Thursday, November 6, 2008

Who Am I? How Did I Get Here?

Ms. Rachel Maddow will be hosting a segment on bipartisanship tonight. The theme: Obama has promised to be bipartisan – but – will the Republicans let him? The political spin is already starting on MSNBC and it only took two days.

Every so often you wonder how people get to host a TV show. Ms. Maddow’s bio on the MSNBC site informs us that she has a degree from Stanford, a PhD from Oxford, and has worked for Air America. She also lives in two places, Massachusetts and New York with her partner. Well, saddle up and get her in the host chair!

It will be interesting to see what the conservative GOP remnant does. Will it be the old Bob Michel approach of go along and get along? This is the “in at 10 and out by 4” routine. We can't just sit back and do nothing.

Will it be the Al Pacino “take a flamethrower to this place” routine? We can’t just throw bombs at Obama for the next 4 years.

Or, are we going to think about what we stand for and have a Newt Gingrich type of contract with America for the next generation? Clearly we need to provide alternatives that resonate with voters.

Ms. Maddow is apparently not planning to interview any actual Republicans currently in Congress. But who needs the other party in a “bi” discussion. Certainly not Ms. Maddow. As a talk show host, you can usually pull it off if in one of two ways. You can be an entertaining ideologue or you can be fair, informative, and open to other views. It doesn't matter which as long as you know your niche. Ms. Maddow and MSNBC fail on both counts.

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