In which I meet Lizz Winstead and Ed Schultz

Hi again from midtown Manhattan. The following is no April Fool, I assure you.

Tonight, on the recommendation of res ipsa loquitur and after dinner with watertiger, Culture of Truth, HoneyBearKelly, and Bunter, racymind and I went to Shoot the Messenger, a terrific "two-in-one" show that combines a caustic-yet-frighteningly-accurate morning show parody with an interview session. Tonight, the "star" and co-creator of StM, Lizz Winstead, interviewed Air America Radio host Ed Schultz.

What a terrific show. The first half, the morning show parody, was a riot. My favorite part was when they interviewed the author of a book exploring why Barack Obama was going to have trouble reaching out to "middle America" (remember, this is a parody, folks). The title of the book: Oreo Nation: Campaigning for the Creamy Middle. Ouch.

But it was Winstead's interview with Schultz that was most enlightening. The two covered a lot of topics, even spending a good bit of time on my question regarding the impact of the blogosphere on mainstream media (naturally, I mentioned Eschacon, and Lizz also mentioned Atrios in her response to my question). Schultz won't endorse a candidate, but he said that from where he sits, he doesn't understand why Hillary Clinton remains in the race. He also told a few anecdotes from his dinner last night with Terry McAuliffe, to which Winstead asked, "Did you lose a bet and have to have dinner with Terry McAuliffe? Was it like, 'You either have to go to Guantanamo or have dinner with Terry McAuliffe?' "

According to Schultz, Obama is making great strides with the superdelegates, a situation he called "the untold story from the media." Bill Richardson noted this, Schultz said, when he endorsed Obama -- that Clinton seems to have an unpalatable sense of entitlement in this campaign, a "strange definition of loyalty," as Schultz put it. "Barack really wants to attempt to bring people together; Hillary doesn't think you can bring people together -- you only have to win by one and then beat the shit out of them."

Schultz believes that if Clinton takes the nomination through "arm-twisting" of superdelegates at the convention, "there's going to be hell to pay in November." People, especially African-Americans, will feel disenfranchised. The money quote: "Catholics voted for John F. Kennedy. Evangelicals voted for Bush. What's wrong with black people voting for Barack Obama, or women voting for Hillary Clinton?"

There was much, much more but that's basically what I remember. It was a special event and I'm thrilled to have attended. Oh, yeah, then there's this:

Yeah, that's me, the Z-lister DFH from Florida with Schultz and Winstead. That pretty much kicked ass.

I think I might have to hang out in NYC more often ...