This title sounds like an ideal Abbott and Costello remake for the
present age, but what I’m referring to are the
softballs that the Sunday talk show hosts gave the recently-victorious Chris
Christie this past weekend. I wrote a couple of weeks back about the rather
skewed coverage Obamacare and the election received, but this is even worse.
Slate’s David Weigel highlighted his treatment in an article
on Monday, “Chris Christie Proves Just How Stupid the Sunday Shows Are.” As
everyone who pays any attention knows, Christie is emerging as a potential
frontrunner to take on Hillary Clinton in the next presidential campaign. I
have read laudatory comments from pundits/op ed columnists across the media
landscape, including the Washington Post (here), Time (here),
New York Times (here)
and the Sunday talk show circuit mentioned above. What is fascinating is the
tendency to ignore a number of facts: 1. East Coast moderate Republicans have a
relatively poor record in recent nationwide elections (and that goes for
liberals as well, lest us forget), 2. Christie won reelection partially because
of his laudatory response to Sandy Hook and moderate stance on a host of
issues, 3. Christie’s record in New Jersey (as I noted in a previous post) is
not that great when it comes to jobs, poverty or education, 4. Tacking to the
right, as he would have to do, has also been a strategy wrought with problems
both in the GOP primaries and certainly in the election (as Romney, among many,
has shown) and 5. As a hot head and, well, “large person,” does he really have
a shot to win?
But let’s take a look at the
questions he received from our most respected television personalities, who
seem to have forgotten how to actually critically interview anybody on the
right (thanks to Weigel for this list):
David Gregory, Meet the
Press
Unless you want to announce on
the show this morning, and I suspect you don't, let me ask this question, which
is how do you think, even as governor of New Jersey, that you can effect, that
you can impact the Republican Party with this re-election?
Mitt Romney told me here last
week that you could save the Republican Party. Does it need saving? And are you
the guy to save it?
In New Jersey, according to the
exit poll there, shows that you would trail Hillary Clinton even in your own
state. Do you view that and say that she is formidable, that you'd be an
underdog if it were to come to that?
Here's the question. Are you a
moderate or are you a conservative? This is how our blog First Read described
some of that criticism already coming from the likes of Rand Paul or Marco
Rubio.
The Wall Street Journal,
about your economic record, concluded this is an editorial Wednesday as the
biggest area of disappointment, failing to improve the state's economy. The
state jobless rate is still 8.5 percent, among the 10 highest in the
country.
Do you think Obamacare is
doomed? Do you think the Republican Party has an obligation to make it work at
this point?
George Stephanopoulos, This
Week
When Rand Paul was asked if
you're the man to beat in 2016, he called you a moderate. ... He said that
it's a tough road for you, is he right? So is he right? Can you play in places
like Iowa and South Carolina?
You also said that undocumented
students in New Jersey should get in-state tuition rates. Do you think other
states should adopt that policy as well?
Do you think that national
solution [on immigration] should include both a path to citizenship and that
relief on in-state college tuition?
There's also been a lot of
questions about the president's health care plan. You called on him to apologize
this week. He seemed to take your advice, a couple of days later he did
apologize for people who were getting their health plans canceled.
You didn't set up an exchange,
but you did accept the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare. And some, again,
of your potential rivals like Ted Cruz are going to come after you on that.
What's your answer?
A possible run for president
brings a whole 'nother level of scrutiny, are you prepared for that?
You saw that Time magazine
cover this week. We're going to show it right there. "The elephant in the
room." Did that bother you at all or did you think it was clever?
Norah O'Donnel, Face the
Nation
You won 66 percent of
independents, 51 percent of Hispanic voters. ... Is there a lesson there for
the rest of the Republican Party?
Do you believe the Republican
Party, Congress, needs to pass an immigration bill in the next 14 months in
order to appeal to Hispanic voters?
A lot of Republicans tell me
you are already laying the groundwork for a run for president in 2016? What
does Mary Pat say about this?
What major policy and political
goals do you have for the next year?
[On Obamacare and Obama] This
week he apologized to the American people. Do you think that's enough?
You were the one who suggested
to President Obama that he do an interview and say, I'm sorry?
We have known for a long time
that the media sucks in America and that there is a rightward bias, no matter
how loud Fox and its acolytes scream of a “left-wing media conspiracy.” But the
cravenness, obsequiousness and inability to fact check or ask piercing
questions is rather astounding. Of course, look what happens when you do take
on a politician on the grand stage, as Candy Crowley found out in the 2012
Presidential Debate (The
Daily Beast). One hopes the media remembers, at some point, that stupidity
and objectivity are not the same thing – and that objectivity is an absurd goal
to begin with.
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