Now, HBO’s main competitor Showtime is backing a new documentary on Vice President Dick Cheney. The channel hired R.J. Cutler, the producer behind the pro-Clinton documentary “The War Room,” to give us a new look at President George W. Bush’s vice president and confidante.

Tentatively titled, “The World According to Dick Cheney,” the film will take a look at one of the most powerful vice presidents in history. Here’s director R.J. Cutler’s take on the upcoming film from a Showtime press release:

Like it or not, we live in a world defined by the domestic and international vision of Dick Cheney — perhaps the single-most influential non-Presidential figure in American political history,” said Cutler. “But for all the debate that his re-emergence in the public eye has caused, the fact is that Cheney the man remains an enigma, and the  manner in which he utilized his power and experience to become such a dominating political figure, have been left largely unexplored. This documentary will shine a balanced and multi-dimensional light on this truly polarizing figure.

Will “The World According to Dick Cheney” be a fair representation of the veteran political figure?  We’ll have to wait and see, but consider this snippet from a piece Cutler wrote about how “The War Room” got such unfettered access to Clinton’s campaign.

Our final hurdle was going down to Little Rock to get James [Carville] on board. We sat with him and told him what we wanted to do, and he said, “I get it, I totally understand. But you have to understand that the only thing that matters in my life is getting Bill Clinton elected president. Anything else is a distraction. Why would I possibly want to do it?”

I thought I knew the answer to James’s question: You’ve got to do it for history; you’ve got to do it so that people can see how amazing you are; you’ve got to do it because you’re about the change the world.

No official air date has been announced, but if the film takes a decidedly anti-Cheney stance don’t be surprised if it hits small screens close to the Nov. 2012 elections.

No matter how close two people’s opinions might seem to be, eventually there will be a difference of some sort between them.

In short, we are all confronted eventually with the isolation everyone feels because of their own inalterable uniqueness.

Not even Siamese twins can agree about everything.

At such times, philosophers such as France’s Jean Paul Sartre conclude that “Hell is other people!”

“L’enfer est les autres!”

I don’t agree, of course.

What had always been hell for me was the fear and experience of isolation itself.

I then realized how God’s very existence in the lives of men was inspired and maintained by such moments of inevitable isolation.

“Someone or something must and does understand me!”

Then, of course, one’s relationship to such a Something is up to debate.

Does the Something expect something of you, demand something of you and, of course, if you don’t measure up?

Hmmm … what are the consequences?

This is where my immeasurably vital experience with Alcoholics Anonymous comes in: “Let go, let God.”

That is their incantation: “Let go, let God!”

Which means: “Stop asking yourself that stupid question and let God answer it for you and He will.”

And He has.

How?

By erasing the nightmares of anxiety that arose from your asking the stupid questions in the first place.

If you know for certain that no one in the world can ever understand you completely, you begin dropping such stupid expectations of them.

Even your enemies begin to look almost human because … well … there’s no denying that they are only human.

This, of course, leads me to the responses erupting from my article, Sarah Palin’s Pre-Presidential Power.

“If you don’t like the message, malign the messenger.”

Sarah Palin is a growing threat to all who have surrendered to “America’s inevitable decline” and who have bought the equally inevitable obligation for America to humbly join the Progressive New World Order.

From Bush Sr. to Clinton to Bush Jr. to Obama, the Progressive New World Order vision has held the reins of the White House for over 22 years.

That Communism, for these four Presidents, became an acceptable governing philosophy to share the world with? This concession by four Presidents not only ended the Cold War but prepared the way for an undeniably Marxist President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.

I sensed such “inevitability” 18 years ago. In the Fall of 1993 I met Attorney General Janet Reno and knew that this most powerful law enforcement officer in the world had been given orders to attack the Koresh Compound in Waco, Texas and to attack television as a primary cause of violence in America. The Clintons, both of them, had begun their Presidential administration with the same Marxist arrogance we still find more openly and shamelessly in Barack Obama.

