In his January 17 Washington Post “Washington Sketch” column, which ABC's The Note called "childish," Dana Milbank wrote that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-NY) “campaign” -- which does not currently exist -- had “stumbl[ed]” in handling a press conference that had originally been scheduled for Tuesday, January 16. Milbank joined MSNBC -- to which he made reference -- in wrongly suggesting that Clinton postponed the press conference only after Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee.

Clinton's stated reason for the postponement, which Milbank acknowledged, was that Rep. John M. McHugh (R-NY) “delayed his return [from Germany] by a day because of dehydration.” Milbank wrote that Clinton never “publicly announced” the postponement, when in fact -- as Milbank conceded -- Clinton's staff had told reporters (but apparently not him) about the decision on January 15, the day before it had been scheduled to occur, and the day before Obama's announcement. Milbank also quoted a Clinton spokesman's explanation that Clinton could not immediately arrange a new time for the press conference because the Radio & TV Gallery was closed the previous day, and then Milbank added, “And we lost the phone number. And the dog ate my homework. And I think I hear my mom calling.”

As Media Matters for America noted, the National Journal's Hotline On Call weblog reported on January 16 at 11:19 a.m. ET that “the presser was cancelled late last night because Rep. John McHugh remained in Germany and won't return until today.” Similarly, according to the New York Times weblog The Caucus, posting at 12:37 p.m. ET on January 16, Clinton's office “disclosed at 3 p.m. Monday [January 15] that the news conference would be postponed” because “one of Mrs. Clinton's companions on the trip, Representative John McHugh, took ill during a stop in Germany and stayed behind to recover,” adding that Clinton advisers said “there was no way the Iraq presser would've gone ahead without Mr. McHugh.” Milbank cited the Caucus post but did not include the portions in which The Caucus noted that Clinton delayed the press conference on January 15 or in which Sen. Evan Bayh's (D-IN) office confirmed that Obama's announcement was not a factor. Bayh was on the trip with Clinton and will be part of the press conference.

Instead, Milbank cited three examples of MSNBC reporting to justify his skepticism. But, as Media Matters documented, MSNBC persisted in suggesting that Obama's announcement and Clinton's postponement were “related” despite the weblog reports noted above, statements by Wall Street Journal national political editor John Harwood and Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons' disputing the claim, and host Norah O'Donnell's 1 p.m. ET hour statement that "[w]e're hearing from Senator Clinton's office and others that it was because one of the congressmen on the trip was sick, and so they had to postpone that, that that was the reason."

Milbank was not the first to invoke a “the dog ate my homework” reference in connection with the rescheduling of the Clinton press conference. Ana Marie Cox, Washington editor of Time.com, beat him to it, with a post at 2:05 p.m. January 16 on Time.com's blog Swampland, with the line “the dog ate their Iraq report.” Cox went on to write: “Just kidding: What's sad about the Clinton camp's spinning is that is probably true. Just also very, very lucky.”

Even The Washington Post's own political blogger Chris Cillizza reported on January 16 -- when correcting his own statement that the press conference was postponed “shortly after the news of Obama broke” -- that “Clinton's advisers quickly made clear that the decision to cancel the event had been made yesterday and was IN NO WAY related to Obama's announcement today, a point confirmed by Sen. Evan Bayh's office, according to the New York Times' Caucus blog."

As Media Matters noted, The New York Times' Anne E. Kornblut also suggested that Clinton sought to dodge questions about Obama's announcement. In a 6:37 p.m. January 16 post on The Caucus, Kornblut speculated that Clinton may have been faking a cell phone call to avoid questions.

On January 17, ABC's political newsletter, The Note, called Milbank's column “childish” and the "[m]ost absurd over-the-top analysis of Clinton versus Obama."

From Milbank's January 17 “Washington Sketch” column in The Washington Post:

At 10:04 yesterday morning, a bulletin crossed the Associated Press wire: “Barack Obama takes the first step in a presidential bid.”

Eleven minutes later came a “MEDIA ADVISORY” from the office of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, announcing that she was postponing by a day her much-anticipated remarks about Iraq, which had been scheduled for yesterday afternoon.

Cable news did not see this as a coincidence. “BREAKING NEWS,” proclaimed a graphic on MSNBC. “HILLARY CLINTON CANCELS IRAQ NEWSER AFTER OBAMA ANNOUNCEMENT.”

“Senator Barack Obama takes the first step toward running for president in 2008, and minutes later a surprise announcement from Senator Hillary Clinton,” one of the cable network's anchors reported.

Was the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination preempted by Barack Obama, the party's rising star?

Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines rushed to rein in the speculation. “Congressman McHugh unexpectedly remained in Germany and isn't returning until today, [so] we postponed until tomorrow when all three members could all attend,” he wrote in an e-mail.

The Clinton camp's explanation only raised more questions. Among them: Congressman Mc WHO?

That would be John McHugh (R-N.Y.), who with Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) took a weekend trip to Iraq with Clinton. When McHugh delayed his return by a day because of dehydration, Clinton decided to postpone the event -- a decision shared with a few reporters Monday but never publicly announced.

“We knew that yesterday, but didn't have a new time for tomorrow because the members were in the air, and because the Radio & TV Gallery was closed yesterday,” Reines continued in his email. “We were only able to lock it in this morning.”

And we lost the phone number. And the dog ate my homework. And I think I hear my mom calling.

It was awfully early in a presidential campaign to be getting so defensive -- but such is the tone of the accelerated 2008 race.

[...]

The night before her Senate Armed Services Committee held a hearing on Bush's new Iraq policy last Friday, Clinton decamped -- for Iraq.

That moved Clinton's day of reckoning on Iraq to yesterday, when she was scheduled to face the cameras in the Senate television gallery. Then, yesterday morning, came the Clinton and Obama announcements in rapid succession.

Reporters were skeptical. “I just got word from my producers that Hillary Clinton has canceled her 2 p.m. news conference,” one MSNBC anchor reported. “Don't know if that's in relation to the news we got from Barack Obama, but we already see some of the competition heating up.” Clinton aides tried to tamp the speculation by circulating a blog item from the New York Times, “Clinton Campaign: Illness, Not Obama, Delayed News Conference.” It reported that McHugh “took ill during a stop in Germany and stayed behind to recover.”

McHugh, suffering from dehydration, reportedly stumbled in Germany on Monday but quickly recovered. By yesterday, stumbling was confined to the Clinton campaign.