According to Joseph Campbell, vice president of fundraising programs, here's what happened:

"During the broadcast of 'The 60s Live!: My Generation, My Music,' a special featuring Eric Burdon (of the Animals), the Mamas and the Papas, Roger McGuinn (of the Byrds) and others, celebrity host Mike Farrell made an unscripted remark regarding the presidency of the United States. Mr. Farrell's spontaneous comment was entirely unplanned and does not represent the views of PBS, its employees or its member stations."

Campbell explained that, aside from performance clips by many stars of the 60s and pledge breaks featuring station-produced testimonials, a number of celebrities appeared live, including Farrell. "He made the comment live and gave us no indication of his intentions. Immediately after he went off the air he was confronted about his comments and promised that he would stay 'on script' for the remainder of the telecast, and did."

The exact exchange is as follows:

While Farrell is introducing Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and Papas, Phillips says: "People may even know us as boyfriend and girlfriend from (the TV show) 'Providence.'" Then Farrell says: "'Providence' that's right. Now I've been thinking about the fact that with all your qualities and the fact that you don't know anything about economics or foreign policy that you could be in line for the Presidency!"

Getler rightly notes that making political statements while asking viewers for contributions "is just plain stupid, and contradictory to the purpose and credibility of PBS."  He includes a sampling of letters received, all of which are critical. 

Actor Mike Farrell's extremely liberal views and eagerness to voice them are well known and his comment should not have been totally unexpected.  Still, at least PBS is recognizing that - at least during fundraisers - it's prudent to dial down the bias.

QUIJANO: Meantime, fellow Republicans are blasting the Bush administration, questioning why taxpayer dollars are being used to bail out private firms, and they say officials did not consult with them ahead of time. But the White House says, officials did the best that they could amid the fast-moving crisis -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Elaine, thanks very much. Let's assess what's going on with the former Defense Secretary William Cohen, a former U.S. senator. He's chairman and CEO of the Cohen Group here in Washington.

First of all, you were a Republican member of the House, a member of the Senate a long time. We're seeing these Republicans, including Republican leaders, now coming out pretty -- pretty critical of the president himself.

WILLIAM COHEN, CNN WORLD AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, Wolf, I said for many, many years, government is always the enemy, until you need a friend.

And I think that has been the posture, I think, of too many political leadership, always pointing the finger, saying, get government off our backs. You're nothing but a bunch of bureaucrats.

Well, bureaucrats are public servants, civil servants. The government is necessary. You can't have a totally unlimited free market economy without the government having some regulatory responsibility.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: So, what you're saying is, all this deregulation in recent years, some of it may have been counterproductive.

COHEN: What you need is a Goldilocks solution, not too heavy, not too light, not too hot, not too cold, something in which there is a regulatory scheme which in fact does oversee the responsibilities of the Congress and also the administration, to make sure that you don't have cowboys, basically, ignoring the fundamentals of our economy.

Interestingly, Blitzer didn't ask Cohen about his connection to American International Group (AIG).  Cohen serves on AIG's board of directors and has since his election to that position in 2004.

AIG, of course, received an $85 billion government bailout earlier this week.  Blitzer could have introduced a line of questions centering on what responsibilities board directors have in avoiding the turmoil that's afflicted the U.S. economy.  Were directors asleep at the switch?  What fiscal oversight should they have provided?  Does Cohen accept any personal responsibility for what's happened?

No such potentially embarrassing questions were asked.  Instead, Cohen was allowed to speak about the prudence of government intervention.  No doubt he thinks it's great AIG has "a friend" in Washington to prop it up.     

The MSNBC story, "If she can't run a major company..."  cites a recent Fiorina radio interview in which she was asked if Sarah Palin has the experience to run a major company like Hewlett-Packard, which Fiorina formerly served as CEO:

"No. I don't," Fiorina said. "But you know what? That's not what she's running for [laughs]. Running a corporation is a different set of things. I would just remind you that it is Barack Obama who is running for president, John McCain who is running for president. Sarah Palin has more executive experience than Barack Obama has. Barack Obama has never made an executive decision in his life. He has been a state senator and during his time there when a difficult issue came up, he voted present over 100 times instead of standing up and being accountable to a yes or no vote. He has been in the U.S. Senate for a very short period of time and has been running for office most of that time.
 
