CNN just carried live footage of John McCain's arrival at the MSP airport, featuring an extraordinary photo-op meeting with the Palin family, including Levi Johnston, the father of Bristol Palin's unborn child. With the Palins and Johnston standing in a sort of receiving line on the barren tarmac, McCain lingered for a serious-seeming talk with the expecting father, which included many firm claps on the shoulder and a vigorous two-handed handshake. It broadcast a kind of man-to-man demonstration of respect, which is probably the politically effective thing but it made for an extremely weird tableau.
--Michael Crowley