Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner who prefers telephone call-ins to sit-down interviews, has been booked for an in-person appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" later this month.
Even better:
Exactly two years and one day ago, Chuck Todd and the NBC News political team flatly declared that Trump wasn't going to launch a presidential bid, despite all his bluster.
“Folks," they wrote, "he isn’t going to run."
I'm torn betwixt my loving of Donald Trump and my loathing of television analysis.
For an entire year, three years ago, we suffered through the latter's hand-wringing over an imaginary razor-thin contest between President Obama and the epically incompetent, remarkably doomed Mitt Romney. Anyone who could read a friggin' electoral map or those reams of polling data in battleground states knew from the get-go — and then throughout — that Romney had not a prayer. Yet day after day we endured the on-air expertise of sensationalist know-nothings — hordes of them.
Of late we were told, by the same people, that the Donald wasn't serious. Then we were told the Donald's ascent was sharply acute and merely temporary. Then we were told Mr. Trump was leading a populist revolt (it was the other way around) of some, but limited, duration. Now we're told there may be a lasting something to this Trumpian ballyhoo after all; indeed, to the all-knowing Chuck Todd, it's even worth booking on national tueevuee.
A year from now? No matter the electoral spread in key states, Todd & Co. will be wringing its hands, again, over the presidential election. It's a close one, folks! Too close to call! Hillary is only 5 points ahead in Ohio and Nevada and Virginia and Florida and New Hampshire — as she has been for the past several months — so nobody knows which way this electric sidewinder of an election might turn.
Perhaps if I write the whole script now, I can resist watching the actual foolishness later on.
Nah. Then I'd have nothing to scorn — and scorn is something we critics can't live without.
I'd rather perform a lobotomy on myself than watch Chucklehead Todd try to interview Donald Trump.
Todd has admitted more than once that he can't call out GOP lies or ask difficult questions because the guest might get mad and refuse to come back on the show. Can you imagine how much of a spineless toady Chuck will be to Trump, who we now know has no problem launching a blistering PR campaign on any media figure he doesn't like? And Chuck Todd is gonna hold him accountable? Ha. It's more likely that Trump will put Todd in a headlock and give him a noogie.
Posted by: Turgidson | August 12, 2015 at 02:08 PM
Since Todd is the corporate news bot I love to hate I'll be watching just in case Trump slaps him and makes him like it.
Posted by: Bob | August 12, 2015 at 02:57 PM
I'm told that after every Todd interview the set must be sprayed with luminol to allow the clean up crew to find all traces of biologicals.
Posted by: Peter G | August 12, 2015 at 03:53 PM
Off topic and PM probably saw this too, but I doubt he'll post about it and it should be seen. Wyatt Scott, a parlimentary candidate in British Columbia, Canada has released this amazing campaign video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG6fhub9HDQ&feature=youtu.be
Posted by: Bob | August 12, 2015 at 07:34 PM