It was with more than a little trepidation that I approached my very first Tim Russert-less edition of "Meet the Press" yesterday morning. Sure, NBC gave us a buffer in the form of last Sunday's memorial/retrospective. But with the 6/22 edition, it was back to something resembling normalcy. Only this time Russert's giant shoes would be filled by...Brian Williams.
I'm a bit lukewarm to Williams. He's a throwback to the good ol' days of Broadcast Man, the white bread (and white) clean-cut Boy Scout of indeterminate accent, only without the obvious intelligence of a Walter Cronkite or a Tom Brokaw. He makes me yawn. If Broadcast Barbie ever needed a milquetoast Ken, she'd hire Brian Williams. But I hate to bitch too much...at least Williams has never gone within 100 miles of the self-righteous hysteria that's the stock in trade of Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews.
I should cut Williams some slack - it couldn't have been an easy job. And he did okay. But I couldn't help missing Tim Russert like hell at several points.
To recap: two senators, Joe Biden (Delaware) and Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) played proxies for the Obama and McCain campaigns, respectively. Let me go ahead and admit my bias - while Joe Biden, a former Democratic nominee for president, was not my first choice or even my fifth, I think he's cool as hell. He's on my list of people I want to have a beer with. As for Graham...Ah, what can I say about Lindsey Graham? His name fits him perfectly. He's the sniveling little f*cker with a Howdy Doody haircut that you hated in kindergarten, just on principle, who first arose to national prominance when he presented the House's case in the impeachment of President Clinton.
Apparently that particular exercise in hubris was only a dress rehearsal. Remember when Randy Moss was still with the Vikings, and he pretended to moon the Green Bay fans, and Fox Sports' Joe Buck had to go clutch his smelling salts for what seemed like several decades? Multiply that by a thousand, and you have a rough approximation of Graham's performance on Sunday. He would've been entertaining enough in his own right, but coupled with Biden's pugilism and Williams's total effeteness (effetery? I like that better. I think I'll officially make that a word if it's not already), Sunday's broadcast was a perfect storm - The Clash of the Talking Point Titans.
Basically, we got a preview of the McCain camp's big anti-Obama message: he's an opportunist who can't be trusted. Expected argument, and laughably easy to deflect. It's a presidential campaign after all. What took this to the next level, for me, was Graham's utter commitment to that angle. To hear him tell it, every disaster large and small can be chalked up to the fact that Obama is [gasp!] a politician, who, as politicians are wont to do, sometime tacks to the prevailing winds. (Not at all like John "torture is bad unless the USA is doing it" McCain. Not at all.) No matter what the question, Lindsey had the answer. I try to watch "Meet the Press" with clear eyes, but like I said, I fully admit a bias against both mindless spin. But see what you think...
I gotta ask...Lindsey seems pretty heartbroken by Obama's decision to forego public financing. Either he drank the Obamamania Kool-Aid, or he's full of what my high school Spanish teacher called caca. Spare me the crocodile tears, dude.
(Personally, I think Williams dropped the ball. I can't help wondering how Russert might have cut off Graham's concern-trollish blustering. Luckily, NBC announced late Sunday that Brokaw will serve as interim MTP moderator through November. Thank Heaven for small favors.)
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