Courtesy of Adam Nagourney, who announces and reflects the operative MSM meme for the next three weeks:

Campaigns have rhythms, and inevitably swing back and forth for all kinds of reasons, including...the news media's desire for a competitive race and tendency to find the "underdog is surging" story line irresistible.

The piece coincides with the McCain campaign roll-out of...we're on the comback trail, repeated by CNN, ABC, etc.

The Democrats are in great position both as a matter of policy and as a matter of politics to craft and present a bailout bill that: (a) tries to stabilize financial markets; (b) prevents unjust enrichment by corporations and their executives; (c) gets the taxpayer an equity stake in exchange for the risk that we are being asked to assume; and (c) re-balances the balance of power in the bankruptcy arena.
If they were to do so, Republicans would howl, but the Democrats would have a powerful reply: "We want to do (a) through (d), all important things for the country, but the Republicans want to hold the country's financial health hostage because they still think that unlimited profit and unlimited pay packages more important than equity or fairness."
But will we see such a stance?  Alas, no, because Democrats internalize the framing of their adversaries.
Exhibit A: Senator Schumer.“We will not Christmas-tree this bill,” he said Sunday on Fox. “The times are too urgent.”  A stimulus package, he added, “doesn’t necessarily have to be part of the bailout.”

When the Democrat treats taxpayer protection and the creation of equity and fairness as "Christmas-tree" items, you see why it is so easy for the press to adopt the Republican line as well.
It's not bipartisanship when you do what the Republicans and quasi-Republicans tell you to do.

...watch out.  Read the text of the Administration's proposal, and be very afraid as to who is going to get a free ride.
If Democrats concentrate on "making sure the proposal extends relief to Main Street," they will be ignoring the limitless authority that the bill would grant the Treasury Secretary.

The bill as written is all "trust us," with no effective oversight, and judicial oversight specifically foreclosed.

Here are some key questions that Senator Obama and the Democrats should be asking:
How do we know that we won't be paying too much for the toxic assets?
How do we know that Paulson will identify some assets as too toxic to take on?
How do we know that the firms that got us into this mess will have to pay for the privilege of being bailed out, either in the form of the government taking an equity interest in the "good stuff" that is left, or in the imposition of controls on compensation?

So Rick Davis, Senator McCain's campaign manager, says Governor Palin won't be giving interviews "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference."

Davis has distilled the choice facing media outlets quite precisely.  
There is certainly lots of evidence that MSM do believe that their job is to be deferential to (Republican) candidates, preferring to report, "Candidate X powerfully argued to a cheering crowd that the sky is not blue," rather than reporting, "Candidate X presented the demonstrably false proposition that the sky is not blue (see photo attached)."
This is the moment -- now, not in the election post-mortems -- to ask high-profile MSM interviewers, "Is it your job to defer or to probe?"
As for "respect," of course, Davis means the requirement that MSM ignore evidence and collaborate with the fiction that Governor Palin is qualified on any level to be President.  Perhaps the same high-profile MSM interviewers could be asked, "Do you think it's more respectful to assume that a Vice-Presidential nominee is prepared to answer questions on the issues and in respect to her qualifications, or more respectful to assume that the nominee would be embarrassed or humiliated by such a process."
As with any other of these "how are the referees allowed themselves to be played" questions, it is useful to imagine the response if either Senator Obama or his running mate were unprepared to give interviews.  We can be certain that the focus would not be on "how it's playing," but rather on unpreparedness, and, in the VP selection context, a reflection of the bad judgment of the Presidential nominee.

So Rick Davis, Senator McCain's campaign manager, says Governor Palin won't be giving interviews "until the point in time when she'll be treated with respect and deference."

Davis has distilled the choice facing media outlets quite precisely.  
There is certainly lots of evidence that MSM do believe that their job is to be deferential to (Republican) candidates, preferring to report, "Candidate X powerfully argued to a cheering crowd that the sky is not blue," rather than reporting, "Candidate X presented the demonstrably false proposition that the sky is not blue (see photo attached)."
This is the moment -- now, not in the election post-mortems -- to ask high-profile MSM interviewers, "Is it your job to defer or to probe?"
As for "respect," of course, Davis means the requirement that MSM ignore evidence and collaborate with the fiction that Governor Palin is qualified on any level to be President.  Perhaps the same high-profile MSM interviewers could be asked, "Do you think it's more respectful to assume that a Vice-Presidential nominee is prepared to answer questions on the issues and in respect to her qualifications, or more respectful to assume that the nominee would be embarrassed or humiliated by such a process."
As with any other of these "how are the referees allowed themselves to be played" questions, it is useful to imagine the response if either Senator Obama or his running mate were unprepared to give interviews.  We can be certain that the focus would not be on "how it's playing," but rather on unpreparedness, and, in the VP selection context, a reflection of the bad judgment of the Presidential nominee.

A quotation from McCain's 2002 book, quoted in today's New York Times in the Michael Cooper article on the hastiness and impulsiveness of McCain's selection of Palin:  “Often my haste is a mistake, but I live with the consequences without complaint.” .  Rest of the Obama campaign ad should read: "Now John McCain wants us to live with his hasty mistakes, but the consequences are too serious."

Two other things from the same article: while the press was still dutifully reciting the "inexperience" and "celebrity" memes, the McCain campaign was (or now says it was) worried about their effectiveness and staying power.  In other words, MSM sticks with the memo its been given, until new marching instructions are issued.  See below.

"Last Sunday, 24 hours after Mr. Obama announced his running mate, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Mr. McCain met with his senior campaign team at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Phoenix. By then, campaign advisers said, the group had long decided that Mr. McCain’s 'experience versus change' argument against Mr. Obama had run its course, to the extent that it had worked at all."

A"t the same time, Mr. Obama’s coming acceptance speech before a stadium of about 80,000 people (and what turned out to be a television audience of nearly 40 million) loomed large. As much as the campaign was publicly dismissing Mr. Obama as a celebrity in a rock-star setting, the concern was that his command of such a large crowd on the last night of the Democratic convention would give him the aura of a president."

Yesterday, the MSM media was still dutifully reciting "two legs bad, four legs good."
Today, John McCain said, "Two legs good, four legs bad."
Now the MSM is tripping all over itself: "McCain, unlike orthodox Republicans, was able to recognize that two legs good, four legs bad.