Here’s what you need to know from another news-packed week in the 2008 presidential race:

1) It’s the second week that not-so-good news from John McCain’s camp leads the presidential race. McCain gave a major and mostly well-received speech at the Virginia Military Institute, forcefully laying out why the US must not retreat from Iraq. The speech came as critics continued to attack his view of the Iraq situation as unrealistic and high-profile attacks in Iraq continued as well. Beyond Iraq, the campaign is cutting staff positions after raising much less money in the first quarter than expected. While the campaign is downplaying the moves right now, no campaign at this point should be in a position where it has to make “funding adjustments.”

2) Fred Thompson appeared to move closer to a likely presidential bid this week, revealing that in 2004 he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a form of cancer. “I have had no illness from it, or even any symptoms. My life expectancy should not be affected. I am in remission, and it is very treatable with drugs if treatment is needed in the future—and with no debilitating side effects,” Thompson explained. The announcement is unlikely to affect his chances if he decides to run, but the mere fact that he’s coming clean about his health is a sign that he’s looking to.

3) Helping fuel the nascent bids of Thompson and Newt Gingrich, concern remains high on the Republican side about its presidential field. The lead quote in an article arguing just that in the New York Times this week broadly summarizes the issue: “My level of concern and dismay is very, very high,” said Mickey Edwards, a Republican former congressman from Oklahoma who is now a lecturer in public policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton. “We don’t have any candidates in the field now who are compelling.” It’s not a good story line for the GOP, even if Roger Simon thinks Republicans might not be as unhappy as the Times thinks. bogus.

4) Former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose cultural views are out of line with the Republican base, has come up with a clever way of dodging cultural issues on the campaign trail: He touts his support of states’ rights and says most cultural issues should be left up to the states. The gambit was tried out this week while he was campaigning in Alabama—the question was whether the state should fly the Confederate flag. “We have different sensitivities and at different times we’re going to come to different decisions, and I think that is best left to the states,” he replied. Let’s see how far this answer, which can apply to abortion, separation of church and state, school prayer, and more, takes him.

Happy.

Very happy.

Ecstatic about his lot in life.

“I love every aspect of my job,” he told journalists, police, and staff gathered at Barry Farms Recreation Center in Anacostia to hear the mayor report on his first 100 days.

After Fenty recounted his young administration’s accomplishments, veteran WRC-TV reporter Tom Sherwood pressed him to list at least one failure or challenge.

Fenty smiled and gave his trademark raising of the eyebrows.“

I don’t see challenges,” he said. “I see opportunities.”

Suffice it to say, there has never been a happier Washington mayor at this point in our short political history. Fenty might be the sunniest mayor in America.

When a resident asked Fenty how he felt about Washington Post columnist Colby King’s suggestion that he had not appointed enough African American officials, Fenty said: “I agree with Colby.”

Next question.

WJLA-TV reporter Sam Ford asked Fenty about complaints that he had not appointed enough people from Ward 8, in the city’s poor sections east of the Anacostia River, where he was holding the press conference.

“I agree,” Fenty said. “We have not.”

Fenty tried to move on, but Ford pressed for a better response.

“No excuses,” Fenty said. “We have to do better.”

Is the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs a mess?

“Yes,” Fenty said. “We have to be honest with you.”

Next question.

Part of Fenty’s exuberance comes from his way of handling the press. Reporters seem enthralled by his sunny disposition. Part of his good nature comes from the fact that he unabashedly likes getting up in the morning and being The Mayor.

He said he feeds off residents who give him “confident, enthusiastic support.”

Will the city’s notoriously leaky public pools be ready for summer?

Fenty said absolutely, thanks to his crackerjack recreation director.

Then Sherwood served up the tough question: Would Fenty do a cannon-ball dive into the pool to inaugurate the season?

Fenty smiled and ignored him.

Sherwood asked again. And again.

“It may not be me,” Fenty said, “but the twins”—those would be the mayor’s young sons—“might do it.”

Everyone smiled and left happy.

All the controversy over Don Imus reminded me of a passage on page 292 of The Way to Win, the book on winning the White House written by Mark Halperin and John Harris last year:

"I tune in to Imus most mornings when I’m shaving and I can recall the day…. He’s talking about somebody called pork chop and I realize that he’s talking about me. I’m pork chop. And I laughed like hell. But I also think, you know, when you start your day watching Imus there isn’t anything that can be said about you during the day that’s as bad as what you can hear first thing in the morning when you’ve got Imus on at six o’clock" — Dick Cheney.

Speechwriter Mark Katz specializes in crisis control through comedy. The veteran of Bill Clinton’s eight “Silly Seasons”—the period in spring during which the President delivers several humorous addresses at black tie press dinners—and the author of Clinton and Me, Katz continues to consult politicians, movie stars, and other members of the elite on how to deliver laughs when times are tough.

Forged in the crucible of Clinton controversies, Katz believes in comedy as a forum for sticky issues. “There are ways to touch a white-hot, nuclear topic with your pinkie, get credit for acknowledging that the topic exists, and do nothing more than acknowledging that it exists, and yet you have ‘taken it on.’”

He speaks from experience. Katz describes the Clinton era as “a sine curve of accomplishment and crisis, and the White House correspondents dinner always seemed to come at a moment of crisis.”

Katz walks a fine line with his clients, and, when asked who needs to punch up their acts for the 2008 presidential race, he responded, “It’s a risk/reward ratio for everyone, and everyone has to assess the risk, and everyone has to assess the reward. You know, you see Chris Dodd, who I wrote a speech for in 1997 and have great personal affection for [...] on Imus three times a week. He’s not in the front tier, and he can take more risks and speak his mind. He has more freedom. With Senator [Hillary] Clinton, playing it safe ultimately may be the most dangerous thing she can do.”

