Embattled Newark Mayor Corey Booker — seemingly doing more back steps than Ginger Rogers did with Fred Astaire — has been working mightily to undo the damage many feel he has done to Barack Obama’s campaign. Analysts differ. Were his comments defending Mitt Romney on Bain Capital’s use as an issue a political mistake? Due to his own Wall Street ties? Did it reflect his ambition? Was this a rising Democratic Party start halting his own rise by losing sight of the main prize (a cohesive party election effort)? Or was this indeed a case of new and old media refusing to see nuance in his original argument?
Booker went on MSNBC’s Rachael Maddow’s show today and insisted he is on the same page with Obama, the issue is a valid one — and decried the way he says the GOP is distorting the issue. (And, to be sure, the GOP doesn’t seem to be giving any mention of his new explanations or walking back on his comments). Here’s the segment so you can judge this controversy — and Booker — for yourself.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
OF RELATED INTEREST: This new post about an idea for a birthday present for Mayor Booker.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.