USA TODAY

Mayor Doug Palmer of Trenton, a loyal Hillary Clinton supporter, doesn’t think much of the dust-up over Clinton's comments about how exit polls in Indiana and North Carolina showed Barack Obama's "support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

Palmer, one of Clinton’s highest-profile black supporters in New Jersey, refused any suggestion that she was trying to be manipulative, and said that she was only pointing out a fact that a whole host of pundits and analysts had already observed.

"She doesn't have to say that because people already see it and know it. And her saying it is not going to make it more important," he said, adding. "People need to step back and take a breath."

"She just has gotten a bad rap on this," he added. "You have 92 percent of African American voters going for him. And people said that he has black support."

He argued Obama's "bitter" comments were worse because they were made in a San Francisco fund-raiser. By contrast, with Clinton, he said, "It was not like she was saying something behind closed doors. She said it to the media."  read more »

Peter Johnson, the longtime TV and media reporter for USA Today, has taken a buyout, TV Newser is reporting today.

"Respected, adored and occasionally feared by TV execs for his sharp wit and 'knowledge of where every single body is buried,' Johnson will join his wife Tory Johnson, a contributor to Good Morning America at her successful career fair business, Women for Hire, in New York City," reports TV Newser.

USA Today will cut 45 members from its newsroom, editor Ken Paulson wrote in a memo. Mr. Paulson felt the whole thing was unfortunate.

It's unfortunate that we have to take these steps, particularly when our newspaper circulation is growing and USATODAY.com has been named the top news website in the country by the Online News Association. Unfortunately, revenue has not kept pace and we're now facing the same cutbacks that so many other news organizations have already experienced.

In the buildup to Al Gore's big appearance before Congress tomorrow to testify on global warming, Observer contributor Rebecca Sinderbrand writes in with a interesting catch:

Checking the homepage of Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee for the scheduling details of Gore's testimony, she noticed that all the "related items" links accompanying that information lead to arguments made by GOP Senator the global warming super-skeptic Jim Inhofe.

(Sample headline: "IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...GORE ISN'T QUITE AS GREEN AS HE'S LED THE WORLD TO BELIEVE (USA TODAY")

Are the majority Democrats letting Inhofe control the web as a consolation prize for losing the chairmanship?

Just wondering.

--Jason Horowitz

• When the New York Historical Society took its (two) mighty renovation plans to the public last night, man-of-the-people Bill Moyers stood up to the NYHS. Representing his Central Park West posse, Mr. Moyers said he'll support the museum's plans only if there isn't a hi-rise condo involved. Uptown drama! [Curbed]
• From Pittsburg [above] to Syracuse to Sugar Land, Texas, American cities are clawing each other for the honor to say, "We're the greenest." And their mayors are signing grand agreements, too: Bloomberg and 15 other NY leaders have jumped onto the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. [USA Today, via Architect Online]
• Conspiratorial Question of the Day: Why was Joshua Guttman's building at 247 Water Street in Dumbo destroyed by fire--just like his historic Greenpoint Terminal? Either way, he and his partners will need to deal with the 434 charges for "not curing deficiencies" at the terminal before its fiery destruction. [The Real Deal]
• But there's more to Dumbo than shady fires--like artsy condos! Local creative types have two weeks to submit art for the J Condominium. (On the other hand, $16,000 would hardly pay a few months' rent in the neighborhood these days.) [Dumbo NYC]
- Max Abelson
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Recently on USA Today's blog about polls, Gallup Guru, Frank Newport offered this defense of 2008 opinion polls that are coming so soon after the 2006 elections .

"Sometimes people accuse us of jumping in too quickly with our horse race polls asking Americans whom they prefer for their party's nomination in 2008. But hey! With the candidates already tripping all over themselves to make announcements that they are "exploring" the possibility of running in '08, it's certainly not too early to be testing the waters as far as American public opinion is concerned.

"Indeed, we've been asking about 2008 since Nov. 2004 - just after that year's presidential election."

It doesn't sound like the rate of publishing 2008 opinion polls will slow down anytime soon.

-- Azi Paybarah

As Connecticut Democrats went to their polling places to choose a Senate nominee, waves of rhetorica  read more »

The New York Times announced this evening, and in tomorrow's paper, a change in format. The paper will consolidate its printing at its College Point facility in Queens, lay off 250 employees, and reduce the trim size of the paper to the size of USA Today.

The process will take two years. In a memo, executive editor Bill Keller said the paper would add pages; the shrinkage of paper would, after the addition of more pages, only result in 5 percent less space in the newspaper. "A narrower paper is in some ways more reader-friendly," Keller wrote.

Keller also speculated that by fighting "flabby or redundant prose in longer pieces" and running more news-digest material, "I could take 5 percent out of any day's paper and actually make it better."

Keller's memo runs to 780 words.  read more »

Full memos follow, from Keller and Times president Scott Heekin-Canedy:

Is USA Today emerging as an idealistic voice? It broke the big story on wiretapping citizens. Now Jimmy Carter, once again distinguishing himself as a moral voice, says that Israeli Prime Minister Olmert's plans for fences deep inside the occupied territories of the West Bank, preserving settlements, are a landgrab.

It is inconceivable that any Palestinian, Arab leader, or any objective member of the international community could accept this illegal action as a permanent solution to the continuing altercation in the Middle East. This confiscation of land is to be carried out without resorting to peace talks with the Palestinians, and in direct contravention of the "road map for peace," which President Bush helped to initiate and has strongly supported.

These things come in waves, somehow, and this is not Hillary's moment. Drudge has numbers from the new CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll:

"CNNGALLUP found that 51 percent say they definitely won't vote for Clinton (D-N.Y.) in 2008, another 32 percent might consider it, and only 16 percent vow to back her. That means committed anti-Hillary voters outnumber pro-Hillary voters by 3-1. The poll suggests she can forget about crossover votes - 90 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of conservatives say there's no way they'd back her."  read more »

NOTE: Yes, this was in The Post this morning. Wednesday mornings are a little rough around here. Sorry.

Two high-profile New York Post business-section staffers are abandoning the tabloid this month. Current Sunday business editor Laura Petrecca is slated to start at USA Today on July 25, covering media and marketing. "It's a great opportunity," Petrecca said. "I'm thrilled." And business reporter Erica Copulsky will be headed to the Wall Street Journal at month's end. Copulsky declined to comment on her job switch. --Gabriel Sherman  read more »

In her first interview since her October hospitalization for fever and headaches, actress Lindsay Lo  read more »

Never so many newspaper investigations of newspapers: internal investigations, outside investigation  read more »