Why Has Joe Scarborough Rolled Up His Sleeves?

Playing the expectations game is apparently no work for wimps. When the warriors of the cable news networks got dressed in the dark this Election Day morning, some of them surely did an extra set of forearm-strengthening exercises. After all, it takes one helluva powerful pundit to punch a presidential candidate out of the race if she wins only Ohio, say, or if she doesn't win Ohio by enough.

When did the Fourth Estate become the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse? Who hired these media personalities to be the hosts of some nightmarish Democracy Gong Show? "Hillary Clinton, you're fired!" Is it any less ridiculous for MSNBC's paid help to be saying so, than for Donald Trump? Is "Leave the runway!" less arrogant when it comes from John Harwood or Chuck Todd than from Heidi Klum? (To be fair to the other networks, I can't say that The Best Political Team on Television, or The Worst, wields the guillotine with any more humility than General Electric's stars.)

I suspect it was this media power-drunkenness that caused the voters of New Hampshire to keep Clinton in the race, and if she stays on her feet after today to fight on to Pennsylvania, I think it will be attributable in part to the public's justifiable fury at the media's amnesia, its narcissism, its fantasy Hardballs, its relentless reduction of politics to spectacle, policy to showbiz, deliberation to mixed martial arts.

To be sure, campaigns play the expectations game, too. But when Tom Brokaw implores his colleagues to "let the voters vote," he's not lamenting what politics has become; he's reminding his colleagues that their job description doesn't include putting horses' heads in candidates' beds, fitting them with cement shoes, or anything else that might require a couple of cuff-turns on their impeccable oxford broadcloths.

You know what might be a nice touch? How about white lab coats for the anchors? And scrubs for the pundits. With stethoscopes around their necks. That way, when they declare that a candidate has irrecoverably slipped into a permanent vegetative state, they'll really wield some authority.

Comments

[ariadne1]

joe scarborough, chris matthews, tucker carlson, et al are not reporters they are pundits. pundits do not report the news they analyze and interpret through their own perspective. holding pundits to the same standards as reporters is naive at best.

[mojopo]

I think there was a time when people preferred to be entertained by the newsy pundits with their truthiness and bowties. Until they became parodies of themselves and people to make fun of because they are so blatantly biased and wrong. For example, I watched Gloria Borger say on CNN that Hillary Clinton never looked at Obama during a debate, while right behind her on the giant CNN screen there was Hillary, her head cocked towards Obama, listening to him. Pundits will lie to your face.

The pundits have had a heyday during these Bush years. Our cartoon president never looked better than when the comedians dressed as journalists were enabling his misguided policies. I wasn't sure of the tide would ever turn against them, and TV news has never seemed so retarded as it does in 2008. Maybe we're getting sick of it finally. Sure hope so.

[Oldtt]

I've been hammering this issue on my own blog since the campaign started up in earnest last Fall. As a Clinton supporter, I'm pretty sensitive to which commentators are dumping on her at any given moment, and it does change from time to time. Currently Hillary's "occasional defenders" of sorts are Joe Scarborough, Pat Buchanan, and Dan Abrams plus some occasional guest pundits like James Carville andPaul Begala. Her biggest critics are Tucker Carlson, Keith Olberman, and invited guest pundits like Ed Schultz, Rachael Maddow, anyone from HuffPost, and anyone from a major magazine. There are no cable personalities of note who are outright Clinton supporters, but there are plenty who are in the tank for Obama (Keith comes to mind). I would love to see the press take a crack at objective non-biased coverage, but that's an idle dream.

[permissionmag]

As a Hillary supporter, how do you justify her continued presence in the race, given that a popular victory is a near mathematical impossibility at this point?

She can still win the nomination, but only if she convinces enough superdelegates to go against the will of the voters. A move like that would surely disillusion enough Democrats to hurt her chances severly against McCain - and given what a polarizing figure she already is among the public, it seems like the last thing she needs is Democrats viewing her with the same mistrust that Repubicans do.

[ignorantwillyharper]

Joe has proved himself time and again to be a bully and very seldom makes sense when talking over anyone...give Miki the show and show Joe the door.

[ignorantwillyharper]

Joe is a loser, or he'd still be in congress. he knew his time was up and decided to step down with grace, insted of disgrace.

