
There are many, many, many reasons why I am glad that Barack Obama is our president, but tonight I must add another one to the list. As I watched CNN earlier today, it became painfully obvious to me that tonight's 360 was going to be another episode of All About Blago. He was everywhere, peddling his whiny little story of everyone-lies-but-me to any video camera that would have him. Clearly, nobody learned the lesson of 'The Democrats and the Senate Replacement Appointment' so succinctly summed up by Jeffrey Toobin as "They were really just played by Blagojevich completely." This painful knowledge followed me around all afternoon like my own personal raincloud. So to President Obama as well as whomever at 360 decided to dedicate most of tonight to a FAR more important story... the thanks of a grateful blogger.

But we begin tonight with more grim math: 70,000 jobs lost IN ONE DAY. That's a football stadium worth of pink slips. Ali Velshi, I swear to you, sir ... some day you will be rewarded with GOOD news to deliver!
We do at least have a new Treasury Secretary. Why anyone would want the job is beyond me, but let's hope he's as smart as the president thinks he is. (And as someone who got bad info from the IRS' own help line, only to suddenly discover one day that I owed several thousand dollars in back taxes... I sympathize with the guy. Oh, and when I called the IRS to tell them of my discovery, they instructed me not to pay the taxes until they figured out what I owed and notified me. I got one year's back-bill every year for five years and am still paying taxes in two directions.)
Ed Henry reports on the happenings at the White House, and one of the things that people are griping about today is the newly proposed fuel regulations and how it will be the end for the American automakers. Funny, I thought the fact that Detroit didn't bother making more fuel-efficient cars, as their competitors have been, was the reason people aren't buying cars from the Big Three anymore. Silly me.

On to the big story of the night -- President Obama gave his first one-on-one interview tonight, and it was to al-Arabiya Television. Absolutely brilliant. Considering how much damage he has to repair in our relationship with the Arab world, this was a simple but meaningful act. Of course, far more important was what he said, and I sincerely do salute 360 for dedicating so much of the broadcast to this event. For so many of us who have been cringing through the cowboy rhetoric of the past eight years, it's refreshing to hear our elected representative making it clear that we are going after the bad guys, not everyone who looks or prays the same way.
(And yes, to have a president who can be described as "a keen intellect, a man of supple intelligence who knows how to connect complex things together.")
The panel tonight is Hisham Melhem (DC Bureau Chief and US Affairs Editor for al-Arabiya Television, and the man who interviewed the president this evening), Reza Aslan, David Gergen, and also Nic Robertson via phone:
They played most of the interview throughout the course of the show -- I'm sure it will soon be posted at CNN.com, if it isn't already -- although there seemed to be a glitch as far as showing the same section twice. Anderson did mention at one point that it was a last-minute decision to cover it in such depth, so it's understandable that not everything went according to plan. I imagine we may get one of those "here's what went on behind the scenes" post on the 360 Blog tomorrow.
More of the interview, more with the panel. Well, half of the panel, anyway...

My first thought was, do we have to hear anything more about Ted Haggard? Ever? But it actually turned out to be an interesting piece.

HBO is airing a film directed by Alexandra Pelosi (daughter of Nancy) about Haggard's life after the scandal that cost him everything but his family. I never liked the guy to begin with, he has always struck me as the snakeoil-selling type of preacher (although to be fair, I have never listened to the guy any more than I absolutely had to!) so his absence from the public eye has been No Big Deal to me. But like Pelosi, I think the reaction of the church has been a far more telling story than was the scandal itself.

However, UNlike Pelosi, I agree with Anderson: Haggard will be back as a preacher. He may have to start his own church to do it, but why agree to this movie if not for the chance to begin the reclamation-of-image process we have watched so many "fallen" stars -- athletes, actors, politicians, musicians -- go through? Fame is fleeting, but in our society, so is infamy.
Finally, the 360 Bulletin: stocks are somehow up, an arrest in the Travolta extortion plot, and the Sasha and Malia dolls still annoy everyone. (The only clean way out of the doll mess is for Ty to agree to donate profits to a charity, and they'd be wise to make that offer very soon.)
And The Shot -- finally they break down and face The Blago Problem, but they at least make him look like the damned fool he is:
Hmm... I seem to have three extra screengrabs tonight. Whatever shall I do with them? (We could have a vote for the favorite one, but really -- does it matter?)