The Times is calling itself out: The paper heavily favors democratic nominee Barack O-B-A-M-A as an answer for their famous crossword puzzles. While Obama's been listed as a clue eight times, with such hints as "“Presidential candidate born in Hawaii," McCain's surname never made it onto the Will Shortz's edited game.

Of course, the Times's got a handy excuse for their liberal bias:

"It is because ‘Obama’ is a five-letter name that alternates vowels and consonants. It’s got three vowels out of five letters, starting and ending in vowels. So it is much more crossword-friendly than ‘McCain,’ which is a harder word to put in a crossword. If McCain’s name was Obama, then his name would have been used many more times in crosswords.”

Yes, if only senator McCain's name was Obama, or if he had one of those vaguely ethnic names with a lot of vowels, or if he was anyone other than John McCain. Still, you don't see McCain campaign manager Rick Davis up there for two down, five across even though his name is turning out to be synonymous with something. And while both BIDEN and PALIN are answers to several hints in the world's most famous crossword, only the former refers to a VP candidate. The clues for Palin always refer to the Monty Python member, Michael.

It took awhile for this story to come to light, since only elite liberals and their love for word games ever attempt a NYT's crossword puzzle.