The Kicker
Preaching to Their Choirs
By Liz Cox Barrett Tue 22 Apr 2008 08:27 AMOn the eve of the Pennsylvania primary, Senators Clinton and Obama each spoke via satellite to what conventional wisdom calls their respective key audiences: Clinton appeared — in between ads for calcium pills — on CNN’s Larry King Live; Obama showed up— in between promos for Iron Man — on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.
And it all made for fairly uneventful TV.
After concluding his interview with Clinton, King asked DeeDee Myers and Tony Snow (CNN’s latest hire) to assess Clinton’s “performance” on his show — kind of odd, no? — asking, “How did Senator Clinton do tonight?” Replied Myers, aptly: “As always, Larry, you had more of a conversation than, you know, sort of a deposition.”
Things were also more conversational than confrontational on The Daily Show, where both Jon Stewart and Barack Obama got in a dig at ABC for its heavily-criticized Democratic debate last week:
STEWART: I’m going to cut through the spin for you, sir. This is what I’m here for. There’s a lot of insinuation amongst the pundits about these controversies: The Rev. Wright controversy, the flag pin controversy. By the way, I am wearing mine. It’s just pinned directly to my chest. I can tell you what the real concern is… if you are fortunate enough to get the Democratic nomination, fortunate to become president of the United States, will you pull a bait-and-switch, sir, and enslave the white race? Is that your plan? And if it is your plan… be honest. Tell us now.OBAMA: That is not our plan, Jon. But I think your paranoia might make you suitable as a debate moderator.
CJR
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