Nervous.

On "Face the Nation" today, the key word was "nervous":

ANTHONY SALVANTO, CBS NEWS ELECTIONS & SURVEYS DIRECTOR: [The people who were conditional supporters of Trump have] an increasing feeling of nervousness that they say that they feel this is back to the idea that -- that this relates -- this investigation relates to the president's judgement and temperament…. But that said, everyone that we re-interviewed [was] increasingly nervous, saying that's the word they consistently use, that they're getting more and more nervous about what the administration is doing… [F]olks who were on the fence are sort of coming over to that firmer opposition, in part because of... that nervousness....

MOLLY BALL, "THE ATLANTIC": … I spent most of my week talking to Republicans on Capitol hill and their staff and people around the Congress and… they're very nervous when -- when Anthony was talking about the -- the nervous Trump curious voters out there in the country, that was very much the vibe I got from Capitol Hill Republicans. They really still want him to be something that he hasn't been so far. They are incredibly nervous by all of these things happening….

RAMESH PONNURU, "THE NATIONAL REVIEW": [O]ne of the things that's happening with congressional Republicans is, look, they've got this feeling in the pit of their stomach. They wish the president would act in different ways, but they are keenly aware that the vast majority of Republican voters across the country, including the voters in their districts, still supports this president. And you will see a pattern where the House Republicans who are in swing seats are more nervous. The senators who are in blue or purple states are more nervous. But the bulk of Republicans don't fit into either of those categories and they're nervous but they're still going to be supporting this president....

JOHN DICKERSON, HOST: [T]hey're nervous and what about the agenda? Are they nervous about that too?… They're nervous about an unpredictable president, but what about the future in terms of getting stuff done?

Donald Trump — on "Face the Nation" just now — talks about how he feels about getting used in terrorist propaganda.

Trump was excellent, I thought. Here. Watch the extended interview:

David Axelrod explains why Trump "the anti-Obama" — and why people are drawn to an anti-Obama.

On "Face the Nation" yesterday:

[T]he substitute for a coherent answer is bellicosity, let's be... strong -- because I think people are tired of the complexity of the situation and they're responding to strength. And -- and that's how -- that translates into the kind of language that [Trump is using].... [I]n the general electorate, that kind of rhetoric can be crippling. But in the primary and given the sort of red hot nature of the Republican base, you know, you get the effect that you see with Trump, where people are responding. He is the anti-Obama. I always believed that the incumbent sets the terms of the debate. And people never choose the replica of what they have, particularly in the other party. They choose the remedy. And there's no one more anti -- so -- there's no more of an antithesis to Barack Obama than Donald Trump.

How Donald Trump managed John Dickerson on "Face the Nation" today.

Dickerson confronted Trump about the San Bernardino massacre. Note how Dickerson sets up the question with a statement that isn't part of the question...

DICKERSON: There are links between ISIS and this terror attack in San Bernardino, but there were no red flags. So, how do you stop this from happening again?

But Trump won't let him get away with that. He goes back to the unexamined premise:

TRUMP: Well, I think there are red flags. And a lot of people knew what was going on in that house or that apartment. And people were not wanting to call because they thought it would be inappropriate to call. 

Dickerson is forced to bounce off Trump:

DICKERSON: Inappropriate why?

Trump responds:

TRUMP: Well, they were saying that it was -- that they would have been profiling. And a person said, we sort of knew what was going on, but we don't want to profile. Can you believe this?

Again, Dickerson must take his cue from Trump and ask "Should there be profiling?" And Trump says: "Well, I think there can be profiling." Dickerson fails to drag a meaning of "profiling" out of Trump, and Trump doesn't get too technical about it. The people who didn't call the police were afraid to be thought of as profiling, but Trump doesn't tell us what kind of profiling could be acceptable. He sticks to saying that it's "pretty bad" not to have called the police, because "People are dead." It's a problem that "everybody wants to be politically correct" and "a lot of people are dead right now."

What if ISIS hit us here in the homeland: What would all the presidential candidates be saying we should do?

From yesterday's "Face the Nation" transcript. Peggy Noonan threw something forth as an idea — or as the transcript has it "fourthism (ph) idea":

[S]uppose ISIS hit the United States, as everybody fears. What would we all be thinking the next day was absolutely the right, urgent, strong thing to do?... What would that look like to us? And what would be the proper response at this point?

