Even Times Crossword Puzzle Favors Obama

John McCain’s campaign chief looks to have been on to something when he accused the New York Times of being “in the tank” for Barack Obama; why else, David Levinson Wilk asks on Politico, would the paper’s crossword puzzle so thoroughly exclude John McCain? OBAMA has been the answer to three different clues since 2005, while MCCAIN has appeared exactly zero times.

A Times spokeswoman offers up the fact that Obama is a five-letter name with conveniently alternating vowels and consonants. But the bias persists at the vice-presidential level as well, Wilk notes. BIDEN has shown up not just in the Times, but also the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal crosswords. And PALIN? Only if you mean the Monty Python member. (More Barack Obama stories.)