I watched Meet the Press this morning and loved the first half, but hated the second. The first half had Russ Feingold who was absolutely brilliant. He beautifully explained the case for withdrawal and for his amendment as well as showing us why he is the ultimate Democratic candidate for president. He explained everything clearly and said unequivocally what he believed, using phrases and ideas that seemed to be ripped from Daily Kos itself.
The second half was where the problem was. It was a round table discussion with four Washington insider journalists: David Broder, Anne Kornblut from the New York Times, David Gregory and Ron Brownstein. Their segment had roughly three parts. The first one was just talk about Iraq and they concluded that the Democrats had begun to get some momentum on the issue. Nothing too controversial there.
The second was on the Connecticut senatorial primary. Here's where they began having some issues. The one line that stuck out was when they said that the blogs may be able to win the primary, but their power can't extend to the general election. This is where they showed how out of touch they are. Lamont's support and poll numbers are from the people of Connecticut, not just the bloggers. This was just a prelude, however, to their last and worst segment.
This was where, for some reason, they discussed Hillary Clinton. Rather than discussing some sort of noteworthy acheivement she may have done, they focused on here marriage, her potential presidential campaign, and most importantly, the fact that she is a woman. This was when I started throwing things. They don't seem to realize that Hillary Clinton exists because of them. If the media personalities weren't constantly talking about her campaign, or her marriage, then there wouldn't be any issues. All the talk and momentum for her campaign are also coming from them.
The worst part, however, was what they were all missing. They had seen the Democratic party at its best, just minutes before they sat down. They saw unequivocal progressivism that has support from the people and from both the grassroots and the netroots. Yet, they talked about Hillary Clinton and the artificial crap that they could find to talk about for her.
I had heard the discussions on this website for a while about how out of touch the Washington media was, but didn't realize it until today when I saw how blind they could be to reality.