I watched the debate last night and was struck by a mental image I'd like to share with you all.
I acknowledge in advance that this is not going be a great diary. It's gonna be short, but I just wanted to put it out there.
Okay . Russert start his hypothetical maunderings. He's stringing out a series of possible events that sound like a direct lift from the plot of 24. He's getting really into it! He's telling a story of honor betrayed! Of double crosses! Of action and valor! And at long last a climactic denouement in which our hero (president) must make a thrilling choice! To re-invade or to hold back? (Knuckle biting tension!)
And in my mind as Russert spoke I started to picture a silent move complete with dramatic intertitles.
In Russert's head I think it is 1912, everyone has their nostrils outlined to make them stand out on the grainy film, everyone gestures wildly to express physically what can not be expressed verbally, and herky-jerky Keystone Kops all rush into the Police wagon to chase the not-too-threatening bad guy, who will be defeated by the end of the reel, before the next feature starts up.
Which is to say I think Russert is the victim of a kind of very ol' fashioned American melodrama.