It's tough for the AP AND its members

I wonder whether AP members (newspapers, broadcasters and the like) and the AP brass communicate very well with each other these days. This Editor & Publisher article suggests they don't.

Doug Fisher, whose blog I would want to read even if he weren't a former boss, wonders whether more of this is coming. (A feed from Doug's blog is how I found out about this story)

Probably. Putting myself in the shoes I used to fill, as a reporter covering state government and politics, I have to wonder whether I would see what I saw more than a decade ago: a decreasing interest among member papers in anything original that I wrote, and more interest in me doing the "filler" work (basic reports on committee meetings and process-oriented stories that would be cut down to briefs) so their few reporters could provide their readers local and/or original copy.

It was fun being an AP reporter. I still miss it from time to time. But I bet right now I would be really concerned that what I loved to write about was not loved nor wanted by any of the papers who could take my copy.

The difference between a keynote, a Cabinet member ... and the VP pick

I don't mind that pro-choicers Rudy Giuliani, Joe Lieberman and Arnold Schwarzenegger are scheduled to speak at the Republican convention in St. Paul. I'm a pro-life voter, but I don't mind that the party I identify with may want to showcase people who disagree with my views -- and the Republican platform -- on that topic.

But the selection of a potential vice president is different. Even different from the bureaucratically more powerful positions such as Secretary of State or Attorney General. Those people can't become President of the United States in a matter of moments, with the power to, among other things, select justices of the Supreme Court.

Sen. McCain holds a solid pro-life record. Should Sen. McCain become president, the person who could succeed him ought to have a similar record.

Castellanos: The Molten Core of Barack: Why Obama Can't Win

Veteran GOP media consultant and former boss describes a key problem for Barack Obama -- the question about whether there is a substantive core to his politics, or whether it's merely about him.

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