Notice anything different about the C-SPAN website?

Yeah, it looks great.   A wonderful redesign.  Now it’s truly an amusement park for political junkies and average citizens alike.

Some features of the New Look — a revised home page — to breathlessly behold:

• Leading events are front and center with large images to attract users’ attention.
• Three leading events can be featured simultaneously, versus one on the former home page.
• Buttons for related video, audio, documents and web pages are color coded and clearly labeled for easy identification.
• Colored tabs delimit groups of information on the home page, including: Capital News, Featured Links and This Week On C-SPAN.
• Search has been moved to the top right where users can quickly locate it.
• Recent Programs has been enhanced with thumbnails of speakers and more information about event video.

Why the New Look?

We courageously posed that penetrating question to C-SPAN’s John Cardarelli. He tells us:

“The web site has always contained a lot of great information for its users, but users expressed their displeasure trying to navigate through the site.  Our IT people came up with a design to streamline that information to make it more user friendly, and cleaner in appearance, while still maintaining the library of resources contained in it.”

“This home page redesign is being called a ‘beta’ launch, which means we can go back and tweak it a little to make it more efficient if need be, but it will give the user an idea of the direction we will be taking the web site over the next year or so.”

For now, it’s just the home page that’s been redone.  The rest of the site will be completed in stages over the next year.  So for the next year, we’ll be refreshing every five minutes in eager anticipation.

America is poised to elect its first sitting U.S. Senator as president since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Kennedy has been in the news a lot lately because of Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton.

We’ll know on Super Tuesday how much of a difference that endorsement made.

Until then, it’s worth noting some additional Kennedy symbolism.

Ted Kennedy, the third-longest serving U.S. Senator ever, endorsed freshman Obama at American University.  Turns out, AU holds an important place in Kennedy lore.  It was at AU that John Kennedy gave his famous June 10, 1963 commencement address, otherwise known as the nuclear test ban treaty speech: “As Americans, we find communism profoundly repugnant as a negation of personal freedom and dignity.”

The question Feb. 5 will answer: Can Camelot — and American University — still inspire greatness?

The Washington Post’s “Reliable Source” column strikes again with unparalleled brilliance.  Here’s what they reveal today in their spectacular State of the Union coverage:

What will be this year’s viral-video moment?

At press time, a clip of the GOP side standing to cheer Bush’s call for tax relief while Dems stay seated is outpacing a reaction shot of Clinton frowning, according to YouTube stats tracked by New Media Strategies. Remains to be seen whether either can compete with John McCain dozing during the ‘07 SOTU (281,000 views) or Clinton laughing during the ‘06 speech (67,000 views).

Here are the videos…

GOP standing for Bush’s call for tax relief:

Hillary Clinton frowning:

John McCain dozing:

Hillary Clinton laughing:

This item from the Miami Herald might be a few days old — but it sure is fun:

Hillary Clinton arrived at Lucky Strike Lanes on Miami Beach for a fundraiser tonight greeted by a smiling Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who told a throng of reporters he was “thrilled to be here to endorse Hillary Clinton as the next president of the United States.”

Clinton arrived around 7:45 and waved and smiled as she walked toward the door. A crowd that had gathered across the street applauded. She and Diaz embraced. Clinton shook hands with another man holding a child, and was overheard noting, “I am a gutterball bowler.”

At the least, it’s refreshing to hear the term “lucky strike” in a different context for a Clinton.

We haven’t had one of these in a while, so imagine our glee to read Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post today:

Kumbaya Caucus: One of the most interesting contrasts between last year’s State of the Union address and this year’s has nothing to do with President Bush. It involves the transformed tone of the Democratic response, from partisan lion to post-partisan lamb.

And this, in turn, reflects a schism in Democratic thinking — to what extent to be the party of fighters and to what extent the party of Kumbaya — that is being played out most prominently in the presidential race.

Please welcome to the Reagan Revolution Maryland Democratic Rep. Al Wynn.

