The Ticker (p.m. edition): Debate, Amanpour, WHCA…

> The National Journal chimes in with a Next-Thursday-Morning-Quarterback of the ABC debate last week. “I suspect that the Gibson-Stephanopoulos questions were a lot more illuminating on these points than it would have been to solicit yet another mind-numbing round of distortions,” writes Stuart Taylor, Jr.

> CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour traveled with the New York Philharmonic as they made a trip inside North Korea. Amanpour Reports: Notes From North Korea premieres May 10 at 8pmET.

> Patrick Gavin is, of course, covering all the goings on in DC this weekend for FishbowlDC. To prep for the occasion, he rates all this weekend’s parties, on a scale of one Craig Ferguson to four. The predicted winning party? Bloomberg’s.