Segment-stealing Howie Kurtz's Katie Couric profile cannot be described in any other way but a softball reputation resuscitator. But we're not faulting either of them for it. Couric could use, and perhaps deserves, the good press; Kurtz enjoys zagging when others zig. Now nineteen months on the job, Couric treats us to her brand of:

• Sympathy: "She is trailing in a highly competitive contest against her male rivals, is occasionally covered in a condescending way and faces predictions that she'll be forced out of the race. Katie Couric understands what Hillary Clinton is going through."

• Charity: "On Saturday she will be in Charlottesville to help the University of Virginia break ground for a $74 million Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center, funded by both the state and private donations."

• Congeniality: "On the political front, Couric believes the imbalance in the way the Democratic candidates are portrayed stems in part from some reporters 'who are predisposed not to like the Clintons."'But she says the coverage has evened out recently, thanks to a pair of comedy skits that portrayed journalists as being in the tank for Barack Obama. 'Saturday Night Live did have a big impact on the media,' she says."

• Originality: "Last week she did a piece on misstatements by presidential candidates and another on the vice presidential selection process — stories that at other networks might have been done by correspondents."

• Clarity: "Couric prefers to take the long view, noting that NBC's Tom Brokaw languished in second place for more than a decade before securing the top spot. 'I've never really judged my worth by ratings. It was nice to be number one on the Today show, but to me it was more important to do a good show. Our broadcast, I think, is of really good quality. Hopefully more people will come to it. I feel really good about the job I'm doing every single night.'"

• Sincerity: "Couric appears more comfortable on the evening news set these days, but the sense of excitement and experimentation that she brought to the 60-year-old genre has long since faded. That eases the pressure on her but makes it harder for her to distinguish herself."

• Desirability: "Her celebrity is a double-edged sword, putting the 51-year-old Couric on more magazine covers than the other anchors but also generating more gossipy items about whom she is dating."

• Personality: "As Couric was being made up outdoors, she tweaked one of her predecessors, Dan Rather, by pretending to be undecided whether to wear her overcoat open or closed, a decision he was once seen wrestling with on a similar bootleg tape. [...] Was Couric embarrassed that her private mocking became a viral video? 'I thought it was funny,' she says. 'It's really hard to show that side of my personality on the evening news, and that's a frustration for me.'"