Obama deserves to win because...

... he got ABC to break into World News with live coverage of his rally with John Edwards ... the day AFTER he lost West Virginia by 40 points.

Hot damn! That's no small feat.

Here's the whole Edwards speech from CNN:

Debate analysis: Media hungry! Media feed!

From the wooded wilderness in the shadow of the Mesabi Iron Range's western ridge, I offer a brief commentary on the national political scene.

The progressive blogs are hammering last night's ABC Democratic Presidential debate moderated by Charles Gibson and George Stephanopoulos (along with more objective media critics and journalism experts). I'm glad that I purposely avoided watching it because I feared the debate would go down this way. I have since read the transcripts and agree that the thing was a disaster. The first half was relegated to tough but largely trivial questions primarily focused against the frontrunner Barack Obama. Vast swaths of important issues were ignored, including the economy and health care. And yes, Obama's performance was only so-so while Clinton was polished but unappealing in her zeal to join in the mud-fest. Basically, no one won, which is what is being repeated all over the Internet today.

I mean, really. "Do you believe Rev. Wright loves America as much as you, Sen. Obama?" and questions about why Obama doesn't wear flag pins. That's a Toby Keith song, not a debate.

Here's my unique contribution to the day-after debate, however. A lot of people are arguing that this debate had an anti-Obama or pro-Hillary bias. And on the surface it could seem that way, but the truth is much more depressing. I have long contended that the national media is neither liberal nor conservative. The national media is a hulking, bloodthirsty animal focused on self-gratification and preservation. It will feed on any ideology so long as its checks keep cashing. Last night, ABC did everything it could to keep the Democratic nomination race A) alive and B) ugly -- two things that will provide another good month of ratings and revenue for the national news media.

I watch "ABC World News" every night and "This Week" every Sunday morning. I basically like and respect Gibson and Stephanopoulos. But this was a very bad debate and spoke very poorly of political discourse in America today. The polls won't move, the results won't be affected, but everyone will feel just a little bit dirtier on the inside. Hooray for the Fourth Estate!