P.S. Let Me Make It Easy For You, Mark And Chris:

IS "THE PRESS":

- MSNBC
- TIME
- WASHINGTON POST
- NY TIMES
- NY POST
- CHICAGO TRIB
- WALL STREET JOURNAL
- CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
- CNN, CBS, ABC, CNBC, FOX, NBC, BBC, AL JAZEERA ...
- BOSTON GLOBE
- WASHINGTON TIMES
- BIG GOVERNMENT
- RED STATES
- NEWSWEEK
- NEW YORKER
- NEW YORK MAGAZINE
- ROLLING STONE
- MOTHER JONES
- RUSH LIMBAUGH
- POLITICO
- THE ATLANTIC
- NATIONAL REVIEW
- TAMPA BAY TIMES
- MATT DRUDGE ...?!

Obviously, this is a very top-of-my-head partial list. So tell us, Chris Matthews and Mark Halperin: WHO is "THE PRESS" here and WHO is not? And why, pray tell, Chris and Mark, you aren't members of "THE PRESS" — understand, I can make a good case for it, but for our purposes the standard is whether you two can obtain a PRESS PASS to the presidential debates.

(Oooh, I get it! One of you co-authored one of the trashiest political campaign books in the history of the genre, certainly in strong competition with the worst of all time. Chris, well, you've got J. Edgar Hoover denial issues. All I can think of is, you're two smug elitists trading inside jokes about how much money you rake in — vastly overpaid for the crap you produce, but the market is what it is — compared to the shoe-leather grunts in "THE PRESS" who actually break the news you report on.)

So, maybe you're NOT "THE PRESS." I can live with that.