“We’re getting a lot of positive signs,” says CBS News president Sean McManus of the possibility his network will get a presidential debate on its airwaves. This, from the guy who previously orchestrated an arrangement where CBS wouldn’t host a debate; while onlookers blamed his financial conservatism, he blamed programming schedules.

Now, it appears, any date is fine with him. Even Passover. Just give Katie a frickin’ platform.

At the moment, landing a debate is a big part of that job. When the Obama campaign announced that it had agreed to an April 16 debate with Senator Clinton on ABC, a week before the Pennsylvania primary, it also announced a debate on CBS in North Carolina on April 19. The strategy was clear: get in a North Carolina debate before the vote in Pennsylvania to try to diminish the impact of a probable loss.

But the Clinton camp, which wanted no part of another debate that week, killed the idea by pointing out something that CBS and the Obama camp had somehow failed to consider: April 19 is the first night of Passover.

CBS offered April 18, but the Clinton people said that was still unacceptable because it was too close to Passover. Now the network has offered a range of dates, Mr. McManus said. [NYT]