Photograph by Pete Marovich/Getty Images

Sarah Palin, former Governor of Alaska, waves at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) March 16, 2013 in National Harbor, Maryland.

As others already have noted about Sarah Palin’s departure from Fox News, the network said at the time: “We have thoroughly enjoyed our association with Governor Palin. We wish her the best in her future endeavors.”

The future is here.

At Fox, which says: “Palin will appear on FOX News Channel’s (FNC) daytime and primetime programming, starting with FOX & Friends on Monday, June 17^th. She will also contribute to FOX Business Network (FBN).”

Chairman Roger Ailes explains: “I have great confidence in her and am pleased that she will once again add her commentary to our programming. I hope she continues to speak her mind.”

In tune with Rand Paul on the NSA spying, she is:

Clapper lied. Government spied. gu.com/p/3ggm5/tw

— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) June 13, 2013

Palin already has served longer as a Fox News contributor than she did as governor of Alaska.

“From January 2010 to January 2013, she served as a contributor for FNC,” the network statement notes. “In 2010, Palin was named to Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” list.”

She also ran for vice president. That’s down the resume.

Original post is Sarah Palin: Back to the Future by Political Capital.

In Showtime’s documentary, “The World According to Dick Cheney,” the man generally acknowledged to have been the most powerful vice president in U.S. history is asked to name his main fault.

He punts.

“Um, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my faults, I guess would be the answer.”

Fair enough, but the filmmakers shouldn’t get off so easy.

Directed by R.J. Cutler and Greg Finton, the film is more even-handed than revelatory.

In documentaries as in politics, nice doesn’t always triumph.

“If you want to be loved,” Cheney advises politicians, “go be a movie star.”

Granted, Cutler (“The War Room,” “The September Issue”) and Finton don’t ignore Cheney’s unlovable qualities, and the biographical recap in the first portion of the film is no whitewash. (Cheney, who flamed out at Yale before notching two DUIs, was hardly a young man of promise.)

But the opportunities presented by having Cheney in the hot seat go unexploited. The pricklier subjects are left to talking- head journalists (Bob Woodward, David Corn, Ron Suskind, among others) to expound upon.

Nothing, for example, is mentioned of his energy policies. His rote answers to questions of historical import go largely unchallenged. Asked about water-boarding, which Cheney denies is torture, the former veep answers with a question of his own, effectively framing the issue in his favor:

“Tell me what terrorist attacks you would have let go forward,” he rebuts, “because you didn’t want to be a mean and nasty fella?”

Kathryn Bigelow has endured greater challenges on the subject than Cheney does here.

“The World According to Dick Cheney” airs Friday, March 15 on Showtime at 9 p.m. EDT.

Greg Evans is a critic for Bloomberg Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News.

Original post is Showtime’s Cheney Wet Kiss: TV by Political Capital.

Photograph by George Burns/Oprah Winfrey Network via Getty Images

Oprah Winfrey speaks with Lance Armstrong during an interview regarding the controversy surrounding his cycling career on Jan. 14, 2013 in Austin, Texas.

After weeks of public lashings and millions in lost sponsorship deals, Lance Armstrong finally received a shred of good news today.

While Armstrong’s primetime television doping confession may have changed how people feel about the cancer-surviving former cycling champion, one person’s view remained unchanged: Andre Birotte Jr., the U.S. attorney who led the criminal probe into the cyclist.

Birotte, at an unrelated press conference at the Justice Department today in Washington, D.C., said he was “well aware” of Armstrong’s decision last month to come clean about years of doping. Still, the Los Angeles-based U.S. attorney told reporters today, his February 2012 decision not to pursue charges against the cancer survivor and former seven-time Tour de France champion stands.

“Obviously we’ll continue to look at the situation, but it hasn’t changed our view as we stand here today,” Birotte said.

That should serve as at least one piece of good news for Armstrong, who told cable television’s Oprah Winfrey during his two-night prime-time confession that he lived “this mythic, perfect story and it wasn’t true.”

Armstrong told the former day-time talk show host that he has lost millions of dollars in endorsement deals after he was banned in October from competing in Olympic-level sports after the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency published a 1,000-page report that it had found proof he engaged in serial cheating.

Armstrong’s trouble with the federal authorities may not be over, however. Floyd Landis, a former teammate, filed a whistle-blower lawsuit on behalf of the U.S. government claiming Armstrong violated a sponsorship deal with the Postal Service by doping. The Justice Department maintains the option of joining that suit.