[shadow322]

I have been complaining about the MSNBC group for a year! We should start a club. I peg three at MSNBC - Joe (the "I used to be a Congressman" Scarborough), Tucker (my dad got me this job) Carlson and Chris Mathews who now seems to change with the wind. We (the viewers) should not even know what party these guys personally support. They not only tell you. They push their choice and in this case it is the Republican party - for goog or bad. I do not understand what philosophy over there allows these guys to act the way they do but it has to come from the top. They have gotten so bad that they have gone from my number one news station to the last one on my list. At least everyone knows what to expect from FOX. MSNBC's reporters are deviant in the way they go about promoting the Republican agenda.

[bucagogo]

I think you need to understand, these people are not journalists, but entertainers. They will be the first to tell you that if some liability suit came their way. However, they are the bullies of the political lunchroom and seem to love throwing mashed potatoes at Hillary. But look at the men, they are right wing media and politics rejects who think women should be embroidering while the men smoke cigars in the other room deciding the direction of the world and it's markets, and the women of MSNBC have that "evening frosty makeup" look with the tight clothing. What does that say about how they network views their value to the news? So, I watch it because they're obviously wrong a lot, but thinking they will eventually be right, and it fires me up. They actually get me to donate to Hillary. It's like the 700 Club so I can remember to be proud to be gay and not one Pat Robertson's or the Republican Party's pod people.

[Bulbul]

Correct analysis on your blog. Only if these so called jounalists knew, they really suffocating us by their relentless partisan attacks, when would they learn...
Night before, Mathews was harrassing on Clinton volunteer I suppose, she was fantastic, soft spoken and demure and stated her wiews. He came out as a bully in that.
Did not get her name..

[DavidE]

I don't have a problem with the pundits analyzing the horse race. But is is really necessary to cover the horse race 24/7 at the exclusion of everything else? How many 24 hour news station do we have? With all their air time, they could go into depth on every single issue. But instead, they insist on 30 second sound bite answers to difficult questions. And they don't put on guests that actually understand the issues. They put on political strategists whose sole purpose in life is the tell the lie most beneficial to their candidate.

[realpolitic]

Yes, they do not speak of the war, or the scandal involving the assistant attorney generals, or our vanishing civil liberties. Bush is getting off so easy.

[uberlefty]

Why the outrage at the pundits for being pundits? Its like being mad because athletes do steroids. Its a show. If you want the news tune in at 5PM for the local and 5:30PM for the national. Its a whole different formula but no more informative. When you put 4 people, who make their living talking, in front of the camera, without a moderator you get first rate entertainment. These shows channel the angst that Americans feel at the state of this nation and show you the futility of having an opinion. Mission Accomplished.

I spent election night at my neighborhood cafe having discussions about the primary. We monitored election results on line and had civil discussions about the candidates. We had local candidates come in and talk about why we should support them. We agreed to disagree without talking over one another. Next week I will be going to party at a friends home to meet and talk to a candidate for Attorney General in the state I live in. We are able to do this because we took the initiative to contact the candidates and ask them to spend some time with us. The cafe owner generously donated the space for us to host this evenings event. We contacted our local media outlets and some of them sent crews out to interview the participants.

We took the initiative to involve our community and to bring people into the process who otherwise might be discouraged. We have the good fortune to live in a democracy and to enjoy the freedoms inherent. Instead of getting pissed off at the TV we connected with our neighbors. This all took less than 30minutes to make some phone calls and the whole evening came at the cost of a cup of coffee.

[USMC1980]

Chris Matthews and Jon Alter are still doing it. Hillary has won TX, OH and RI...and yet guess what, Chris Matthews, Keith olbermann and Jonathon Alter are saying she didn't really win, cause Obama is still ahead by a measly 50 delegates. Of course that doesn't count the 800 super delegates that may sign up with Clinton and the fact that she will win PA, and a bunch of other states...but hey, Matthews has never let the facts get in the way of his spin for his girlfriend Obama:)

Too bad Hillary is till going to get the nomination, and Matthews is going to end up looking as pathetic and sad as ever.

