On CNN, anchor Campbell Brown cranked up the hyperbole machine: "Tonight, everybody, he blew the roof off the joint. Al Gore, one of the last big-name Democrats, getting behind Barack Obama in a big way, making a speech that could have won him the White House if he'd been making this kind of speech eight years ago." Brown started pushing Gore as Obama's running mate, and when gurus like David Gergen said it would never happen, she lamented: "Do I sound like I want it just too badly here, David? It's a good story."

TV anchors and reporters today are not role models for emotional detachment. They're about as restrained in their love as Tom Cruise was on Oprah's couch.

NBC's Lee Cowan trumpeted Gore's nod live from the venue in Detroit: "He says he'll do whatever he can to make sure that Barack Obama gets elected president. He announced his decision today on his blog, e-mailing a very deep list of supporters telling them to get behind this ticket both with a little elbow grease and with a little money as well." Cowan suggested it was a big deal that Gore had never before on his website asked for campaign donations. He didn't seem to check if that was true, or wonder if Gore's website had many visitors. Facts might just get in the way of the drama.

On the "Today" show, Cowan grew even sillier, reporting in cheery tones that Gore "even humorously suggested that the pet food crisis last year showed that the White House was in need of an overhaul." Gore joked, "Even our dogs and cats have learned that elections matter."

In the New York Times, reporter Jeff Zeleny found no space for negative evaluations of Obama or Gore. Instead, Zeleny passed along how Obama smiled as Gore compared Obama to George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and Christopher Columbus, all of whom accomplished great things by their mid-forties.

It doesn't matter to these reporters that Al Gore couldn't even win his home state of Tennessee in 2000. It doesn't matter that Gore's 2004 endorsement of Howard Dean wasn't exactly pixie dust. Every day, the media go looking for an opportunity to paint a moon and stars over Obama's head and swoon at how they're making "history" happen.