In today's Sunday Show Roundup edition of TPMtv: finishing off the Phil Gramm fallout, starring McCain's remaining economic advisors Carly Fiorina and Nancy Pfotenhauer, both struggling to play up McCain's independence from Gramm and play down Gramm's role in the campaign moving forward. Also featured: Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC), and the usual house crew of Sunday pundits, including an even-more-haughty-than-usual George Will (who says Gramm's right about everything).



Excuse the indulgence, but TPMtv can't resist asking if anyone else is nearly as amused by the cut made at the :54 mark where Gloria Borger goes "Oops" right to Wolf Blitzer saying "Obtuse!" I know, it doesn't even rhyme, but try saying it out loud a few times. "Oops, obtuse!" Something about it just hits TPMtv right. Sorry, anyway...

A note on Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC): that would be the fellow who concludes today's episode with what The Huffington Post described, maybe a tad blaringly but not inaccurately, as "The Most Painful Moment on Sunday TV." It might have seemed unfair to cut the episode off before giving Sanford his chance to answer fully. As masochistic as its TV news consumption sometimes is, and as sadistic as its repackaging/re-presentation of that news sometimes is, TPMtv likes to think it still retains enough of a heart to understand that talking extemporaneously on national TV is probably really hard and to sympathize a little bit with the people who attempt to do so without coming off as complete morons. Maybe it's Sanford's subtle lisp (TPMtv always sympathizes with lispers), maybe it was this pretty solid op-ed he wrote just prior to the South Carolina primary, but putting politics aside Mark Sanford seems like a stand up enough guy to deserve a fair shake. So in that spirit here is his full answer to the Bush-McCain difference question:



Right. Ultimately, it was the utter, inexcusable lameness of Sanford's full answer that convinced TPMtv to disregard everything it just said and end the show the way it did: after drawing the extended blank, Sanford makes a vague point about NAFTA (an Obama-McCain difference), instead of answering Blitzer's question (Bush-McCain difference). Blitzer pushes him a little and finally Sanford musters this: "I mean, if you look at the steel bill that went through way back when, you know, Bush and McCain were opposite sides on that one." TPMtv smells a new campaign slogan! John McCain: maverick. I mean, if you look at the steel bill that went through way back when, you know, Bush and McCain were opposite sides on that one. Stick it on the side of the Straight Talk Express, baby. Not sure how much that's going to help Sanford's VP chances.