In 1994, when my protests fell lamely through the nets and sifters of the MSM and the Clintons were not only reelected ’96 but Janet Reno retained her post as Attorney General, I knew America was in for the longest spiritual bloodletting of her entire history.

Mankind’s last and greatest hope for continued individual freedom and responsibility,  the United States of America, had been co-opted by the most cunning sabotage efforts in world history.

The Soviets and their KBG, ordered initially by Joseph Stalin to primarily infiltrate the “soft underbelly” of the American performing arts, had successfully turned Hollywood and New York into its very own propaganda machine.

The subsequent invasions of Washington D.C. and the White House by the increasingly radical Left became inevitable until we ended up with a President Barack Obama.

Thank God I left for Canada.

Canada, suffering through decades of the same love affair with the Marxist Utopia and having a large taste of it with Pierre Trudeau, has begun, with the invaluable leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, to right herself as the individually, freedom-loving half of North America.

 What has happened to the United States?

22 years of steady decline into the arms of President Obama.

A Marxist Islam or Red Jihadists are what my former homeland is quivering under now.

We Americans were more at peace, more prosperous and more self-assured under President Dwight Eisenhower’s Cold War of the Fifties than under any of the last four Presidents. If you don’t believe me, read Bill Bryson on the United States in the Fifties. Despite the Cold War or perhaps because of it, America became the most entirely self-sufficient nation in the history of the world. That is obviously and shamelessly not what President Barack Obama wants.

Now, with any line in the sand between freedom and Communism erased?!

The bipartisan, Bush/Clinton New World Order policies have driven America into debt and increasing dependence upon utterly hostile corners of the world, both Islamic and Communist.

With President Obama we see the End Game of New World Order Chess: a decidedly Marxist vision of humanity’s future. When a fraudulently Independent Mayor of New York prohibits men of faith, priests, ministers and rabbis from participating in a 9/11 Memorial Ceremony, what do we have?

An olive branch offered to none other than Godless Communism and the blood-lusting symbols of Islam.

Mayor Bloomberg isn’t offering the appeasement policies of Neville Chamberlain. He is pure Marshall Petain of Vichy France.

What percentage of Americans who have died in two world wars, Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East defending the freedom of religion are now rolling in their graves over Mayor Bloomberg’s heinous and undeniably Leninist insult to America’s national identity?

I offered, in my most provocative editorial, Sarah Palin’s Pre-Presidential Power, the only possible Presidential candidate for the 2012 election: Sarah Palin.

Only her profoundly personal value system and her classically American, conservative values can drag not only the United States but the entire world back from the brink of Red Jihadist suicide.

Too Big to Fail, which premieres on HBO on May 23, 2011, features a star studded cast recounting the events that led to the financial crisis and bailouts by the U.S. government in 2008. It is a mini-series packed into a 98-minute made-for-television movie where several essential characters are quickly introduced and where finance and economics are casually discussed. It may help if one has a baseline of knowledge about the crisis before watching the movie. If one doesn’t know who Henry Paulson, Ben Bernanke, and Timothy Geithner are or what Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, and AIG are, it may prove slightly difficult to follow.

Although the Director, Curtis Hanson (L.A. Confidential, 8 Mile), was limited to telling a very long and complicated story in a very short amount of time, he was able to skillfully pull it off. Perhaps this is because the screenwriter, Peter Gould (Breaking Bad), deftly adapted Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 2009 prize winning New York Times Bestseller, Too Big to Fail.

The cast was right out of a Robert Altman film, there was a large number of well known actors including William Hurt (Paulson – Sec. Treasury), James Woods (Fuld – Lehman Bros), Paul Giamatti (Bernanke – Chair, Federal Reserve), Bill Pullman (Dimon – JPMorgan Chase), Ed Asner (Buffet – Berkshire Hathaway), Billy Crudup (Geithner – President, Federal Reserve), Matthew Modine (Thain – CIT Group), Tony Shalhoub (Mack – Morgan Stanley), Topher Grace (Wilkinson), Cynthia Nixon (Davis), and many others. They all looked and played their parts very well with the exception that there seemed to be no effort made toward sounding like the people they played. It was difficult to get past the notable voices of the actors. Paul Giamatti sounds like Paul Giamatti and nothing like Ben Bernanke. Hurt sounded nothing like Paulson. Crudup nothing like Geithner. Perfection wasn’t necessary, but it seemed as though there was little to no effort made at all by the actors to at least sound a little more like the real people they were portraying and less like themselves.

