Americans want to know--is Keith Olbermann an idiot or a moron?
Here's what happened. Hillary Clinton, campaigning in Kentucky yesterday afternoon, said she considers herself a stronger candidate against McCain than Barack. (We agree, but that's not the point.) Then she said the following words, laughing as she spoke them:
"Just today, I found some curious support for that position when one of the TV networks released an analysis done by--of all people--Karl Rove, saying that I was the stronger candidate. Somebody got a hold of his analysis and there it is."
It was meant for humor. How do we know? Because she was laughing. Because she used phrases like "curious support" and "of all people." Solid clues, those.
Yet, Keith Olbermann, host of Snortdown--er, Countdown with (Guess Who?) on MSNBC, was either outraged by Hillary's words or pretending to be. That Hillary would praise Rove's "math" ability--is she even a Democrat anymore? This is an outrage. Karl Rove is our worst enemy, etc., etc., etc.
Yes, but she was joking. As any ten-year-old could have surmised.
This is the second time Olbermann has--even by his own standards--gone over the top. Recently, he bashed Bush for allegedly claiming that giving up golf is a sacrifice equal to the sacrifices being made by the troops in Iraq. Bush didn't say that, of course--he was specifically answering a specific question, and Olbermann's a pandering ass to make what he made out of a perfectly reasonable answer. I mean, aren't there more than enough awful things Bush has said, without Olbermann resorting to this kind of idiot, almost comical, theater? (Can anyone get that furious on cue unless he's auditioning for the role of Johnny Friendly in an On the Waterfront remake?)
But he'll probably spend half of tonight going on and on about how Hillary is enlisting Karl Rove's support for her (choose one) failed/finished/soon to be finished/corrupt/unwinnable/not likely to be won/all but hopeless campaign.
After all, the primary is (choose one) over/almost over/not over but may as well be/won't be helped by considering the popular vote in MI and FL/will be helped by considering that vote but not enough to help Hill/needs to be brought to and end to save us all/is over/oops, we already said that/etc.
If Keith needs a brain, he should get one and have it surgically inserted. If he has one, he needs to turn it back on.
Hm. In the extraordinarily unlikely event Keith reads this, he'll probably conclude that I'm just joking. After all, I'm not laughing.
1 comments:
I like Keith purely because he's the anti-O'Reilly. But I pity anyone who thinks he's a serious reporter as much as I pity anyone who thinks Billo is.
The thing about Bush's golf comment is that his statements are always so vague and ambiguous that who knows what he really means by them? Whether Bush really equates his alleged sacrifice of golf with the sacrifice of families of soldiers is very much in the ear of the beholder. What is clear from Bush's comment is that he cares more for his image than for ending the war any time soon. That, and his admission that the poor image of playing golf had to be pointed out to his is, to my mind, justification enough for Olbermann's outrage.
While it's fair comment that Olbermann's editorials are theatre of the highest (or lowest, if you like) order, I think they are necessary. I'm no fan of slogans but there's a bumper sticker doing the rounds that says, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention." It's easy to become desensitised to the crimes of the Bush administration and what might have outraged people in 2002 has become tragically predictable and therefore unnoteworthy in 2008. That's a bad thing and while Olbermann's melodrama is perhaps not the most dignified response, I'm comforted that someone in America still wants to hold their president to some kind of moral and intellectual standards every time.
At least until people become desensitised to that too, and turn their attention to more pressing issues like the Miley Cyrus photos.
Oh, and thanks for the great site!
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