where they will reveal the answers to these questions and what all of these things have in common. (Governor’s Mansion, 800 Richland Street, 29201)

For more information or directions from your location, please contact Curry Hagerty in the Office of the First Lady at 803-737-4772.

Obviously this was someone’s attempt to be cute, but giving the boys their own office! Well, I guess it worked. I read the release and I have now passed it on. Bravo, Curry Hagerty, Bravo!

So what was the spin room talking about after last night’s debate? Time’s Joe Klein has the inside scoop:

Just wandered through the spin room here at South Carolina State and … nothing happened. Most of the spinners were … speechless, or trading restaurant recommendations in Charleston, or asking reporters, “What did you think?”

8 p.m.

Who’s our biggest ally in the world?

Barack pretty much says everybody.

Gravel asks Brain Williams who he is afraid of. I’m going to guess he’s starting to get scared of Gravel, he’s closest to him, after all.

I just tried to go to Gravel’s web site. It’s not up. That’s a bad sign.

Bill Richardson gives a great answer on tragedies around the world. He’s cut off because of time.

Hillary: “The rhetoric (of the administration on safety) doesn’t meet the reality.”

Another hands question. Is there a global war on terror? Barack and Hillary raise their hand. John Edwards doesn’t. Brian Williams asks Kucinich why he didn’t raise his hand. Good one, Brian. Next time, ask someone who can win.

Barack is asked “what he would do if” cities in this country are attacked by terrorists. Barack: “What we can’t do is alienate the international community … They have got to feel a stake in our security.”

Edwards comes back to the question on global war on terror, God bless him. “We have more tools available to us than bombs.”

Hillary: “We should quickly respond. That doesn’t mean we go looking for other fights.” There you have it.

8:15

No one wants to impeach Dick Cheney …except Dennis Kucinich, who carries a pocket copy of the Constitution with him.

Is there a difference between gay marriage and civil union.

Chris Dodd says that he has two daughters that may one day be lesbians.

He says he supports civil unions, but not gay marriage. Sorry girls.

Back to Gravel: “Osama Bin Laden must have been rolling in his blankets (when we attacked Iraq).”

Kucinich tries to take on Barack on the threat of Iran. Kucinich gets squashed like a bug.

John Edwards is asked who he considers to be his moral leader. He can’t think of anyone. He finally answers the Lord and his father. What kind of softball question was that!

Hillary is asked if Wal-Mart is a good thing or a bad thing. She says it’s a mixed blessing. She says there are great deals there, but it raises some questions about corporate America.

“This is what’s wrong with this administration and corporate America. They don’t see working class Americans. They’re invisible.”

Joe Biden gets in a good answer on the need for the use of force in the world, before the closing bell.

Okay, I have to mention how freakishly tall Dennis Kucinich’s wife is. Wow.

All-in-all, not bad. While everybody pretty much said the same thing (beside Kucinigh and Gravel, who were relegated to the far end of the stage), I think it will work to the Democratic parties benefit to have this opportunity before the Republicans. I think it would have been much more helpful to have a more intimate conversation (read fewer of the bottom-rung candidates), but I understand the need to give everyone a chance.

7:30

Barack gives a strong answer on abortion. He trusts women to make the decision with their physician and their clergy. And that we need to move forward with things we can agree on, like reducing teen pregnancy.

Model Supreme Court Justice

Ginsburg gets the nod from everybody. Well, I say everybody, but the question is scraped after three people.

Hillary gets a Virginia Tech question.

She goes back to her experience at Columbine.

Abortion. Virginia Tech, oh, this is the Happy Half-Hour.

She gives a generic answer.

Richardson gets the question and knocks it out of the park.

Hillary, Barack, and John Edwards say they have never had a gun in the house. They’re the only ones.

Weird answer from Biden.

How could the federal government prevent the massacre? “Shotgun, not a pistol.” Strange in how he delivered it, but true.

Edwards is asked about the fact that he wants to raise taxes.

Everyday man Edwards speaks out: “The rhetoric’s not enough. The highfalutin language is not enough.”

7:45

Hillary says that John and Barack stole from her ideas on healthcare …only she said it nicely.

Question about the NAACP ban on South Carolina and why the candidates have come to South Carolina.

Barack: “The Confederate flag should be put in a museum. That’s where it belongs.” So right.

They ask for a short answer about a political mistake.

Gravel: “I began to feel like a potted plant up here.” So right.

When Hillary, Barack, and John are asked about mistakes, they give honest answers. When Joe Biden is asked, he makes it a question about the failings of the Bush administration. Telling.

Immigration, gas prices, health insurance.

What do you want to acomplish on the first day.

Richardson: “Get us out of Iraq.”

Brian Williams calls time and nobody else gets to answer the qeustion. Bang up job here NBC.