[Highwind]

She won three states out of fifteen. Seriously. I don't know how you people can keep saying over and over that she has done something significant here. The Obama campaign hasn't actually spun anything. They have actually stated the facts. They are ahead in the delegate count and that's a fact. Her spin is that she won the big states the Democrats need, but Democrats will always carry California, New York, and etc. That's all she has at this point. 60% of the vote in Pennsylvania is in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Barack Obama has a great chance of winning that state. Hillary has the pundits in her corner and Obama has the pundits in his corner. That's just how it's going to be.

[permissionmag]

Hillary and Obama got 92 delegates each in Texas - that's a tie by any standard. Wasn't Hillary saying that Texas was going to be a landslide for her?
Imagine if the situation were reversed - if Hillary were leading in both delegate counts and popular votes, and Obama's only chance to win the elected delegate total were to sweep every remaining state by 20 points or more - you'd be calling for him to drop out of the race for the good of the party.

Do you really want to have a situation where the popular vote goes to Obama, but Hillary gets the nomination anyway by convincing the party bosses to choose her against the will of the voters?

That sounds like a great way to suppress Democratic turnout in the general election, and probably hand the White House to McCain.

I'm being sincere in my question to you - how do you justify looking to the party bosses to overturn the will of the voters? Sounds an awful lot like what happened to Gore in 2000, to me.

[Kozan]

Marty - Why not just turn off your television. It's called SOMA and is one of the drugs of choice for the masses in this brave new world.

[msmaggie]

Oh God I miss Imus.

[Hitsong]

Joe Scarborough = egomaniac with no commensurate brain power. Arrogant so he is blinded by any views other than his own sophomoric takes on the political "scene". I see poor Keith Olbermann visibly cringing when he has to share a two-shot with this moron (Scarborough) and moronX2 Chris (I'll tell you how you look, ladies) Matthews. Gregory, Schuster, Olbermann and Rachel Maddow are the sole reasons I would even tune in to MSNBC . Scarborough simply is a self-professed know-it-all with low-voltage brain power. Make that VERY low voltage.

[realpolitic]

Scarborough is pretty dumb often. He likes to suddenly veer discussions to right-wing fantasy land. His ego is massive.

[Merg]

I would, strangely enough, add Pat Buchanon to that mix of reasons to watch MSNBC. Despite his obvious right wing leanings (and occasional shows of bigotry) he gives surprisingly balanced views of the Democratic election race when it comes to comparing the candidates (he is not in the tank for either candidate). He is also good at evaluating the Republican electoral situation.

[radiojunkie]

yeah, and Pat doesn't spew the right wing hatred like Coulter and Hannity.

[wotcanisay]

Calling Scarborough and Chris Matthews "moron" is derogatory to the real moron - the chimp in the white house.

[lafrance]

Scarborough is totally carrying water for Hillary the past several weeks. Add Abrams and Buchanan as his ever parroting backup singers in total agreement. Abrams even has a segment each night dedicated that should be called 'Poor Hillary, everyone is so mean to her." He goes to the ridiculous in his trying to claim she can still win and will not accept the fact that it's pretty much over for her.
At the same time he refuses to acknowledge that Obama is pretty much the nominee.
So, you have the voices of Olbermann and to a certain extent, Matthews trying to inject some sanity to the increasingly delussional Scarborough and Abrams.

[marykins123]

Why wouldn't Scarborough carry water for Hillary.....he wants the lady on the ticket. With Clinton on the ticket Scarborough knows it's a "two for one". The GOP retains the White House and with the Repubs going to the polls voting, not for McCain - but against Clinton, the GOP wipes Pelosi out of her job as Speaker. Scarborough and Buccanan love to be in a position to sway the election and MSNBC has given them a platform (and they get paid to boot!)

[PadrePio]

How is it over for Hillary? And Abrams is telling the truth. The press including tweety and his side kick Keith Olberman have been gunning for Hillary and the Clinton's for a while now. If you don't believe me just go to any non obamabot web site. Of course you'll never get anything but Obama spin at Huffington Post.

[Highwind]

That's because she lost 11 states in a row. Now Obama only lost 3 and apparently Clinton is supposed to win this thing. A lot of people aren't understanding how that could possibly be the case.

[permissionmag]

Please, show me the math whereby Hillary can win at this point.