Moving onto the next administration, why exactly did Obama pick Rick Warren and was there any merit to it? Does this make Obama a bigot, as a Time writer put it? Uh, probably not, but Maegan makes a convincing argument for listening to Obama, and letting this play out. Melissa Etheridge hasn’t steered us wrong yet!

Finally, Ted, Teresa, and Maegan all offer their Angels & Scrooges for 2008. It was a hugely exciting year, with a historic election, a changing media landscape, and a ridiculous amount of fascinating characters. Who was a great light in this country of ours, and who deserves a big pile of clean coal for Christmas? Who deserves to be seen, heard, and spoken of, and who deserves a disk jockey position in Antarctica? Special guest appearances by Cheney, the Big Three, House Republicans, Chris Hughes, and Greg Mortensen (look him up, friends)! - Blaise Nutter, Producer

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Also, what about Time’s choice for their Person of the Year? Barack Obama - who’s that? Thank goodness it wasn’t some nebulous concept choice this year… And is Obama creating a Democratic power vacuum by creating a bunch of vacancies in the Senate through his cabinet
choices? Is he risking his majority? And finally, yes, we gotta talk SHOES! Is the whole shoe-throwing incident overblown? Could it be national catharsis for a president we’ll never see regret anything? Or is it just hilarious? Tune in to this week’s Wilshire & Washington, with hosts Ted, Teresa, and Maegan, and they just might tell you! - Blaise Nutter, producer

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Second, Ted, Teresa, and Maegan weigh in on the current issues confronting the Obama administration: Why are so many news outlets reporting the “angry left” is angry with Obama? Is there any truth to this whatsoever and should any of us be surprised at all that Obama might be a centrist (you know, as opposed to the communist anti-Christ)? Teresa and Maegan also talk the the indictment of Illinois Governor Blago - wow, what an idiot - and the ironic role of investigative journalism in the equation as the Tribune goes bankrupt. Perhaps those old media dinosaurs do know a trick or two of the trade. - Blaise Nutter, Producer

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Giving us some perspective, Ted Johnson offers an exclusive review of Ron Howard’s new film, Frost/Nixon, as well as a portion of an interview he conducted with the Academy Award Winning Director (oh yeah, All Caps) at a recent screening. Don’t skip out and miss Howard’s Nixon impression. Apparently, it’s what all the cool kids are doing these days. Teresa and Maegan also weigh in on the Bush/Nixon comparison, our leaders’ difficulties in admitting mistakes, and the judgment of history.

Now, who you callin’ a team of rivals? Hilary? Really? Didn’t you disagree with her on everything? Yeah, a reporter asked that and what was That One’s response: brushed his shoulders off. It’s like the primaries didn’t even happen. Obama’s got some explaining to do, with his appointment of Senator Hilary Clinton as his new Secretary of State. Will Obama punish the reporters for asking about that? And what about this paradox of our current presidential duopoly, with every time Bush says something, the market crashes? How does that reflect psychologically on the administration, and how will the Mumbai terrorist attack affect Obama’s first real days in office? Is this India’s 9/11? How did the media respond, online and off, and how has it affected the Obama’s transition? All on today’s Wilshire & Washington. - Blaise Nutter, Producer

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Speaking of Prop 8, would you like pork chops with your side of segregation? Religion has been a big question within a question in the debate over Proposition 8. How does the religious question fit into the gay marriage issue? Should people be denouncing and threatening the Mormon Church, who donated so heavily to pass the proposition? Who’s to blame for the crummy campaign for No on 8 and its lax beginning? Were campaign organizers lazy early on? Did they do anything to reach out to essential demographics in the Latino and black communities? Renowned Voy internet entrepreneur, Cafe Espuelas radio host and CNN contributor Fernando Espuelas stops by to discuss these still very relevant issues on today’s Wilshire & Washington.

We had a bit of a glitch in the first minute, but the show gets rolling quickly and it’s a good one! Listen here or click on the blue Blog Talk Radio player to the right >>.

To tackle this changing landscape, Tim O’Reilly - the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media, Inc., open standards advocate, coiner of the term ‘Web 2.0,’ and buzzed-about short-list candidate for BO’s tech czar - stops by to discuss the MSM’s supposed collapse post-election, the opportunities MSM leaders are missing in their obsession with their own demise, and some of the major technological initiatives discussed at the recent Web 2.0 Summit he hosted in San Francisco with John Battelle. He also addresses some essential job qualifications for the soon-to-be-named tech czar and handicaps who among the digerati he thinks could best handle the job (not him, he says). Other topics addressed include how Twitter is creating new channels for people to communicate with government and consume news, and whether the President-Elect’s new media strategy really does offer the much-hyped transparency that netroots junkies are orgasming over, as Slate’s John Dickerson took umbrage with earlier this week.

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Halfway through the program, MediaLizzy joins to discuss the overwhelmingly self-reinforcing comments on our HuffPost piece. I’ve never been fond of pundits who can’t take criticism, but I was shocked by the number of readers who really believe that Republicans are predominantly whack jobs. I wanted to write the post because there are compelling people like Lizzy out there who are going to emerge as the new leaders of the party. They need to organize better online and we progressives need to start listening to them instead of immediately pointing fingers at Fox News and RedState. (Read Federalist No. 10 if you’ve got doubts about tyranny of the majority.) The comments are the equivalent of suggesting that liberals can only be characterized by Dennis Kucinich and Al Sharpton. Looks like some liberals have let this victory get them a lil bit sassy pants. 

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After the giggles, Campus Politico’s Ben Adler discusses what youth organizers are doing in the final days of the Obama and McCain campaigns. Ted also asks Teresa and I to weigh in on Barackstar’s 30-minute infomercial tonight (is it a risk that could backfire?), as well as Biden’s run-in with the Orlando, Fla., reporter who confronted him about Republican charges that an Obama administration would be a socialist regime.

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