McCain vs. Obama: Punches but no Knockouts

There’s no debate.

It’s news when national candidates meet face-to-face, as they did last night at the University of Mississippi.

Past political debates have been front-page news — whether it was presidential contenders John F. Kennedy vs. Richard Nixon in 1960 and Jimmy Carter vs. Gerald Ford in 1976 or vice presidential hopefuls George H.W. Bush vs. Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and Lloyd Bentsen vs. Dan Quayle in 1988.

The McCain-Obama debate was no exception. It was top news across the U.S.

“McCain, Obama clash sharply on financial crisis, war policy,” The Boston Globe said.

The debate provided main headlines for many newspapers. But front pages also provided an important feature – analysis.

In 1976, the St. Paul (Minn.) Dispatch (published 1861-1984) proclaimed: “Neither Ford nor Carter won 1st round.” History repeated itself last night:

* The Plain Dealer of Cleveland: “Toe-to-toe, but no KO.”
* Los Angeles Times: “Few hits, no errors.”
* The Tennessean, Nashville: “Both score points, but no clear victor.”
* Times-Picayune of New Orleans: “Senators land punches but no knockouts.”

Farewell to the House that Ruth Built

How do you say goodbye? When it came to the 85-year-0ld Yankee Stadium, saying goodbye meant past champions and fans, salutes and waves, aerials and closeups. However they chose to bid adieu, New York and New Jersey newspapers said it on the front page.

A Year in the Making

A year after the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed -- raising concerns about bridge safety across the country -- a replacement bridge has opened. To mark the opening, the Pioneer Press of St. Paul chronicled the construction of the new span in a creative front page that welcomes the new fixture across the Mississippi.

Hurricane Ike Strikes

The Houston Chronicle reports that the neighboring Galveston County Daily News continued to publish despite being pummeled by Hurricane Ike. Ike tore off the Daily News' roof, sending the staff to the Herald Zeitung in New Braunfels to produce pages and to the Victoria Advocate to print the newspaper. Through it all, the Galveston paper did not miss producing a newspaper.

Detroit's Mayoral Scandal

The mayoral scandal has been front-page news in Detroit. The Free Press and The News devoted special coverage today to two guilty pleas by the mayor.

Un-conventional

With the Republican convention meeting in its city, the St. Paul Pioneer Press did a wrap special section. Across the river, the Star Tribune of Minneapolis put convention news on its regular front page and then published a convention special section inside.

Set to Print -- But No Electricity

The headline of The Times-Picayune says, “No flooding, but massive power outages as Gustav weakens.”

The lack of power in New Orleans has impacted even the newspaper, which has been reporting and photographing news of Hurricane Gustav. Using a generator, the staff was able to put together a newspaper. But without electricity to power a printing press, the newspaper could not print today’s edition. Instead, it posted images of pages on its Web site.

The Newseum -- like many others interested in news about the massive storm -- pulled a copy of The Times-Picayune front page from the Internet.

If power is not restored this afternoon, the newspaper says it will seek an alternative location to print tomorrow’s newspaper. And The Times-Picayune will be awaiting the return of newspaper carriers, many of whom evacuated ahead of the storm.