The definition of a slow news day....

"The day when there's really only politics to talk about."

And even that topic is sparse.

For the Republicans, the New York Times ran a story trying to claim, with almost no evidence, that John McCain had an affair. McCain has denied it, and it seems that everyone is collectively fed up with the NYT on this one.

MM first covers the story here; HotAir has video of McCain's press conference and more backstory here, and MM has since pointed out the NYT's incredibly hypocrisy here. TownHall does the same, notes the NYT is in full retreat, makes the paper look bad, and concludes that the story may end up helping McCain.

Huckabee trusts McCain's word. Some folks have tried to claim this will hurt McCain among the evangelicals and conservatives, but I think they are intelligent enough to not countenance such baseless claims (and they are baseless, it seems). If anything, this prompts sympathy for McCain. Well played, NYT.

For McCain's first exposure to the trial by fire of being the party's presumed nominee - he's doing pretty well.

For the Democrats, Obama just added an 11th-straight democratic primary win to his column - the "democrats abroad" vote. Tonight, Hillary gets her last chance to debate him before the March 4th primaries in Texas and Ohio. They haven't debated in three weeks, and much has changed since then. Details on the debate here.

There you have it.

Observations?

update: Katherine from the comments:

I don't know about the appropriateness of the NYT story. However, Mrs. Cindy McCain response that "More importantly, my children and I not only trust my husband, but know that he would never do anything to not only disappoint our family, but disappoint the people of America. He's a man of great character."

Wasn't Senator McCain carrying on with her while still married (always married in God's eyes) to his first wife?

Here is the first source I found for this claim:

"McCain was still married and living with his wife in 1979 while, according to The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof, "aggressively courting a 25-year-old woman who was as beautiful as she was rich." McCain divorced his wife, who had raised their three children while he was imprisoned in Vietnam, then launched his political career with his new wife's family money. In 2000, McCain managed to deflect media questioning about his first marriage with a deft admission of responsibility for its failure."

Anyone have something to add on this topic? Did McCain really accede this claim by the NYT?

update 2: some folks are calling Hillary's closing words at tonight's debate her prepatory concession speech.