Softball Spotlight: Lee Cowan, Still Infected

This is the debut video in an occasional series called "Softball Spotlight," which will showcase the softball questions that Barack Obama-loving reporters ask the future president. E-mail your tips to me: dglover-at-mediaresearch-dot-org. Or upload your own videos to Eyeblast.tv.

NBC reporter Lee Cowan was quite infatuated with Democrat Barack Obama on the campaign trail.

Cowan went so far as to confess on camera with NBC anchor Brian Williams that "it's almost hard to remain objective" because Obama is so "infectious." Weeks later in an NBC print promotional, Cowan acknowledged that "my knees quaked a bit" when he learned that he was being tasked with covering Obama.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Cowan earned a front-row seat in the president-elect's first press conference on Friday -- and that he floated a softball when Obama called Cowan's name from a pre-selected list of questioners. It was the second question of the day.

The question: Will you be able to get an economic stimulus package through Congress before you take office? Obama's answer: "I want to see a stimulus package sooner rather than later. If it does not get done in the lame-duck session, it will be the first thing I get done as president of the United States."

It took Obama all of 11 seconds to blurt out that meaty response. Don't you feel so much more informed now.