Joe Biden's Oops Moment

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Instead, one of the first notable snafus of the election season makes its debut on the front page of the New York Times: Sen. Joe Biden officially announced his candidacy yesterday and during an interview with the New York Observer, published the same day, described Barack Obama as "the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

And the political world came to a screeching halt.

He later explained that he had called Obama to explain and "Mr. Obama had assured him he had nothing to explain," writes the NYT. Then there was a written public statement.

And in a finale that made the whole situation that much more similar to a Christopher Buckley novel, "The day ended, appropriately enough for the way politics is practiced now, with Mr. Biden explaining himself to Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's 'The Daily Show.'"

There, he explained himself thusly: "What got me in trouble was using the word clean. I should have said fresh. What I meant was he's got new ideas."

What About Rudy?

Meanwhile, USA Today wonders if Rudy Guiliani can get the Republican nomination considering his liberal social views. "Can the thrice-married New Yorker — a supporter of abortion rights, gay rights and gun control — win the nomination of a Republican Party that has become increasingly dependent on and influenced by conservative Christians?"

The answers -- from various political strategists, former politicians, and Tony Perkins – are maybe, definitely, possibly and absolutely not.

One Step Closer To A Non-Binding Solution

The dramatic suspense may soon be over. The Senate is one step closer to gaining broad bipartisan support for a nonbinding resolution rebuking the White House's increase of troops in Iraq by 21,500. "The revised resolution would express the Senate's opposition to the troop increase but would vow to protect funding for the troops," writes The Washington Post.

The Wall Street Journal's newsbox and the front page of the Los Angeles Times take note of the news as well. The resolution, sponsored by Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) also calls "for written commitments from the Iraqi government to achieve certain goals," writes the LAT.

House Democrats have reached a similar conclusion, and will draft a resolution similar to Warner's next week. The Post notes that on NPR yesterday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also "publicly hint[ed]" that she would push for actual binding legislation. "I believe that you'll see initiatives on the floor to this effect: that we have this year in which we should be able to drastically reduce the number of troops," she said.

The Dangers Of Daylight Saving Time

The front pages this morning also touch on some more practical issues. Like daylight saving time. Traditionally, (well, for 20 years) explains the Post, clocks were set forward on the first Sunday in April and set back on the last Sunday in October.

Then Congress had to go and shove a little tidbit into a 2005 energy bill that "lengthened daylight saving time by four weeks in the name of energy efficiency." That places the special day as March 11 of this year.

Lots of technicians are freaking out. Why? The Post provides the doomsday scenario: "It's one thing to arrive an hour late for church on the first day of daylight saving. It's another for a security system to log the wrong time of crucial events, for pilots to misunderstand their takeoff times or international communications components to stop synchronizing."

And unfortunately, "large swaths of private and corporate America seem oblivious to the approaching change…"

The good news? Well, that only applies to people in Hawaii or Arizona – where daylight saving time is not recognized.

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