Suddenly Incurious Katie

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When Katie Couric was trying to pin Sarah Palin down on examples of John McCain having promoted increased government regulation of business, the CBS anchor, after her initial inquiry, posed no fewer than three follow-up questions, even breaking out the old "not to belabor the point" line as she did just that.

But when the man perhaps poised to become the most powerful person on the planet, with the world's most sophisticated communication resources at his fingertips, claims "I haven't been able to get in touch" with his aunt who has been living illegally in this country for over four years—and who resides at a known address in a public housing project in Boston—Couric doesn't bat an eye.  To the contrary, she can be seen nodding in agreement.  And far from asking a follow-up question, such as "have you tried?", Couric tossed Obama a super-slo softball, asking him to describe the thing the McCain campaign has done that's made him angriest.

View video here.

This morning's Early Show played a clip from Couric's interview, to be aired in its entirety on tonight's Evening News.

KATIE COURIC: You have an aunt who's been living in this country apparently illegally for four years, and your campaign says any and all appropriate laws should be followed. So, would you support her being deported to Kenya?

BARACK OBAMA: If she has violated laws, then those laws have to be obeyed.  We're a nation of laws, and, uh, you know, obviously, uh, that doesn't lessen my concern for her, uh, I haven't been able to get in touch with her.  But, it uh, you know, I'm a strong believer that you obey the law.

KATIE COURIC: What did the McCain team do in the course of this campaign that made you the angriest?

Tough follow-up, Katie!  

Note: Couric's sympathetic head bob to Obama's claim of inability to contact his aunt comes 27 seconds into the video clip.

Bonus Coverage: Smith Embraces Obama Agenda, Chen Snipes at Sarah Over Prank

This morning's Early Show was a veritable cavalcade of liberal bias.  In the opening segment, Harry Smith, interviewing Caroline Kennedy, seemed to embrace the Obama agenda, before trying to retroactively cover himself.

The show has also decided that the prank call a Montreal radio station made to Sarah Palin, impersonating French prez Sarkozy, is highly-newsworthy.  They had the pranksters on as guests, and in the chit-chat closing the first half-hour promoting the upcoming segment, co-anchor Julie Chen even managed to work in a little shot at Sarah Palin for failing to detect the fraud.

View video here.

First up, Harry and Caroline.

CAROLINE KENNEDY: Hopefully voting is the first step people will take, and I think Barack Obama has really --

 HARRY SMITH: Right.

KENNEDY: -- kind of, created this atmosphere where everybody feels like, you know, they need to pitch in. Because we have serious problems: the economy's terrible, we need healthcare reform, we need education reform.

SMITH: All of the above.  Ah, for whoever becomes president.

Nice try, but Harry's pro-Obama horse was already out of the barn.

And later, Chen's shot at Palin over the prank call [NewsBuster Kyle Drennen has full coverage of the segment here].

SMITH:  So you're Sarah Palin, you're on the campaign trail, somebody hands you the phone and says "it's Nicholas Sarkozy on the phone; wants to say hello to you." So of course you take the phone.

JULIE CHEN:  But then when you hear the voice, why do you believe it?

By coincidence, Chen was in Paris last week for the Early Show's wan imitation of Today's "Where in the World is Matt Lauer?"  Guess Julie became an expert in French accents during her stay.