The story opens on a  shot of Ronald Reagan. It is news footage of a speech he gives on deregulation. Credits play as we see an image of Clinton signing a piece of legislation as the audio of newsmakers make mention that this is Congress’ bill being singed. Alan Greenspan is seen and states, “Don’t regulate for regulation’s sake,” which is followed by Bush proclaiming everyone should live out the American dream and own their own home. Miscellaneous clips talks of high profits and subprime loans, and then mortgage meltdown and government bailout.

At this point, I am thinking this film is going to be about blame… and that blame is going to be deregulation ushered in by Reagan, the Republican Congress during the Clinton years, Bush 43, and Reagan through Bush’s Federal Reserve appointee, Alan Greenspan.

This prompts me to check the cast and crew to see who they support and if they are bringing their agenda to this story in their hopes to rewrite history and put Republicans in a negative light and Democrats in a positive light before the election in 2012. And, of course, the Director and the Writer are both ardent Obama supporters. All those at HBO support Obama like Co-President Eric Kessler, Co-President Richard Plepler, President of HBO entertainment Sue Naegle, President of HBO Films Len Amato and Executive Producers Paula Weinstein, Carol Fenelon, and Ezra Swerdlow. Even the Cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau and Casting Director Alexa Fogel have contributed to Obama’s 2008 campaign. And the Obama supporting list of actors is long too: Topher Grace, William Hurt, Matthew Modine, Cynthia Nixon, and Amy Carlson. As if that’s not enough, there are many other ardent left-wingers like Paul Giamatti, Bill Pullman, Tony Shalhoub, and Ed Asner.

Then the story opens on James Woods playing Dick Fuld, Chairman and CEO of Lehman Brothers… an ardent Democrat and Obama supporter. James Woods stands out as the political maverick in the cast. In a recent interview with New York Magazine, Woods is quoted as saying, “I’ve always said that the next Obama slogan should be, ‘Barack Obama: Putting America Out of Business,’ because that’s what he’s doing.” So I decided to turn off my bias filter and give this story a chance.

As the story unfolded, I saw that the villains in this film weren’t the Republicans, rather it was a single villain… the total and complete financial collapse of our nation, or as Bernanke puts it, “[replaying] the depression of the 1930s. Only this time… far, far worse.” So, regardless of any one American’s political affiliation watching this film, total and complete financial collapse is an enemy we can all collectively desire to defeat.

The heroes, however, that’s a little more complicated. The actual heroes of the story are Republicans Henry Paulson (Secretary of the Treasury), Ben Bernanke (Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve), and Independent Timothy Geithner (President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York). They artfully maneuver their way through the minefield of economic collapse. Bear Stearns has already collapsed, Lehman Brothers is on the brink, Merrill Lynch next, and with all this going on, AIG – the safety net for all these creditors – was in the process of imploding from its own lack of liquidity and inability to meet its obligations. If AIG falls, all the banks fall. People would pull their money out of their banks and there would be no George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) trying to stop the “run on the bank” by convincing his depositors to take only what they need from his honeymoon stash. America, as we know it, would be in ruins.

Every maneuver in their quest to stabilize the markets is met with unpredictable reactions. Once they believe they’ve averted disaster, the pundits, investors, and citizens react differently than expected. It’s a reminder of Nobel winning economist F.A. Hayek’s precept that, “The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.”

But in the end, as we all know, it was capital injections in the form of a Troubled Asset Relied Plan (TARP) that would “save the day.” In short, the plan would see the U.S. government purchase assets and equity from all financial institutions, even if they didn’t need it, in order to stabilize and strengthen the financial sector. As Bernanke put it, the upside would be stabilizing banks faster, the downside would be nationalizing a few banks. Their plan to soften the blow was that they would force private banks to participate in this plan under law, but that the government would not have a voting interest or the ability to tell the banks how they use the money injected into their coffers… leaving the question to the viewer, “They will lend it out, won’t they?”