For more thoughts on Katz, from the role of humor in politics to his own journey as a speechwriter, check out the full interview we had with the humorist at his New York-based one-man think tank, The Sound Bite Institute.

Here’s what you need to know from another news-packed week in the 2008 presidential race:

1) When all is said and done in 2008, this may be remembered as the week when John McCain lost the presidency. He suffered two major set-backs this week that combined to severely damage—or end entirely—his status as the GOP frontrunner. First, his first quarter fundraising numbers came in at a disappointing $12.5 million, which in any other year would be a shocking total but this year had him with only about half of Mitt Romney’s total. Second, McCain’s ongoing and unquestioning support of the Iraq War is beginning to look stranger and stranger. After a tiff with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer last week over whether Baghdad was safe to walk around in, McCain went to Baghdad to walk around—and proved that as long as you’re surrounded by 100 armed U.S. troops, 3 Black Hawk helicopters and 2 Apache gunships AND wearing a bulletproof vest, you’re safe. The images from the photo op did more to undermine his image in Washington’s chattering class than almost anything in the race so far. In the end, the April Fool’s Day Baghdad visit made him look, well, foolish.

2) Rudy Giuliani, meanwhile, had perhaps his best week yet in the race. He got mostly good reviews during an Iowa campaign swing and appears firmly committed to competing in the first-in-the-nation caucus there—a critical commitment for any serious candidate. His $15 million in fundraising—including $10 million just in March—puts him near the top of the GOP pack and proves that if he’s serious about running, he can put on a good show. The downside for this week? He just can’t shake the whole abortion question.

3) Hillary Clinton should have shone this week with her stunning $36 million (including $10 million from her Senate account), but Barack Obama managed to steal the spotlight by raising nearly as much—and when the final reports come out later this month, he might very well have more money because most of his cash came for his primary bid whereas Hillary was raising money for the general election too. Obama managed to also have twice as many donors, which means they’re donating smaller amounts and he can go back to them again and again.

4) The media is continuing to fuel speculation that Fred Thompson might enter the race sooner rather than later. Polls coming out of the field now include Thompson, who generally places in the top tier of candidates. Perhaps even more troublesome for the current front-runners, the continuing boomlets for Romney, Newt Gingrich, Chuck Hagel, Thompson, and Tom Tancredo (see next item) show the right’s general unhappiness with the field of GOP candidates.

What: The premiere of the first two episodes of the final installment of The Sopranos, as well as a discussion with David Chase, the show's creator.

Where: The plush offices and modern screening room of the National Cable and Telecommunications Associations.

Who: A fairly good cross-section of Washington's intellectual elite hosted by the head of the NCTA, Kyle McSlarrow, and assorted HBO executives. The crowd included TNR's Frank Foer and Leon Wieseltier, The Week's Margaret Carlson, The Nation's David Corn, George Stephanopoulos and Ali Wentworth, the MPAA's Dan Glickman, the heads of the Sunday shows, Ron Brownstein, NBC's Chuck Todd, the Washington Post's TV editor Michael Cavna, and CNN's David Bohrman. Oh and did we mention the creator of The Sopranos, David Chase?

Scene: NCTA's beautiful offices on the Hill, packed to the brim with fancy electronics, a fancy kitchen, and the state-of-the-art screening room with its plush white leather seats, had more than one guest walking around with eyes bulging. "Just being in the bathroom, I felt like I was overpaying for cable," one commented. Given the "be there done that" attitude of the professional cocktail circuit crowd, last night was a particularly giddy crowd for a Washington event. The realized that they really were seeing something rare and special, and the excitement just as the screens dimmed and the familiar theme song began blasting was palpable. There was applause at the end of each episode and all around just a real rare sense of awe and wonder at being present and hearing from The Creator himself.

Food: Dry fish, very good risotto, an above average molten chocolate cake.

Drink: Standard red and white wine.

The Sad Part for You: The after-dinner discussion with Wieseltier, the longtime literary editor of The New Republic, where David Chase opened up about what the series has done well and where he has regrets, was very pointedly "Off the freakin' record."

The Gift Bags: A Sopranos pen and Season Six, Part I, on DVD.

Bold Face Names: 4 (out of 5)
Swankiness: 4 (out of 5)
Food: 4 (out of 5)
Exclusivity: 5 (out of 5)

Total Score: 17 (out of 20)

Courage and truth in journalism

Wednesday's Fourth Annual Ridenhour Prizes honored a soldier who played a central role in uncovering the My Lai massacre, and later became a respected journalist and recipient of a George Polk Award. Ron Ridenhour passed away in 1998 at the age of 52, and his friends, colleagues, media elite, and a former President gathered at the National Press Club to award those who continue to tackle underreported and often unpleasant truths.

President Jimmy Carter was in attendance to receive the Ridenhour Courage Prize for his public service. President Carter was introduced by Rabbi Leonard Beerman who spoke of his courage and wisdom, and the former President discussed his recent book which examined the plight of the Palestinian people. He admitted that Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid may have “sparked more heat than light” but pleaded that a national debate on the Middle East situation was productive and essential if there is to be any progress in the region—something he believes hinges on the U.S. being seen as an honest broker for both the Palestinians and Israelis.

There were lighter moments too. Ted Koppel, who was on hand to present an award, recounted how the former President reminded him before the ceremony that since the television program Nightline was created to monitor the Iran hostage crisis, and, in turn, launched Koppel's career, perhaps the broadcaster should pay tribute with five percent of his income from the past 28 years to the Carter Center.

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