The Right Host for "Meet the Press"

The Right Host for "Meet the Press"

The Right Host for "Meet the Press"

A mostly political weblog.
Dec. 8 2008 2:23 AM

The Right Host for "Meet the Press"

Monday, December 8, 2008

New Maybach S--The "S" Stands for Schadenfreude  U.S. sales of the Maybach, the pretentious Mercedes model that looks like a Hyundai but costs $400,000, haven't fallen into the double digits. They've fallen into the single digits . S.F.Citizen gloats that the 42 Maybach dealers "had sales of just nine new cars for all of America last month." ... Or maybe I'm getting the spin on the lede wrong. They sold nine of these things! A heroic marketing success. ... P.S.: Competitor Rolls Royce  sold 39 , however. ...  11:33 A.M

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Reports on the Tribune Company's possible bankruptcy (and presumed need to sell assets) should renew speculation about ... David Geffen . Maybe the L.A. Times ' price is now down to where he could be re-interested. ... They own some valuable parking lots, I think. Unfortunately, there's a paper attached. ... 2:09 A.M.

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The Right Man:  "It brings out the kid in all of us," reports the N.Y. Daily News , quoting one Greg Packer, 44, of Huntington, L.I.:

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"It's that sense of togetherness that keeps me coming back."  

Packer, of course, is " the entire media's designated 'man on the street' for all articles ever written." The secret of his success, it's pretty clear, is that he always spouts the CW that mainstream newspaper editors want to hear (and think their readers want to read).  ... Hmm. David Gregory has just been made moderator of Meet the Press . The secret of Gregory's success seems to be that he always spouts the CW that his mainstream producers want to hear (and think their viewers want to hear too).  

Wouldn't Packer be better? I mean, he's got Gregory's unerring CW-spouting capacity, plus he's got Tim Russert-style blue collar street cred . He's a " highway maintenance worker ," for Chrissakes! I think NBC missed a bet here. ...

P.S.: How bad a choice was Gregory? Let me put it this way: I've heard George Stephanopoulos say interesting things . I've heard Tom Brokaw say interesting things. I've heard Mort Kondracke say interesting things. I've heard David Broder say interesting things, and Norah O'Donnell and David Gergen and Gwen Ifill and even (once) Sam Donaldson.  I heard Tim Russert say interesting things. I've never heard David Gregory say an interesting thing. He is a can't-miss discussion-killer--the Sunday morning equivalent of Senator Montoya. ... But that's an insult to Sen. Montoya. Montoya didn't actually drain the Watergate hearings of interest. He just gave everyone a chance to take a brief break. ... P.P.S.: Gregory seems not straightforwardly dull, but somehow goofily hollow. Hard to believe those people out " beyond the Potomac and beyond the Hudson River in New York City " won't pick up on this. ... [ They say he's good on Imus--ed   Imus won't be there.] ...[ link via RS's feed ] 1:34 A.M.

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Sunday, December 7, 2008

The Big Center: David Horowitz, voice of reason ;

The continuing efforts of a fringe group of conservatives to deny Obama his victory and to lay the basis for the claim that he is not a legitimate president is embarrassing and destructive.

 Jane Hamsher, voice of reason :

[Caroline Kennedy] simply picks up the phone and lets it be known that she just might be up for having one of the highest offices in the land handed to her because -- well, because why?  Because her uncle once held the seat?  Because she's a Kennedy?  Because she took part as a child in the public's romantic dreams of Camelot?  I'm not quite sure.

There's an enormous problem in the Senate right now with entitlement, with the sense that its members owe their allegiance to each other and not to the public. .... [snip]  I'm glad she had fun being part of a winning campaign in a year that saw a rather rosy playing field for Democrats.  But simply being well-known and a member of the "American nobility" in a celebrity-driven society shouldn't be enough to axiomatically entitle her to be a member of the US Senate.

Have you ever heard her say anything interesting? She's the David Gregory of the race. ... [ via I nsta , alert reader B 11:34 P.M.

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