But, was TARP the right solution? If one believes it was, then the heroes of this story are without a doubt Republicans Paulson and Bernanke. But, if one believes it wasn’t the right solution, then the Republicans are just kicking the can down the road. Regardless, the story is a quest for a private solution, according to Paulson.

As Republican public relations guru Jim Wilkson (Topher Grace) says at one point, “You just can’t hand the banks massive piles of cash. Nobody’s going to go for it. To the Republicans, it’s nationalization. To the Democrats, it’s a bailout. And the banks are going to go ballistic.”

The story is well crafted and builds suspense out of the unexciting topics of finance and economics. There were parts that bothered me, like making the Republican Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Christopher Cox, look like an immature boob, or Republican presidential candidate Senator McCain look like he is clueless on economic matters contrasted by Senator Obama’s grip on the subject, or simplistically blaming deregulation while omitting the fault of Carter’s Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, or that derivatives and subprime loans were born during Clinton’s presidency, or more importantly that in 2006 Republicans pleaded with the Democratically-controlled Congress to begin taking measures by pulling the reigns back on Fannie and Freddie to mitigate the impending economic disaster.

Those criticisms, however, were offset by so many of the lines delivered by Topher Grace’s character, Jim Wilkson, who best resembled the attitudes and feelings of most Americans during this time. At one point, it is suggested that the government purchases up the toxic assets of the banks, to which he responds, “Ohhh, call it cash for trash,” he also calls nationalization “the N-word” and that it is un-American, and he suggests that the government running the banks would be like the government running the Post Office, which they “run like a dream.” Another character addresses the issue that the government having the ability to dictate compensation would be the biggest “brain drain this country has ever seen.” And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is characterized as something like the head of the Mafia. Her character comes across as an elitist snob, which I particularly enjoyed.

The movie was a surprise. Although it wasn’t 100 percent balanced, it was enough for this right-winger to actually enjoy it. And the filmmakers did a pretty decent job packing in a lot of characters and a lot of story into a short amount of time. If Obama-loving HBO can pull off the upcoming Sarah Palin story, Game Change, and the Dick Cheney movie, Angler, with the same deftness and fairness, I will be pleasantly surprised.  Better yet… I will be astonished.

Translation? Sitting on our hands as untold thousands of civilians are butchered in the Middle East will help rebuild the trust the people in the Middle East have in us.

—–

I’m always impressed by how compassionate the likes of a Michael Moore can sound as he speaks evil. To him the Pentagon taking a ”time out” takes precedent over saving thousands of innocent lives. Moore can lie all he wants, he can say the French should have taken the lead in Libya, but he knows full well that the French are incapable of summoning the kind of military might necessary to do what needed to be done last week. There’s plenty to criticize regarding Obama’s stunning lack of leadership, clarity and commitment, but the idea of America standing helplessly by as a potentially historic Middle East uprising is gunned down and butchered, is unthinkable.

It was the same with these people and the war in Iraq. I had no problem with those who opposed the war before we went in. But once we were there, once the Iraqi people stood up and voted for our side, we had and have a moral obligation to stand with them until they can take over the security of their country. And yet, knowing the consequence of an American withdrawal on the Iraqi civilian population, knowing what the death squads and terrorists would do to  millions of innocents who trusted us, wicked people like Michael Moore and, yes, Barack Obama still did everything in their power to make that happen.

At least as president Obama can be shamed into taking action, as he obviously was by Hillary Clinton and Europe, but there sits Moore again — a human monster in a baseball cap — pretending that the best thing for the America he just loves so darn much is for us to stand in the corner of shame for a “time out” as another human monster goes house to house cutting down innocent women and children.

What a guy.

There, our President actually said, “I’m going to take off,” letting Clinton take over – something he could not resist. Handing him the podium was like giving him a Playboy Bunny made of hot dogs. He didn’t know whether to eat it, or bang it.