"Sarah Palin as a mayor and a governor has made executive decisions, challenged her own party, taken accountability for those decisions, so I find it quite stunning actually that the Barack Obama campaign is questioning Sarah Palin's experience who's got more executive experience than he does -- and she's the vice presidential nominee. Barack Obama is the presidential nominee."

But later she told NBC's (Andrea) Mitchell that neither McCain nor Obama nor Biden were qualified to run a major corporation.
 
"Well, I don't think John McCain could run a major corporation; I don't think Barack Obama could run a major corporation; I don't think Joe Biden could run a major corporation. 

CNNPolitics.com started its report:

Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO turned top John McCain aide, said she doesn't think Sarah Palin is qualified to run a major corporation. For that matter, Fiorina said, McCain, Obama and Biden aren't capable of that kind of job either.

To the right of CNN's headline are "Story Highlights."  These are listed in this order:

Carly Fiorina also tells MSNBC John McCain isn't ready to run a corporation
Fiorina was the CEO of Hewlett-Packard and is now a McCain adviser
She also says Barack Obama, Joe Biden not ready to be CEOs

So even though the former HP CEO went out of her way to praise Palin and to point out that governance requires different skill sets than business, CNN chose to highlight Palin's supposed inadequacies. 

This just shows, once again, that skimming mainstream media headlines can be very misleading.  Even - perhaps especially  - if the Web site is run by the self-styled "most trusted name in news."

ROBERTS: It has been said that politics is a popularity contest. And according to a new BBC Poll, Barack Obama is more popular among people overseas. CNN's Becky Anderson is looking at the poll results for us this morning. She is live right there by Carnaby Street in London.

Good morning to you, Becky.

BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

You're absolutely right. An overwhelming majority of the 22,000 people who are polled across 22 countries around the world favor an Obama presidency. Now, let's be honest. Obama did have an advantage going into this campaign as far as the rest of the world is, was and will be concerned, John. It's anybody but Bush. And by dent of association, therefore, anyone but John McCain.

So, let's take a look at these numbers, shall we. And see what's surprising about them. What isn't surprising is you get something like an 82 percent approval rating for Obama. In Kenya, for example, is where many of his siblings, step siblings, members of his family live. They like, know Obama. They like him, they know him, and know a lot about him, and they want him for presidency.

Perhaps more surprisingly, John, is when you look at the numbers from NATO allies. For example Canada, France, Germany, good approval rating of over 50 percent for Obama. And these are people who dealt with the Bush administration in the past and are looking for international affairs, foreign policy and experience in both of those. So, that's where perhaps the numbers are a bit more surprising.

Anderson then mentioned that in 2004 Monsieur John Kerry also enjoyed substantial foreign support, although not quite as much as The One.  The report continued: 

ROBERTS: So, Becky, overseas, President Bush has got very long coattails that John McCain seems to be attached to. But here in the United States, John McCain is presenting himself as an agent of change now. He's going back to that maverick attitude that he had back in the year 2000, and it's starting to work among some independents. Is there anything he can say to change opinion worldwide?

ANDERSON: It's interesting, isn't it? I wondered whether there might be, a few weeks ago, until he took Sarah Palin on to the ticket. That's been interesting to see people react to Sarah Palin and John McCain as an item, because there's an awful lot of skepticism about Sarah Palin.

When you hear words like creationism, when you hear words like -- or phrases like, I don't support the arguments for global warming, for example, it's arguments like that and it's a Sarah Palin ticket, I think, which is, to a certain extent hurting John McCain.

There really isn't very much, it seems, that he can say or do at this point, even on foreign policy interestingly enough -- John.

ROBERTS: We should point out, though, that only people in the United States, people who are Americans, get the opportunity to vote. But it's interesting to look at that worldwide opinion. Becky Anderson for us this morning. Becky, thanks very much.

Roberts's question asking if there's anything McCain can do to change foreign opinion is revealing.  In a world that harbors substantial anti-Americanism, why should a candidate for the United States presidency worry about the paper tiger of overseas opinion?

According to Anderson, the deal breaker for McCain was when Sarah Palin joined the ticket.  Foreigners may not have cheered, but Americans certainly have.  Perhaps, like some in the mainstream media here, people overseas object to her not having traveled to Europe or not even appearing on "Meet the Press."

Concluding by pointing out that only Americans get to vote for president suggests Roberts must not have much respect for his viewers' intelligence.  That's rather common knowledge.  Or maybe it just annoys him that foreigners can't help determine our elections.  