Original post is Armstrong’s Confessions Stir No Interest from Federal Prosecutor by Political Capital.

Photograph by Jewel Samad/AFP via GettyImages

Mitt Romney speaks during a campaign event on Oct. 5, 2012 in St. Petersburg, Florida.

It’s hot in Florida, we already knew — a dead-heat, a CNN poll today finds.

Among Florida’s likely voters, the poll finds, 49 percent support Republican Mitt Romney, 48 percent President Barack Obama. The survey has a possible four percentage point margin of error.

The CNN/ORC International survey of 681 likely voters was run Oct. 17-18, the two days following the second televised presidential debate between Obama and Romney. The two will meet for their final debate, in Boca Raton, Florida, Monday at 9 pm EDT.

A CNN/ORC International run Aug. 31 through Sept. 3 found an even tie: Obama 48 percent, Romney 48 percent.

Obama carried the state by 2.8 percentage points in 2008. The biggest of all swing states, Florida backed Presidents George W. Bush twice, Bill Clinton once, George H.W. Bush twice, Ronald Reagan twice and Jimmy Carter once.

Two big newspaper editorial endorsements in Florida also have split: The Orlando Sentinel endorsing Romney, the Tampa Bay Times Obama.

For the Orlando paper, with a long record of Republican endorsements, it was a reversal from 2008, when it backed Obama. For the Tampa Bay paper, formerly known as the St. Petersburg Times, with a history of Democratic endorsements, it was a reaffirmation of its 2008 choice.

“Four years ago,”the Tampa Bay paper’s editors write in an editorial online and in Sunday’s newspaper, “Barack Obama offered an inspiring message of hope and change to an uneasy nation bogged down in two wars and facing economic collapse. The rosy idealism quickly gave way to the harsh realities of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The recovery has proven more difficult than anyone imagined. But conditions would be far worse without the president’s steady leadership. This is not the time to reverse course and return to the failed policies of the past.”

The Orlando paper had endorsed Obama in 2008 and Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts before him, but since 1956 (including 2012), the paper has endorsed Republicans 11 times, Democrats three times, and once, in 1980, neither. “Often, as in the case of Mitt Romney, our recommendation turned on which candidate we thought would better handle the challenges of America’s economy,” the editors write.

Here’s a recent history, from the newspaper:

1984 — Ronald Reagan (R)

“… [Y]es, there is an asterisk to this endorsement. … It’s there because Ronald Reagan more than anyone else must remember that this is an election based on two choices and that being the better choice is far short of being the messiah of a new political order.”

1988 — George H.W. Bush (R)

“The only thing certain is that the nation cannot continue to amass debt as it has over the past eight years. … Indeed, this mutual inability to deal head on with the deadly federal deficit and an uncertain economy is one of many reasons the nation longs for more satisfactory choices in the presidential race.”

1992 — George H.W. Bush (R)

“Mr. Clinton argues that combining a Democratic president with a Democratic Congress, for the first time in 12 years, will break the legislative logjam on Capitol Hill. … The concern, though, is that significant tax increases and significant new spending will be what comes spilling through.”

1996 — Bob Dole (R)

“… Bob Dole sees more clearly than does Bill Clinton that government’s role should diminish, not expand. With Mr. Dole, responsibility rests more with individuals to solve problems.”

2000 — George W. Bush (R)

“Mr. Bush has studied history and business. He is qualified to understand what inspires business. And he has a history of achieving bipartisan success in Texas, something badly needed at the national level. …”

2004 — John Kerry (D)

“Mr. Bush has abandoned the core values we thought we shared with him — keeping the nation strong while ensuring that its government is limited, accountable and fiscally responsible.”

2008 — Barack Obama (D)

“If Mr. Obama wants to fulfill his promise as a leader who rises above a partisan agenda, he will need to strike a moderate course.”

2012 — Mitt Romney (R)

Oct. 19: “We have little confidence that Obama would be more successful managing the economy and the budget in the next four years. For that reason, though we endorsed him in 2008, we are recommending Romney in this race.”

Original post is Obama-Romney Tie in Florida, Newspaper Endorsements Split by Political Capital.

Overall this cycle, Obama has seen $229,751,439 million in these outside group-sponsored ads, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. A staggering $191,861,334 has been spent on ads opposing him, and just $30,879,103 has been spent to say nice things about him. American Crossroads tops the list of those spending against the president, with $44,054,673 so far, followed closely by the super-PAC supporting Romney, Restore Our Future not far behind with $42,788,616. Americans for Prosperity with $30,800,720 and the Republican National Committee with $27,941,292 round out the top four.