And, it reminded me of trying to buy a car. Faced with two sales guys of murky seniority – it’s the top guy who ends up heading out to close a bigger deal. For some reason, I’m always stuck with the rambling, folksy guy. He’s got all the time in the world to tell you about his grandkids. That’s Clinton.

So what does this say about Obama?

That he’s too cool for school.

He’s a man with other things on his brain (egg nog, maybe) and boy is he tired of our lack of appreciation. So a hand-off to Bill made sense. Afterward, the old man can play Santa at the house.

Which leads me to this great idea I have for a new cop show. One cop is the aloof guy – confident in his ambivalence, tired of your complaining. The other, a jovial narcissist, never missing an opportunity to insert himself in comical situations, and women.

I’d call it “O-Bill!”

“O” and Bill could tag team cases, then end each episode running hand in hand on the beach. Add the catering and the speaker’s fees – and that’s a better life than being President of a country where no one truly “gets” you.

At least in Hollywood, you can be idolized without those nagging responsibilities.

And if you disagree with me, you’re worse than Hitler.

Tonight:

S.E. Cupp

Jesse Joyce

Chris Rovzar

He made a booty call.

Yep, rather than reach out to those who are frustrated, disaffected, or even undecided about what to do this Tuesday – he called the folks he knew would comfort him: the awestruck progressives.

Yeah, it feels good. But it doesn’t help much.

I mean, no matter what Obama does, the progs are still going to vote for him. Even the lefty bloggers – who rightly questioned the President on gay rights, will always go home with him at last call. And Stewart’s entire criticism of Obama can be boiled down to, “Hurry up, dude.”

Fact is, none of these people will ever cheat on him, so he wasted his breath.

But it underscores two key points:

One: it suggests that every thing that crazy Glenn Beck said about Obama is pretty much correct. Our President is a progressive. He said as much before, and he said it again among the bloggers. Meeting these folks – at election time – tells you what kind of crowd he prefers.

It ain’t you.

The second truth: this means goodbye to all of them. Yep, like many booty calls, it’s done to button up relationships, right before you move on to more serious commitments.

Obama knows, like Clinton did, that after a beating, you have to take your lumps and grow up. For Obama to be successful, he must realize that in a right-of-center country, the lefty cannot rule for long – no matter what your booty-call whispers in your ear.

And if you disagree with me, you’re a racist homophobic bootycall-aphobe.

Tonight!

Mary Katherine Hamm

Steven Crowder

Kinsey Scofield

and, dear Rachel, is back.

——

Ed. Note: Starting in August ‘Obama Nation’ moves to its new permanent home at Big Government,

Describing the 2001 sale of Saban’s Fox Family network to Disney, which brought the Egyptian-born Saban — a dual citizen of Israel and the U.S. — $5.3 billion, author Connie Bruck writes:

Because Disney and Fox Family operated internationally, the deal required regulatory approvals from many countries. “Brazil could have been a deal-breaker,” Chernin recalled. In a confidential memorandum written on October 1st, Fox Family’s attorneys in Brazil explained that the deal would have to be reviewed successively by three government bodies; from past experience, the attorneys estimated that the process would take between six and eight months, which would push the deal past the deadline, at the end of October. Disney refused to close without Brazilian approval. Both sides retained counsel for the anticipated litigation.

“Haim said, ‘Let me make a phone call—maybe I can get something done here,’ ” Chernin told me. “He was extremely helpful in getting Clinton to help. Clinton called the President of Brazil.” Matt Krane [Saban's former laywer and tax adviser] recalled how Saban described to him what had happened: “Saban had called the Fox Family attorney in Brazil and asked, ‘How long will it take?’ It was months. He said he asked the lawyer, ‘Who is your finance minister?’ The attorney understood, and he said, ‘There is no political pull available in this process.’ Saban called Bill Clinton and asked, ‘Can you help me?’ ” Soon afterward, the approval came through.

