I watched Tim Pwlenty being interviewed by David Gregory on Meet the Press today, and I came away with the overwhelming impression that Gregory is truly a jerk. About half of the interview consisted of "gotcha" questions designed only to cause trouble for Pawlenty rather than to have him comment on issues that might be of interest to viewers. Here are two examples: Gregory asked governor Pawlenty repeatedly if Michele Bachmann was fit to be president. Not surprisingly, Pawlenty said that he had campaigned for Bachmann in her congressional campaigns and that they were friends and then he said that he, unlike her, had executive experience. Gregory tried again and again with that same question. Pawlenty kept giving the same answer. So what! At another point, Gregory asked Pawlenty where he was different from the other GOP candidates and, without waiting for an answer continued with the questions of Pawlenty as to where he would break with the GOP on an issue. If I were Pawlenty, I would have told Gregory that he had asked a nonsense quesiton. After all, there can be differences between the candidates without their "breaking" with the GOP on an issue. For example, they can all favor lower spending and measures to increase the growth of the economy, two standard Republican positions, but they can differ on what the measures to increase growth would be. Pawlenty, instead, chose the "nice" response and talked about the hard decisions he had made in the past. Gregory tried again and again to get Pawlenty to say that he would break with the GOP with the same result.
Imagine how much better the interview could have been if Gregory had asked Pawlenty to steps he would take to get economic growth back in the economy after the disaster created by Obama. Imagine how much better the interview could have been if Gregory had asked Pawlenty to name an issue on which he differed from Mitt Romney or Michele Bachmann and to explain the reason for the difference. That would actually have informed those watching. but, I guess that is the point. NBC News continues to be more concerned with making the GOP look bad than with informing its viewers.
1 comment:
Yes David Gregory is no Tim Russert. I now watch Christiana Amanpour. Having said this, Pawlenty is really a decent candidate but he is running from ideas he had as Governor knowing he can't win Republican primaries due to the extreme right wing. He also comes across as being weak. The reality so far is that Republicans don't have a good candidate. That is why the Republicans are holding fast on the debt limit. They want Obama to look bad. When "The Economist" does a number on the Republican Party for their actions on raising the debt limit you know that the Republicans are just playing politics.
Post a Comment