TV News Thrallmark Moment

I don't often find Keith Olbermann-dumped MSNBC talking head and Wash Post reporter Dana Milbank amusing (although he does). But here he is substituting his own lyric for Paul Simon's "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover."

There must have been 50 ways to celebrate the 100 days.

Hop on the plane, Barack Hussein.

Let the words flow, Joe.

Go out and be glib, Gibbs.

Get yourself on TV.

Try some oratory, Harry.

No need to be fancy, Nancy.

Just do MSNBC, Valerie.

The airtime is free.

More Dana: TV anchors chided the White House for, as NBC's Matt Lauer put it, "taking full advantage" of the 100-day hoopla after dismissing it as "a fake holiday." But the networks and cable did much the same, for the same reason: Even Hallmark holidays are good for ratings. "This whole 100-day thing to me is sometimes just absolutely nuts!" lamented Roland Martin on CNN -- which, as of 3 p.m., had broadcast the phrase "100 days" no fewer than 76 times. MSNBC was only slightly behind, at 57 mentions. "Has it been a great, good, average 100 days for President Obama?" asked anchor Ed Schultz as part of the station's "special coverage" of the day. "What's your call?" "I think it's been a very good 100 days," replied Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.). Even Fox News had tallied up 41 grudging mentions of Obama's 100 days by 3 p.m. "I think the second 100 days are going to be more relevant," proposed Republican strategist Kevin Madden. With cable news setting the pace, the entire political-industrial complex was mobilized. Brookings and the National Journal held 100-day briefings. White House photographer Pete Souza posted an "Official White House Photostream" on Flickr with a few hundred photographs of Obama. CNBC's John Harwood asked fiery White House Chief of Staff Emanuel, "What's the angriest you've gotten in the first 100 days?" "I don't have, in my view, a volatile temper," a sweet and mild Emanuel replied.... And Obama's 100 days brought to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's mind Winston Churchill in 1942. "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning," Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement. MSNBC morning host Joe Scarborough even devised a special greeting. "Happy 100th day," he told Obama adviser Jarrett. "Well, thank you," Jarrett replied. "Arlen Specter certainly delivered a very festive 100-day birthday present to you all." But such festivities can be tiring, and officials were weary as they marked the administration's 100-day birthday. Goolsbee, of the Council of Economic Advisers, likened the 100 days to "20 dog years." And Jarrett, on Fox News, was asked if it felt as if 100 days had passed. "At least a thousand," she replied. A thousand days? Now that one should really be a blowout.