PREFACE:

On ABC’s This Week, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger blamed President Reagan for sabotaging Jimmy Carter’s “great energy plan.” He also instructed voters not to buy into what John McCain says on the campaign trail, as he would when elected “mold his ideas” with those of the Dems to create compromise.

Arnold said: “I think that Senator McCain should be campaigning in Caleefornia. … He has a very good shot [at winning the State].”

On Fox News Sunday, the show was dedicated to Tony Snow. Vice President Dick Cheney remarked that Tony was a “major player in the conservative movement,” one of the very few with experience “on both sides of the divide.” In the next segment, three journalists talked about Tony: Brett Baier, Martha Raddatz, and Mike Allen.

At NBC, Tom Brokaw starred on this week’s MTP. Claire McCaskill was the Obama surrogate, while Carly Fiorina was there for McCain. They all discussed how bad the economy was, with Fiorina relating that Phil Gramm would no longer be speaking for John McCain. McCaskill implied that Obama had never used the 16-mont timeline.

On CBS, FTN host Bob Schieffer discussed a New York Times piece asserting that we were about to start a rapid withdrawal from Iraq. Carl Levin said that it was about time and that the Senate wanted to get out now. Lugar agreed, adding that Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki is going along because he is up for reelection. Both men want lots and lots of sanctions to be placed against Iran, with Levin arguing that we need Russian cooperation so should scrap the missile shield.

Next on FTN, Ed Gillespie explained that the latest evaluation period is coming to an end, so this is perhaps why we are seeing leaks from anonymous sources.

On CNN, LE host Wolf Blitzer first spoke to Iraqi National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie, interrupting the man repeatedly in an attempt to make the point that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki sides with Barack Obama’s 16-month timetable for withdrawal of John McCain’s approach which would consult our generals and base withdrawal on conditions on the ground. Maliki would have none of this, emphasizing that things had improved to the point where we could now realistically discuss an end to the war.

Blitzer then argued with South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford over whether there were any differences between Bush and McCain on the economy, pointing out that they used to disagree about the Bush tax cuts before McCain flipped.

Read the Show-by-Show review at the BRAND NEW REDSTATE.COM 3.0. Check it out!