On October 24, 2001, the Disney-Fox Family deal closed. About a month later, Krane says, Saban gave him the task of devising a tax strategy for a donation of ten million dollars to the D.N.C., toward the construction of its new headquarters. “Of course, you can’t get a deduction for a political contribution,” Krane said. “Our mission was to structure it so he could get a tax benefit. So I got heavily involved, and worked a lot with D.N.C. lawyers to do it.” Via e-mail, Krane and the lawyers discussed possible real-estate strategies. “It started to become clear that any plan was too difficult to implement,” Krane told me. In January, 2002, the resolution was that Saban reduced his donation from ten million to seven million.

It was the sale of Fox Family to Disney, according to Bruck, that also got Saban into serious tax trouble:

But the biggest bill by far that Saban didn’t want to pay was the government’s. In late December, 2000, after Saban had exercised his right to sell his share of Fox Family, Matt Krane said that he received a call from him. “He said, ‘Let me ask a question. What are we doing on taxes on the sale?’

“I said, ‘We’re going to pay the capital-gains tax, like we always discussed.’

“ ‘What is it?’

“ ‘Like, twenty-seven per cent state and federal, combined.’

“ ‘Are you fucking kidding me? Are you fucking crazy?’ He was shouting, ‘I’m not paying that!’ ”

Saban denies Krane’s account of their conversation.

There follows a sordid but riveting tale of tax shelters, alleged kickbacks, lawsuits, Congressional investigations, the works, all in the course of a long feature article about a little-known though immensely powerful player on both the Hollywood and Washington stages.

Read the whole thing.

Here’s an excerpt:

Chapter Five, Personalities, Politics and Powerbrokers

Somehow late night talk shows became a logical first step for politicians to reach voters. Somehow rock stars became a political voice of the disenfranchised. Somewhere along the way, American politics and pop culture personalities began to blend.

Blame it on Ike letting cameras into the White House, and perhaps Clinton blowing his sax on The Arsenio Hall Show – ‘celebrity creep’ into American politics seems to spread over time. Each campaign and each candidate changes the rules, receiving endorsements from big stars and taking lots and lots of their money.

G8 Summit, Gleneagles, Scotland, July 2005 Pres. George W. Bush, rock star Bono, First Lady Laura Bush and musician Bob Geldof hold a working meeting on Africa at the G8 Summit. Geldof praised Bush for delivering billions to fight disease and poverty, and blasted the U.S. media for ignoring the achievement. Geldof said Bush “has done more than any other President so far. This is the triumph of American policy.” (White House photo by Eric Draper.)

It is commonplace for celebrities to stump for candidates, throw lavish fund-raisers and donate mountains of their own cash. Television advertisement wars, funding a “ground game,” and a connecting with voters takes big money. And, there is lots of ‘gold in them hills’ – Beverly Hills! Bottomless wells of cash await that can make or break a candidate’s chance at success.

Oval Office, The White House, December 1970 Superstar Elvis Presley poses for an official photo with Pres. Richard M. Nixon.  The photograph remains one of the most requested documents from the National Archives.  Presley wrote Nixon a lengthy letter expressing disdain for hippie drug culture and asking to be named a “Federal Agent At Large.” Nixon, eager to gain inroads with young people, granted Presley’s wish and presented a badge from the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs. Presley got his wish.  At Presley’s request, the meeting remained a secret until the Washington Post broke the story in 1972 (Courtesy National Archives.)

Glamorous Hollywood stars helped Truman and Eisenhower kick-start national optimism after Word War II. Fleetwood Mac’s hit “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)” became a powerful refrain for President Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. Perhaps no campaign involved so many vocal celebrities as President Obama’s 2008 race for President. There was a day when a candidate thought hanging around with rock stars sent the wrong signal. When that star is someone like heartland rocker Bruce Springsteen, it might send just the signal the candidate needs to reach a key voting bloc.

