There’s a lot of ire on progressive blogs about now directed at the McCain campaign’s allegedly sleazy tactics. In truth, though, I don’t blame candidate for doing what they think will win the election. What I do wonder about is the psychology of the pond scum who run cable news programs. Let me give you an example.
If I had an opportunity to conduct a one-on-one interview with an official McCain campaign spokesperson, I think I would ask her if she doesn’t worry that McCain’s proposed federal spending freeze is a pro-cyclical measure that would tend to deepen an economic downturn. I think that’s a question with a solid grounding in facts and theory, it addresses an issue of considerable national interest, and I don’t think it’s gotten much attention. I would ask her, I would listen to her reply, and then depending on what she said I would ask some followups. In my view, that would be informative and that some people wound find it interesting.
But that’s why they pay David Gregory the big bucks and not me. Instead, shortly before I left the office, he asked McCain campaign spokeswoman Nicole Wallace a question about whether or not John McCain would bring up Bill Ayers at tonight’s debate. He didn’t ask her a question about Obama’s acquaintanceship with Bill Ayers. Nor did he ask her about an issue that’s more substantive than Obama’s acquaintanceship with Bill Ayers. Rather, he decided that a question about Obama’s acquaintanceship with Bill Ayers would be too substantive. So instead he asked a question about the McCain campaign’s short-term Ayers-related tactics. This is an issue, it seems to me, of no public interest whatsoever. McCain either will or will not bring up Ayers in a few hours. We don’t need to waste time on an inquiry about it. My guess is that, like Wallace, he won’t bring it up unprompted, but will bring it up if the press gives him a good opening. For example, had Gregory asked Wallace about the pro-cyclical impact of a spending freeze she would have looked like a moron if she pivoted to Ayers. But since instead he asked her about whether or not McCain would talk about Ayers, naturally she got in some points about Ayers.
As a means of running a presidential campaign, that’s called playing to win. But what kind of way is that to run a news show?
Previous in TP Media
By clicking and submitting a comment I acknowledge the ThinkProgress Privacy Policy and agree to the ThinkProgress Terms of Use. I understand that my comments are also being governed by Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, or Hotmail’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policies as applicable, which can be found here.