Whatever you think of her, even the staunchest critic will have to admit: Andrea Mitchell is playing the game real well right now.
Better than Brett Favre will ever do with the Packers in their current drama. Probably better than Ken Jennings did on Jeopardy a few years ago.
She’s playing it so well that someone (whether begrudgingly or angrily) needed to bestow accolades to her for doing so. Sentiments of scorn and disgust for the wife of Alan Greenspan need not apply in this objective and rather penetrating look at a polarizing character playing an angle just as complex as the ones on a sphere. That sphere in this instance being the new host of Meet the Press.
The search for a new host has been on from the moment NBC executives at least contained their heart wrenching bereavement for the sudden shock death of Tim Russert. With Tom Brokaw serving as the interim host for the time being, the Peacocks are behind the scenes vigorously looking for the one person that could drive the car the way they wanted it to be, like Russert did for many years.
No one is auditioning for the roll right now better than Mitchell is.
Now, that doesn’t mean that I believe she would be the best choice. In fact, until drastically proven otherwise, Mitchell is and still will be a person that will put her own agenda before the people in my opinion. Her amalgamation of an at times snarling temper (as evidence with her tirade overseas last week about not being able to talk with Barack Obama in Kuwait, prompting her to say that semi-infamous "fake interviews" phrase for the troops TV network) and tendency to follow "neutral" Beltway talking points with her occasionally annoying, pseudo-tabloid, gossip spin won’t make her a revelation in a role she would make history in: being the first permanent female Sunday talk show host.
Even so, regardless of those and other detractions that can make her unbearable at times, in the last week since her tirade, Mitchell is lining herself up as well as John Edwards stylist does his hair for filling her posthumous friend’s chair.
And she is doing it at the expense of making John McCain and his campaign staff the liars that they are. Subtly and slowly she is doing this, but she’s doing it. Because ever since Obama called on her first in that press conference in Jordan to quail her rage for not being in Kuwait with him, something has changed in her (or her reporting ). She hasn’t been outright negative and skeptical of Obama’s chances of being President like has been in the past. Instead, she has been on a pure journalistic up swing in an emphatic way, slapping the incongruous Congressman from Arizona and his team’s dubious tactics.
As seen (and felicitated) by many, her slap down on McCain’s dishonest attack ad on Obama not seeing the troops in Landstaul was indeed something that you wouldn’t see from anyone in the mainstream/traditional media anchor set outside of Keith Olbermann (and if you want to call Rachel Maddow one, feel free). And to her credit, Mitchell could have easily let Dick Burr and anyone else on McCain’s side slide away and not tell the truth.
She chose otherwise though, because Andrea Mitchell is playing the game real well.
But that was nothing compared to her massive showdown yesterday with Rick Davis, who is quite possibly one of the most impertinent, shameful campaign managers in history. He, in short, is utterly classless. And his temper (as well as the whole overall tone of the McCain campaign) was on display for all to see, as Mitchell brought out the worst in him. Davis was so brutal and deplorable, that he even made sure to blame liberal blogs in his performance that left a lot to be desired.
From talking over her (a disturbingly common trend among anybody associated with the GOP) to denouncing the questions she was asking, Davis was a categorical pig to Mitchell. Most importantly though was how she would not let him get away with the Britney-Paris ad, certainly on its way to being the worst political commercial ever outside of the Sam Graves peculiar one on Kay Barnes.To be frank, Maddow’s smackdwon of Pat Buchanan had nothing on this tussle, as it ended with Mitchell labeling Davis, "A celebrity on the political circuit, if not (as she slightly chuckles), a celebrity like Britney Spears, what can I say?"
(The interview, Part 1 and 2)
Andrea Mitchell is playing the game real well.
She’s has become omnipotent on MSNBC, whether she is live or recorded earlier in the day. Her reporting or comments are raised on Mourning Joe, she’s been given the 1PM slot on a daily basis now in D.C. (though she is a "Foreign Affairs Reporter", I take it Christine Annapour isn’t doing the same on CNN), and she has definitely been a part of Hardball, Race to the White House, Verdict with Dan Abrams, and yes, even Countdown. And (probably most importantly in all of this) she has been the only person to have Maureen Orth even make a public appearance (her first on TV since his memorial) since her husband’s sad departure.
Now Mitchell and Orth are close friends of course, and there is a tenderness there that is indeed touching to anyone’s soul, with no agenda but amity at its finest.
Nevertheless, from a television stand point, you wouldn’t be shocked if Orth had even a slight part at helping with the selection of a new host for Meet the Press. And the same could be said of Luke Russert, who now works for the network. Who would fit that role and be for them the near perfect replacement for Tim Russert? Not David Gregory and certainly not Chuck Todd.
Andrea Mitchell is playing the game real well.
Finally, Mitchell could be playing her cards so intelligently that there is still a theory floating in my head that another game is transpiring in our eyes than the one for the MTP seat. With the fact that her husband is a GOP-er all the way, Mitchell’s recent chastisement of the McCain campaign ads could be a subliminal message or the real overall feeling from the Republican Party about the way McCain is running this.
A simple: "What the hell are you guys doing with your stupid, childish ads and campaign tone; you are going to further worsen the Republican brand name if you don’t stop with this foolishness?" Maybe Mitchell is using her sudden burst of being a real journalist for that purpose of waking out the McCain campaign and telling them that they will not win this way if they keep going the way they are going.
Maybe the reported friendship with Hillary Clinton is playing a part in this as well.
Regardless of what’s true or not (which at this moment, I can’t honestly decide if what is or if what isn’t), Andrea Mitchell is trying to place herself in position to be the new host of Meet the Press. It will be interesting to see if she will increase in calling out McCain and his camp for their lies while making sure to be hard on Obama and his staff for no justified reason other than being "balanced". Or will she raise her refreshing level of honest integrity like she did with Davis and actually be a consistent media figure that the progressive community (no, the people who strive for the honest, 100% truth) will give credit to where that credit is deserved?
Only time will tell, but one thing has to be stated again before the discussion is over. Andrea Mitchell is playing the game real well, whether you like it or not.
Updated: And today, she slapped McCain's camp again for being dishonest. She is making her move.