Century Plaza Hotel, Los Angeles, California, June 1967 Hollywood mogul Lew Wasserman and Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson at the President’s Club Dinner. Wasserman was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, and perhaps its’ first lobbyist. In 1966, he installed Johnson confidante Jack Valenti as head of the Motion Picture Association of America. His influence grew so great, both Johnson and Jimmy Carter offered Wasserman cabinet positions. (LBJ Library photo by Yoichi R. Okamoto.)

Nowadays, celebrities share political panels and campaign stages with candidates regularly. The lines have been blurred. Americans have grown so accustomed to the nexus between Hollywood and politics that they are electing many familiar faces — Singer Sonny Bono and Love Boat purser Fred Grandy became Congressmen, action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger became a two-term governor, and actor Ronald Reagan became a two-term President. How did they do it? When asked by a group of students which experiences best prepared him for the presidency, Reagan once said, “You’d be surprised how much being a good actor pays off.”

Lamest Attempt at Obama Joke: David Letterman claimed that Obama was in Russia, hiking the Appalachian trail.

Letterman also used John McCain as a foil on three different nights to compare the disparity between winners and losers of the last Presidential election: While Obama traveled to Russia to meet with Putin, McCain was chasing kids off his lawn. While Obama was in Italy, McCain was heating up a can of Chef Boy-Ar-Dee; While Obama was in Italy meeting with the G-8, McCain was on his front porch in Arizona, waving at cars.

Conan O’Brien also seems to like the ageist jokes, claiming that John McCain is using twitter, only he’s twittering on his garage door opener. With all the McCain material, and the dearth of Obama jokes, you’d almost think John McCain won the election. According to Craig Ferguson, when Palin resigned, John McCain said, “Who?”

Most Overused Person as a Punchline: Sarah Palin for her resignation. Letterman claimed she blamed the media, and was spotted in a helicopter shooting Wolf Blitzer. Conan said America was just ranked the 114th happiest nation,in the world but when Palin resigned it moved up to 17th. He also suggested she might be doing a TV show for viewers that find Paula Abdul too coherent. Letterman claimed the Governorship now passes down to Miss Congeniality, Ferguson claimed it goes to Chillee Willee.

Writers over Shoulders Award: This week it goes to to all three Late Nights. O’Brien, Letterman, and Ferguson each did a  play on Tina Fey’s old joke about Sarah Palin seeing Russia from her house. (I believe we’re coming up on the one year anniversary of that one.) Conan claimed that while Obama was in Russia, he could see Palin cleaning out her office. Craig Ferguson did a version of the joke, claiming he wouldn’t use the room she stayed in during his USO tour because he didn’t want a room where he could see Russia. Letterman claimed that while Barack was in Russia, Sarah Palin waved at him. He was actually so enamored with that joke he used it four times on three different nights. On Tuesday he actually used it twice in the same monologue.

But Letterman’s favorite joke he used most every night was, “Mosquitoes mate and breed in standing water, kinda like my in-laws.” A couple of times he also told a joke about his mom thinking the Fourth of July fireworks were an attack from North Korea.

Oldest Presidential Joke of the Week: Even though Letterman and Ferguson both made Clinton jokes, this week’s award goes to Conan O’Brien for telling a Classic Bob Hope Presidential Library joke: “Saddam Hussein’s gun will be displayed in George Bush’s Library, right next to the book.”

Funniest Obama Line of the Week: Goes to Conan O’Brien who claimed that when Barack was in Moscow he gave a speech to an economics class entitled, “Can we borrow 4 trillion Rubles?” Runner up also goes to Conan who claimed that Obama was in Italy because the Italians were great allies of ours, excepting anytime we’ve gone to war. Conan also did the only mention of the famous photo saying that the only ass Obama was looking at, was Joe Biden. (It seems there’s still much hesitation to use Obama as the actual victim in the jokes.)

Angriest White Man: Again David Letterman who’s still griping about having to apologize to Sarah Palin. On two separate nights he wondered aloud whether it was his joke that might have caused her to resign.

The Most Interesting Interview: Bob Newhart on Conan. He’s been at it for almost 50 years now, and is still able to do panel. He had some great stories about the old “Tonight Show” that really made me long for Golden Age of Late Night, back before it got so personal.