Anchored by Abbie Boudreau, the show touched on why Biden dropped his 1988 presidential bid. 

Discussing it with Boudreau was Senior Biden adviser Ted Kaufman (Kinnock spelled incorrectly throughout transcript):

BOUDREAU (on camera): Do you think he was ready at that point to become president?

KAUFMAN: Yes, I think he was ready to become president.

BOUDREAU (voice-over): On June 9th, 1987, Biden in his home state of Delaware announced that he would run for president. He says fewer than one in five Americans even knew who he was.

BIDEN: Today, I announce my candidacy for president of the United States of America.

BOUDREAU: It was his first time on the national stage, and Biden seemed to love it.

BIDEN: I'm here to have you look me over, and if you like what you see, I'd like your help.

PROF. JOSEPH PIKA, UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE: Biden is the kind of guy that is very charming when you meet him in person. He has got a megawatt smile and he's very attentive. He's very interested in the people that he meets. When you meet Joe Biden, you are impressed and you remember the encounter.

BIDEN: Hello, again. I'm Biden.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines.

BOUDREAU: One of the primaries major events, a forum of the legendary Iowa State Fair. It was August, 1987.

BIDEN: I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university?

BOUDREAU: But his speech sounded familiar. Just like a speech by British Politician, Neil Kinnick.

NEIL KINNICK, BRITISH POLITICIAN: What am I? The first Kinnick in a thousand generations...

BIDEN: Why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university?

KINNICK: Why is Kinnick is the first woman in her family.

BIDEN: Why is it that my wife, who is sitting out there in the audience, is the first in her family to ever go to college?

BOUDREAU: Biden had attributed Kinnick's speech many times before, but this time he didn't give credit. Three weeks later, it was front page news. Joe Biden was accused of plagiarism.

KAUFMAN: And the irony is after the speech was over, he was standing around with some of our advisers, and somebody said, hey, you didn't attribute it. Everybody kind of agreed -- well, let's not make a big fuss of this note, because the press has already heard him attribute it so many times before.

BOUDREAU: One week later, more plagiarism charges. The press was zeroing in. Biden held a news conference to address the crisis and to admit he failed to properly footnote a portion of a law school paper. He claimed he misunderstood the rules of citation.

BIDEN: I made no mistake in my view in using the Kinnick quote, and on all but one occasion to the best of my knowledge, I attributed directly to Kinnick, or I even went and told the whole story about Kinnick. I'm in this race to win and here I come. Thanks a lot, folks.

BOUDREAU: But six days later, a complete turnaround.

BIDEN: The exaggerated shadow of those mistakes has begun to obscure the essence of my candidacy and the essence of Joe Biden. I've concluded that I will stop being a candidate for president of the United States.

CNN didn't detail the extent of Biden's deceptions.  David Broder and Eleanor Randolph wrote in the September 17, 1987 Washington Post:

After that (Kinnock) report, individuals associated with other campaigns pointed out to reporters other passages from Biden speeches containing nearly verbatim repetitions, without acknowledgement, of lines first uttered by the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) and former vice president and senator Hubert H. Humphrey (D-Minn.).

A week later, the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Cliff Haas reported:

Biden's Feb. 3 speech at the California state democratic convention echoed almost word for word parts of speeches Robert Kennedy gave in 1967 and 1968 during his presidential campaign. Biden did not attribute his remarks to Kennedy.

The same story summarized Biden's plagiarism in law school:

On Sept. 17 academic officials revealed that Biden was accused of plagiarism in 1965, his first year at Syracuse University Law School. Biden admitted that he copied five pages of material from a law review without attribution in a term paper for a legal methods course. He received an F for a grade, which was changed to a B when he repeated the course.

Also noted was:

In a heated exchange with a questioner at an April 3 political gathering, Biden claimed that he graduated in the top half of his law school class, received a full academic scholarship, won an international moot court competition, won an award as outstanding political science student and graduated from the University of Delaware with three degrees. In fact Biden graduated 76th in his law school class of 85, had only a half-scholarship based on financial need, was only nominated to be named outstanding political science student and graduated from Delaware with a single B.A. in political science and history. Biden later said that he exaggerates when he is angry.

He sure does, managing to turn a single degree into three and graduating in the top half of his class when the reality is he was ninth from the bottom.  Copying five pages without attribution is considerably more than an innocent failure "to properly footnote a portion of a law school paper."

