'Gold' Standard on CBS

My bosses made me watch some seven hours of CBS election coverage last night. I have to say, Katie Couric was sharp throughout, calling up relatively obscure bits of election day history (the importance of "Jessecrat" voters in North Carolina), beating Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell to a joke about Sarah Palin spending so much time in the state that she ought to start paying state tax, and smoothly quarterbacking commentary from Schieffer and Greenfield. 

She was cool and measured all night, her only real misstep happening when she referred to Sen. McCain early in the night as the "Ever-Ready Bunny." Surely those gifted brand managers over at Energizer couldn’t have been pleased with that one. 

At one point, during that looooonnnng lull when the electoral vote count seemed stuck at around 206 to 124, I thought about sneaking in a viewing of Entourage that I’d DVR’d Sunday. But my dedication to the good ship B&C prevailed, and I was rewarded when none other than Ari Gold was interviewed by WCBS New York reporter Pablo Guzman. Yes, Jeremy Piven, stripped of his Ari-esque gesticulations and bombast, spoke from an Obama rally in Harlem just before CBS went back to the network coverage at 11. 

It was that point that Katie said she had some "momentous news"–Obama had amassed the necessary 270 electoral votes. 

Oh, and Vincent Chase got the second lead in Smoke Jumpers.

[image: sfgate.com]