> “For eight dizzying hours yesterday, media outlets plunged themselves into Supreme speculation, with anchors and reporters blathering on about the president’s likely high court pick, until the collective chatter moved on to other potential nominees,” Howard Kurtz writes. He says a “shoot-from-the-lip environment ruled cable news.”

> USAT’s Peter Johnson: The timing “certainly illustrates that one of the great powers of the presidency is the power to change the subject,” Court TV News anchor Fred Graham said. “Bush was back on his heels over Karl Rove, and this announcement wipes Rove off the front pages, for a time.”

> “As a prime-time television event, it was well-planned by the White House: short, sweet and without a large piece of air time given over to any real analysis,” Tim Cuprisin writes.