The major spenders supporting Obama are the Democratic National Committee with $18,155,790 and the Service Employees International Union with $4,197,633.

The spending on Romney is half of what was spent on Obama by independent expenditure groups — $111,225,052 — with $43,338,882 supporting his campaign and $67,375,517 opposing it. The super-PAC supporting Obama, Priorities USA Action, has put up $44,279,410 in negative ads. Winning Our Future, formed to support Newt Gingrich’s failed presidential bid, is the next closest contender in anti-Romney spending with $4,031,934. The RNC has spent more than any of the other outside groups on ads with a positive spin on Romney’s candidacy — $20,826,762.

And the onslaught continues. American Crossroads just launched a new $11 million ad buy in eight states. The ad features a housewife in the kitchen asking the president (who’s on screen in his own ad), “Where are the jobs you promised? The trillions you spent — where did it all go? What’s there to show for all that new debt? And if we’re in a recovery, why are we making less? My family can’t afford another four years of this.”

It’s coming to a TV near you today, if you live in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio or Virginia.

There is some respite from the onslaught of political ads in live television available tonight: You can tune into round 2 of Obama v. Romney, the second presidential debate. It might be the only political ad-free TV you’ll get to see … at least until the next presidential debate.

Original post is State of Play: Independent Ad Spending by Political Capital.

Photograph by Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images

Reading the Los Angeles Times using the Flipboard app on an iPad in Los Angeles.

More people get their news online than from radio or newspapers, and television could be next to lose out in the evolving habits of news consumers, according to a poll out today.

The survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press found 39 percent of Americans saying that they now read their news on computers, tablets, phones and other online sources. More people are getting their news from Facebook or other social media.

That’s ahead of newpspaers (29 percent) and radio news (33 percent) though still behind television (55 percent).

The next generation of news consumers is already shifting away from TV. Just 34 percent of those under 30 said they watched TV news yesterday, down from 49 percent in 2006. And 33 percent said they received their news from a social networking site. In total, 19 percent said they saw news or headlines via social media, up from 9 percent in 2010.

As for newspapers, 23 percent said they read a print publication yesterday, down from 38 percent in 2006. Many of those readers are migrating to the papers’ online versions; including 55 percent of New York Times readers.

Magazines are not immune from the switch either; 37 percent of Bloomberg Businessweek and Economist readers said they get their content online rather than in the print version.

Pew’s biennial media consumption survey was conducted from May 9 to June 3. Pollsters interviewed 3,003 adults, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points. The survey began in 1994 by the old Times Mirror Center for the People & the Press and has been conducted every two years since then.

Original post is Online News Outpacing Radio, Newspapers — Television Next by Political Capital.

Photograph by Emily Harris/Bloomberg

A Barack Obama campaign sign in the Allapattah neighborhood of Miami.

The power of the presidency and of television will be on display today as the White House announces $2 billion in support for rural businesses, coordinated with the release of a government report about the state of rural America.

President Obama will promote the initiative in interviews granted to anchors of eight local television stations in mostly Republican-friendly parts of swing states, Bloomberg News reported.

Organized labor and a super-PAC supporting Obama’s re-election are also turning to television as part of a $4 million ad campaign that targets swing-state Hispanic voters and aims to portray Republican challenger Mitt Romney as callous toward the working class, Bloomberg News reported.

The Spanish-language television and radio ads announced today by Priorities USA Action and the Service Employees International Union juxtapose Hispanic voters critical of Romney with video and audio clips of his verbal miscues on jobs and the economy. These include him saying, “I like to be able to fire people who provide services to me,” “I’m also unemployed,” and “You can focus on the very poor — that’s not my focus.”

The advertising offensive targets a constituency whose support Obama will attempt to hold for re-election in November. Obama, who drew criticism on June 8 from Romney that he is out of touch with the economic concerns of average Americans after saying the private sector is “doing fine,” won the Hispanic vote in 2008 over Republican John McCain by 67 percent to 31 percent, according to an analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of exit polls.

While it won’t be on TV, a Seniors’ Health Care Town Hall meeting today at the White House featuring HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Cecilia Munoz, director of White House Domestic Policy Council, will be streamed online, and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus’s speech on the need for tax revenue at the Bipartisan Policy Center will be televised — on-CSPAN.

Cary O’Reilly and Margaret Talev contributed to this post.

Original post is Washington Daybook: Power of Presidency, Television by Political Capital.