Wondering why former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton never went on a Sunday morning political chit-chat show to talk about the goings-on in Benghazi, or to be asked 500 times by "Meet the Press" host David Gregory if she is going to run for president? According to Politico's Glenn Thrush, the reason you don't see that happen is that Clinton has properly assayed the Sunday shows as terrible institutions that should be destroyed with fire:
But three sources close to the situation tell POLITICO that it was less a matter of fatigue, and more a matter of Clinton not wanting to go on the shows.
The aides said Clinton had a “default” policy of rejecting all Sunday requests.
[...]
“[Hillary] has a standing refusal [to do Sunday shows]. She hates them. She would rather die than do them,” said one aide on condition of anonymity. “The White House knows, so they would know not to even ask her.”
Okay, so this isn't exactly new news, but these are harsher terms than Clinton has used herself to describe her antipathy for the Sunday shows. Regardless, the default position is correct. Presidential administrations of all parties and creeds would do well to keep themselves, and anything important they have to say to the American people, far away from them.
The good news is that only Beltway insiders (and luckless livebloggers) watch these shows, so nothing that's said on them gets disseminated to "the American people." So it's all good. The sensible call for the Obama administration, in fact, would have not to send Susan Rice to talk about Benghazi at a time when the events on the ground were still foggy -- both in the "who-what-when-where-why" sense, and the "we're at peak potential for an interagency Charlie Foxtrot" sense.
So much trouble could have been avoided if everyone had just waited a day!
I have been watching these Sunday shows -- staring into their mewling, Satanic void, really -- for more than five years, with only occasional relief for my soul. Despite this, I cannot improve on the catch-all term that Esquire's Charlie Pierce uses for the people who appear on these shows: "gobshites." Clinton is, at the very least, making this one call correctly. If everyone followed her example, we would all have a better country and brighter future.
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