Joe Biden wasn't truly revealed in "Joe Biden Revealed."  His numerous duplicities over an extended period of time warranted more specifics than those provided by CNN.  Just a guess, but I imagine the network would have covered similar failings by Sarah Palin in much greater depth.   

"Palin should be laughingstock to all feminists" is the title of Mary Mitchell's column in today's Chicago Sun-Times.  In that calm, detached tone readers have come to expect, Mitchell begins:

Sarah Palin makes me sick. I hate that she was able to steal Barack Obama's mojo just by showing up wearing rimless glasses and a skirt.

I hate that she makes Joe Biden look like John McCain and John McCain look like the maverick he is not.

I hate that Palin reminds me of Susan Sarandon's feisty character in "Thelma & Louise." I loved Sarandon in that movie, yet I couldn't stand Palin's feistiness at the Republican National Convention.

Sarah Palin makes me sick -- not because she may speak in tongues -- but because she is a fast talker.

Not even ABC's Charlie Gibson can slow Palin's mouth.

There's yet another reason Mitchell's feeling nauseated:

Sarah Palin makes me sick because although black Democrats have been responsible for giving white candidates the boost they needed to beat their Republican opponents in tight races, these voters are now being insulted by feminists who say they will cross over into the McCain camp because of her.

So we know Mitchell's primary symptom, but what's the underlying cause?  As it turns out, it's an all too common complaint among the many suffering from Palin Derangement Syndrome:

"Frankly, Sarah Palin scares me."

Don't feel lonely, Mary.  It's going around these days.

Former New York mayor Ed Koch says of Palin, "She scares the hell out of me."  Actor Matt Damon calls the GOP vice presidential candidate "terrifying."  New Republic editor Noam Scheiber writes:

The reason Palin scares me has more to do with mechanics than demographics: Palin is such a sensation, and draws such large crowds, that anything she says--particularly attacks on Obama--immediately become part of the campaign conversation.

 "Rock matriarch" - I guess that's a nice way of putting it - Sharon Osbourne admits, "I’m scared of that woman with the glasses and gun! Ugh!"       
And at a Web site that boasts "the latest in green gossip," we learn that singer Pink "is terrified of Sarah Palin, says she 'hates women.'"

The fear and terror engendered by Sarah Palin among Obamatons make Adrian Monk look like John Wayne.  Then again, this could be an opportunity.  Over at the official Barack Obama site, there's a group designated Pagans for Obama.  Perhaps the campaign could institute a group named Sissies for Obama.

Or would that be redundant? 

Some readers have asked me why it was that Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., was without spouse at the 9/11 commemoration ceremony today in New York City.

After all, they point out, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was accompanied by his wife Cindy.

Where was Michelle?

The Obama campaign responds that Michelle was back in Chicago with her daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, since this is the first week of school.

The McCain kids, incidentally, have all graduated from high school (some long ago) with the exception of Bridget, who's 16.

CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer questioned White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux about Michelle Obama's whereabouts on CNN's Situation Room today:

BLITZER: Do we know why -- why Michelle Obama decided not to come, or has the Obama campaign explained that?

MALVEAUX: Wolf, they haven't actually explained that. And since -- since we have seen these pictures, I have e-mailed two people from the Obama campaign to see if we can get an answer to that question, whether or not she was with the daughters, taking care of something else at the time, and why it is that she wasn't able to make it today.

Later, Malveaux had the explanation:

MALVEAUX: Well, Michelle Obama was in Chicago. It was the first week of school for their young daughters, Sasha and Malia. So, she felt it was important to be with them for this week.

All parents can appreciate the importance of being there for young children as they begin a new school year.  Unfortunately, Michelle Obama wasn't able to be with her daughters yesterday.  As reported today by the Indianapolis Star:

FISHERS, Ind. -- Michelle Obama on Wednesday described her struggles to balance career and family -- and spoke of the guilt she often feels when she shortchanges either one.

But her presentation before a mostly female, friendly crowd of 250 in reliably Republican Hamilton County was about more than underscoring that she and her husband, Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, understood family pressures.

Even then, Obama wasn't done for the day.  UPI detailed her Wednesday evening:

The National Black Baptist Convention meeting in Cincinnati warmly welcomed Michelle Obama who called on members to "struggle for the world as it should be."

Obama had to wait for the crowd of about 7,000 to calm down before she could begin her speech Wednesday night, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. She began by telling the National Baptist Convention USA she was speaking "as a person of faith who believes we have all have been called to serve our fellow men and women and to honor God's creation."