Superb catch in Newsbusters by Tim Graham:

You don’t see this every day. In a fierce Maryland fight for a majority-black seat in Congress, Rep. Al Wynn’s campaign filed a complaint against Donna Edwards, the leftist challenger that he barely beat in the last election cycle. The Washington Post reported he said in a conference call with reporters: “There seems to be a vast, dare I say, left-wing conspiracy designed to circumvent campaign finance laws.” Wynn is being challenged as too conservative, even though he has a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 9.9 percent.

No wonder Maryland went Republican in Novembers 1984 abd 1988 — Al Wynn!

The harshest words you’ll hear tonight won’t come from Mitt Romney against John McCain or Bill Clinton against Barack Obama.

No, that roar you hear thundering through the Internets comes from a place we thought we had left behind: New Hampshire.

Check out this new Manchester Union Leader editorial — if you dare:

COURTING VOTERS in Iowa and New Hampshire, last August Sen. Hillary Clinton signed a pledge not to “campaign or participate” in the Michigan or Florida Democratic primaries. She participated in both primaries and is campaigning in Florida. Which proves, again, that Hillary Clinton is a liar.

Clinton kept her name on the Michigan ballot when others removed theirs, she campaigned this past weekend in Florida, and she is pushing to seat Michigan and Florida delegates at the Democratic National Convention. The party stripped those states of delegates as punishment for moving up their primary dates.

“I will try to persuade my delegates to seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida,” Clinton said last week, after the New Hampshire primaries and Iowa caucuses were safely over.

Clinton coldly and knowingly lied to New Hampshire and Iowa. Her promise was not a vague statement. It was a signed pledge with a clear and unequivocal meaning.

She signed it thinking that keeping the other candidates out of Michigan and Florida was to her advantage, but knowing she would break it if that proved beneficial later on. It did, and she did.

New Hampshire voters, you were played for suckers.

Ouch!  Smokin’!   So much for a Granite State battle in November.  So much for Hillary finding her voice in New Hampshire.  And this is probably not the time to quote Bill Clinton from the ’90s: “Thank you New Hampshire.”

Interesting — and rare — look inward by President Bush today:

By the way, first there’s a — people have got to come here and realize that there are people who love them and want to help them. And second, there is the practical application of helping somebody find work. Addiction is hard to overcome. As you might remember, I drank too much at one time in my life. I understand faith-based programs. I understand that sometimes you can find the inspiration from a higher power to solve an addiction problem. This program helps along these folks who have been dealing with addictions.

We’re a bit puzzled today by this fascinating report in Red State:

How would you like to get the terrorists’ perspective on tonight’s State of the Union address?

Want Osama’s direct rebuttal? No, he won’t actually be giving the Democrats’ response to the State of the Union, but the Democrats have given his propaganda arm a prime seat for tonight’s State of the Union.

Check out the picture below. As you’ll see, Al-Jazeera gets not just any place, but their spot is just three to four steps away from the House Democratic Whip’s Office.

Here’s the picture Red State provides:

Quite a striking image.  The puzzle is, how could this happen?

The secret is pretty much out on Al Jazeera.  There are abundant “issues” with the network.  Having worked in international broadcasting — on America’s side — I’m quite familiar with them.  The one that always gets me is this: How did Al Jazeera observe the fourth anniversary of 9/11?  By showing the Michael Moore film “Fahrenheit 9/11.”
Let’s be clear: This is not a free speech issue.  Heck, they should be allowed to set up shop in the heart and center of our democratic institutions.  The best thing about allowing Al Jazeera into the Capitol Dome is the symbolism that we treasure freedom of speech in America — a value not widely shared among Al Jazeera’s target Middle East audience.  Who knows — one day maybe free speech will even make it big in the Arabic-speaking Middle East.  That’s what dreaming big is all about.
No, the issue — as Red State’s evidence shows — is Al Jazeera’s prominence.  So close to House leadership.  That’s the puzzling part.  Why the honored spot?  Were American-sponsored international broadcast outlets, like Voice of America or Al Hurra, allowed such access?  Was it staff oversight or staff intention?  A few answers, some sunlight, might alleviate our fears.

Looks like someone forgot to tell him Florida is full of old people.