TVSquad

Like a large number of Americans, I watched last night's vice presidential debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden with great interest. And, like most Americans, I was interested in the debate for reasons other than finding out about each ticket's policy views. I wanted to see Palin and Biden screw up. Big time.

Unfortunately (heh), both did fine. Palin spoke in complete sentences that more or less made sense, even if they didn't answer any of Gwen Ifill's questions; Biden didn't ramble on or say that FDR was the president during the stock market crash of 1929. But I don't know if you can attribute this debate's gaffelessness on the poise of the candidates alone. The format of the debate was so restrictive, it didn't give either of them time to go off on screwy tangents.

Wouldn't it have been better if both could just sit in a couple of chairs and speak freely? You know, like on a talk show?

Now that the confetti has been swept away, all the balloons popped, and the St. Paul cops are stowing their riot gear, it's time to recall the surprisingly eventful Republican National Convention in Minnesota. Is it really only one week ago today that Senator John McCain pulled a rabbit out of his hat and introduced little-known Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate? She's not little-known anymore. In fact, the 2008 Republican Convention is forever more to be remembered for her ascent, whatever her future portends.

Here's some other thoughts from the TV coverage of the RNC:

Media matters
Having the two political conventions back to back was a plus for the TV pros. All the mistakes from Denver were rectified in St. Paul. The MSNBC set ups avoided train stations and noise interruptions. Splitting up Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews worked better, with Olbermann as the point man throwing the coverage to the other news pros. And there was less bickering and fighting, at least compared to the week before.

NBC News anchor Campbell Brown is moving to CNN. She has been co-anchoring Weekend Today since 2003, but her contract is up at the end of this month and she is not re-signing with the network. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that she didn't get the Today anchor gig when Katie Couric left for CBS. Brown was reportedly one of the Top 5 contenders for the job, but it went to Meredith Vieira.

While a newsperson's jump from NBC to CNN isn't that exciting, Campbell's move may signal a shake-up at CNN. TV Newser is reporting that she may be getting her own show... in place of Paula Zahn's 8 pm NOW broadcast, which has had dwindling ratings.

I didn't even know that Syler was a host of The Early Show. How could he be the host of a daily morning talk show on CBS and go around the country, cutting open people's heads and stealing their superpowers?

Actually, it's Rene Syler, one of the 34 co-hosts they have over at The Early Show (last time checked it was Syler, Harry Smith, Hannah Storm, and Julie Chen) is leaving the show to pursue other projects, including a book that will be released this spring. Her last day on the show will be December 22.

I don't buy the Sunday New York Times every week; at $3.50, it's far too expensive, especially when most of the articles can be found online. But when I know that one of my dopey little blurbs about some greasy spoon in the wilds of New Jersey will be in the paper that week, I break down and buy it (hey, need to maintain the clip portfolio, know what I mean?).

Which is why I'm surprised that I missed this article about my girl Campbell Brown's wedding in the April 9 Sunday Styles section. I had the dead-trees version of the paper in my grubby little hands that day; I even scanned the Styles section -- love that Modern Love column! -- but for some reason, I missed this. It describes how Brown and her new husband, Fox analyst and White House press secretary candidate Dan Senor, met and fell in love over discussions about Iraq, current affairs, and politics.

Some interesting tidbits about Campbell: she's three years older than Senor, has been married and divorced already, wears suits on NBC Nightly News that still have the price tags on them, and has an ankle tattoo of a banana. Hmm... looks like Senor's one lucky guy there, doesn't it?

Oh, and what did I learn about Dan Senor? Well... uh... I don't really remember... he's bald?

[via Rachel Sklar on Huffingtonpost.com]