The Not-So-Brutal 'Meet The Press' Rand Paul Video Montage

Kentucky Senate nominee Rand Paul, as you know, bailed on a planned appearance on "Meet The Press" this weekend after a week of enduring...well, you probably know what he endured, right?

In his absence, "Meet The Press" ran a three-minute long video that reviewed everything that had happened, from his win in the GOP primary to subsequent interviews in the Louisville Courier Journal and on the Rachel Maddow Show, his subsequent backtracking on his statements in those settings, and his later statements on the White House's treatment of British Petroleum.

Since then, I've read a number of accounts, touting this video as something that really stuck it to Rand Paul. Taegan Goddard says it was a "brutally tough opening segment." New York Mag's Daily Intel enthuses that the segment allowed "host David Gregory made sure to embarrass him in absentia." Gawker says, "Ouch," in a post entitled "Why You Should Not Cancel On Meet The Press."

Hey, guys, let's get a grip, okay? "Meet The Press" ran a perfectly anodyne video compilation of a series of already well-traveled news stories, for an audience that most likely was hyper-aware of what had already happened in the world of Rand Paul. It doesn't advance the story in any new ways, and adds no further editorial comment other than to mention that Paul had canceled on "Meet The Press." But we knew that was happening on Friday? And that's supposed to be a brutal embarrassment? Reminding people of what they already knew?

Empirically speaking, "Meet The Press" didn't make life any worse for Rand Paul than it already was. I have to imagine that his campaign hardly regrets their decision not to appear on the show if the worst thing they had to endure was a video montage of their own memories.

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