Discriminations

Gathering after the speeches last night by Lieberman and Thompson, the CNN “political team” gathered to tell viewers what was wrong with what they said. No surprises there, except perhaps when Campbell Brown professed herself to be “surprised by the political nature” of the Bushes’ speeches. Imagine that! Political speeches at a political convention!

Regarding the speeches by Thompson and Lieberman, Brown then went on to say that she “still trying to get [her] arms around what they were hoping to accomplish and whether there was a real message” in what they said.

“Does all of that” — you know, the hero bit, the character, the experience, all that stuff —

convey to people that this is the man you want in the foxhole with you? There’s so much at stake in this election, you can’t take any risk. And ultimately what we find as this conversation continues, that he undermines that argument by his choice of vice president.

Even more striking, however, was a comment of Wolf Blitzer, the ostensible moderator. I assume CNN considers him an objective, neutral observer, and thus not a member of the “political team,” since his comments during this round table discussion are not provided on the CNN site linked above. Or perhaps there’s another reason why his comments don’t appear, since in discussing whether Lieberman’s appeal to Democrats and Independents would be effective he said (the following is from notes and memory, not a CNN transcript, since there isn’t one), “Since he praised Palin, why would anyone believe what he said about McCain?”

It’s not hard to imagine that many viewers, or non-viewers, ask a very similar question about Blitzer and his “political team.”