"We can either settle for the world as it is, or we can fight and struggle for the world as it should be," she said.

It doesn't seem as though anyone in the mainstream media asked the obvious question:  If the candidate's wife felt it was important to be with her children this week, and that's why she was unable to pay her respects at the 9/11 ceremony, why did she spend yesterday campaigning in two states? 

CHETRY: All right. And Suzanne, what's on tap for the campaign today? And please tell me it's not lipstick again.

MALVEAUX: Let's hope not. He's going to be in Norfolk, Virginia. That is in southeast Virginia, and it's home to the world's largest Naval base. It's one of the most competitive areas that the Democrats and Republicans are fighting over. It's a critical piece of property, piece of land there with folks in Virginia, and they want those voters.

Regardless of your views of Obama's intent in his lipstick on a pig incident, there's no doubt that the episode has been illuminating.  The fumbling, bumbling manner in which the Democratic presidential candidate has mishandled this mini-crisis, knocking him off message and wasting valuable time even on Letterman's program trying to explain himself, must give even his most ardent supporters pause.  How articulate is he without his teleprompter?          

Kiran Chetry may be frustrated and want the lipstick affair to go away.  Then she and her sidekicks can focus on really important stories.  You know, like the one CNN's Jessica Yellin reported on during the same program this morning:

I'll tell you -- here's something you might not know about Sarah Palin. When she was pregnant with her fourth child, she had her baby shower at a shooting range.

Well, at least it's not about lipstick. 

ROBERTS: Coming up now at 18 minutes after the hour. Sarah Palin returns to Alaska today. But her homecoming bittersweet as her eldest son, Track, deploys for Iraq tomorrow. And since Palin was nominated for vice president, her career and her personal life have been under the microscope.

CNN's Jessica Yellin joins us live this morning from Anchorage, Alaska.

YELLIN: Palin supporters insist her experience as a working mother means she'll represent American women. But some women's groups are critical. The Non-Partisan National Partnership for Women and Families gives Alaska a D minus when it comes to its parental leave policy. For example, there's no guarantee a paid leave for new parents.

DR. VICKI LOVELL, INSTITUTE FOR WOMEN'S POLICY RESEARCH: I think there's a contradiction there between Governor Palin's professed values about supporting families and then what we actually see in the state of Alaska where there aren't adequate supports for families who are welcoming new infants.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YELLIN: Now, John, Palin, herself, never took much maternity leave. And as for the state law, her defenders say, well, she's had other priorities in office, like championing a natural gas pipeline and seeing to it that Alaskans get money back from a tax on oil companies.

So how nonpartisan is the National Partnership for Women and Families? Check out its board of directors. Cheryl D. Mills's name stands out. She "gained national prominence for her defense of President Clinton during the 1999 Senate impeachment trial." Linda Bergthold is a blogger on the leftwing Huffington Post, with a recent contribution titled "The VP Choice that Lost the Presidency for McCain."

The next three board members listed, Ranny Cooper, Linda D. Fienberg, and Nikki Heidepriem, have made numerous contributions to the very partisan EMILY's List - whose "chair" is also on the board - and to various Democratic candidates. Dr. Vicky Lovell of the Institute for Women's Policy Research sees a contradiction between Palin's words and actions. That's a real surprise, especially coming from a Hillary Clinton contributor.

Not everyone believes that it's a legitimate function of government to meddle with private sector personnel policies. But I won't hold my breath waiting for CNN to find a "nonpartisan" group supporting that view.

In both the printed and Web editions of today's Chicago Tribune appears the short piece, "Rangel had interest-free mortgage:"

Rep. Charles Rangel paid no mortgage interest on a beach resort property for more than 10 years, a lawyer for the powerful House committee chairman said Friday.

The New York congressman's lawyer, Lanny Davis, told The Associated Press that Rangel got his no-interest deal for the villa in the Dominican Republic because he was an original buyer in the resort development, and in the early days after the purchase the rental income failed to meet expectations.

Not mentioned is that the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which Rangels chairs, writes tax laws.  You know, laws like paying taxes on rental income. Additionally, Rangel's political party is not identified, no doubt merely an inadvertent lapse in reportage.

Guess we're really going to have to put on our thinking caps to figure out to which party Charlie belongs.  Think, think, think.  What, you already know?