Wolf Blitzer Is "Watching Very Closely"
A crash course in Blitzer-ese.
"We're watching all of this very closely." (Hurricane Gustav)
—Sept. 1, 2008
"And Rick Sanchez is going to be watching that very, very closely." (Hurricane Gustav)
—Aug. 30, 2008
"Meanwhile, the Republicans are watching very closely." (The Obama nomination)
—Aug. 27, 2008
"We're watching it very closely." (Obama's vice-presidential pick)
—Aug. 20, 2008
"You're watching this about as closely as anyone, Zain [Verjee]." (North Korean shenanigans)
—June 26, 2008
"We're watching all of this very, very closely." (Obama's delegate count)
—June 3, 2008
"We're watching this number very closely." (Obama's delegate count)|
—June 3, 2008
"We're watching it about as closely as we possibly can." (How to count Michigan and Florida)
—May 31, 2008
Why can't Blitzer break out of his cliché patter? Doesn't he prepare before his shows? Won't CNN spring for a vocabulary builder? Or a speech coach? Is it not his fault because the network overworks him, and it needs to hire a co-anchor or a co-co-anchor to take pressure off him? Or doesn't anybody at CNN watch these broadcasts critically?
Addendum, Nov. 5, 10 a.m. Blitzer's Final Count
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Jack Shafer was Slate's editor at large. You can follow him on Twitter or email him at Shafer.Reuters@gmail.com.
Photograph of Wolf Blitzer by Ethan Miller/Getty Images.