WaPo's David Ignatius gave this answer:

I -- certainly if we're hit directly, the public will support and even demand retaliation. I think there -- there are two roots [SHOULD READ: routes] that -- that we would follow in that case and should think about following now. One is to augment the direct action strikes that our special forces are already making every day inside Syria and Iraq. We are killing dozens of people who get back in touch with would-be attackers in the United States, who come in on -- on social media. And if you call -- if you get a call back, if you're one of those people who's trying to direct an operation, we'll try to kill you. And so -- you know, that's already going on. It should -- it should be augmented. The second, harder question is, whether to add ground troops. I mean from all the talk from McCain and Graham [who were on the show earlier], there is not an Arab ground force that can clear Raqqa or any of these places reliably. Are we going to provide that? Will we do that with NATO, with the -- with air -- a coalition of Arabs? Those are the kinds of questions that we would ask the next day and we should ask now.

In short, what we'd do then is what we should do now.

"Face the Nation" laugh line: "When you're in Madison, Wisconsin, and you make a mistake nobody notices."

On yesterday's show, the host John Dickson asked Republican strategist Kevin Madden about that line in Scott Walker's CPAC speech. ("If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the globe.") 

Madden said:

Look, I mean, I think too much was made of that. I think one of the lessons that Scott Walker has to take on this will be the test of whether or not his candidacy is up to par. Is when you are -- when you're in Madison, Wisconsin, and you make a mistake nobody notices. When you are a potential presidential candidate everybody notices, the Democrats jump in, and three or four other campaigns that see to their advantage will seek to elevate that....

LOL. We were laughing in Madison, Wisconsin, where for the last 5 years everyone has been jumping on every damned thing that could possibly be jumped on. The idea that Scott Walker has been hanging out in a cushy locale not really getting tested is beyond ludicrous. The national arena is certainly much larger, but I think, with the greater number and multiplicity of voices, it's easier to get through the process of explaining and contextualizing inept remarks.

 In any case, it's ridiculous to say that nobody notices, unless Madden is himself making a politically inept remark and revealing that he thinks the people out here in the hinterlands are nobodies. Wisconsin people notice like hell. And anything — anything — that could be used against Scott Walker has been used. If you don't believe me, Google the phrase "kind of the last hurrah before we dropped the bomb."

On "Face the Nation," Peggy Noonan was asked about Chris Christie, and she said:

One of the joy of politics, he's a natural campaigner. Can I point out Chris Christie has the opposite problem of Scott Walker. Scott Walker gets to say things in Wisconsin, the press doesn't notice. Chris Christie is across the river from Mark [Halperin of Bloomberg Politics]. He's across the river from the mainstream media. And they kill him every day.

Mainstream media, such coasties. 

The unbloggable "Meet the Press."

I have something from yesterday's show I'd like to blog. I had something from last week's show too. I see that the transcript from last week's show was posted 2 days ago — that is, 6 days after the show aired. Meanwhile, yesterday, ABC had its "This Week" transcript posted on the very morning that the show aired. My usual routine has been to record 4 Sunday morning shows and watch them putting "Meet the Press" first and "This Week" last. I'd watch and make note of things I wanted to blog, jotting down a word to search for in the transcript. Actually, I rarely watched "This Week," because I got weary after "MTP," "Face the Nation," and "Fox News Sunday," but yesterday, I watched the Scott Walker segment of "This Week" first because I saw the transcript and video on line and bloggable before noon.

"Face the Nation" had its transcript up yesterday a little after 2 in the afternoon. Here. CBS news political correspondent John Dickerson was asked about the meaning of a new poll that put Scott Walker ahead in Iowa:

Scott Walker had a good performance in Iowa at the last weekend at the Steve King Cattle Call. He did well. That shows up in the polls. We saw this in 2012 when Michelle Bachmann had her moment; Herman Cain. It seemed every week, everybody had another moment. What Scott Walker has that those other candidates didn't have is he has a little bit of staying power. He has a quick elevator pitch, he can talk about being elected three times in a purple state and also that he took on the unions and he survived. That is what is -- you have slow burn candidates and fast burn candidates. You want to be a slow burn candidate, you want to be there at the end. What keeps him from being a fast burnout candidate is this record he's got. So that's good for him....

"Elevator pitch"? Is that an expression? Yes! (Could you sell yourself in the time you have someone stuck with you on an elevator?)

Does "Fox News Sunday" have yesterday's transcript up yet? Yes. Here. It's not a perfect transcript. Here's Chris Wallace inviting former U.S. Secretary of Education Bill Bennett to tell us why the presidential candidates who oppose common core are wrong:

Mr. Bennett, let me start with you. A number of Republicans considering Iran for president in 2016, have made opposition to common core a key issue....

Ha ha. But better an imperfect transcript than no transcript. Is it fear of a ludicrous mistake like "Iran for president" what keeps "Meet the Press" from putting words on the page? There was a time when "the press" meant putting words on the page.