Mr. Lou Dobbs is doing the preview debate show on CNN right now… The actual Democratic debate will be taking place shortly tonight. He is remarking, a la Joan Rivers, on the candidates as, one by one, they arrive via driver and car at Sullivan Arena…
As each candidate disembarks, shown on split screen behind him, Dobbs appears to have no hard facts in mind or at hand about each candidate… sportscasters have tremendous stats about each player…how come Dobbs doesn’t?
He gives no background for each candidate, no insightful news, just this … “There’s… Senator Obama, in a large SUV, big typically black vehicles: it seems to have become the vehicle of the candidates.†Yes, Mr. Dobbs, a lot of cars use gasoline, some more than others… just like a lot of other things in life that have unequal distribution amongst different classes of people. Mr. Dobbs goes on to say, “There… he is… arriving, handing off the umbrella and getting the research notes ready…” Dobbs pauses, empty air, then he cuts to a commercial.
Informative television. A very endangered species.
Dobbs now questions political analysts from various print media and CNN itself, well, most of the time he appears to be reading off the teleprompter, and reprising his pretty-well-practiced drone about ‘middle class people, immigration and trade deficits.’ He doesn’t seem to be able to get out of an egocentric gyre. He queries an interesting, experienced panel of controversial experts: James Carville, Donna Brazile and Julius Caesar “J.C.” Watts but puts them to sleep with questions like this: Do you think anyone will say anything surprising tonight?
It would probably be better if Mr. Dobbs himself said something surprising. Like maybe, Miss Brazile, you lauded President Bush about stepping up after Katrina… Shouldn’t NOLA be an issue for this debate, given that one of our major cities was destroyed and has not yet been put back together?
Think of what Bill Maher would ask such a panel. Think for heaven’s sakes what CarrotTop would ask. Think of what Los Quatros Charlies would ask.. Charlie Rose, Charlie Gibson, Carlos Mencia, Charlie McCarthy… anybody… who does not believe everything they think is valuable and deep, just because They Almighty think it…
Original thought in television. Possibly extinct.
Mr. Dobbs tonight, having now asked tepid questions of 8 different experienced advisors on the show, continues to return to his own drumming that has been banging the same note for months now. As he puts it tonight in a voice dripping with portent: “What you might not hear about tonight! … not one of the leading candidates are talking about The Trade Deficit …they seem to be avoiding the issue… are they going to talk about the middle class?… who are living on the edge… who have little savings?…”
It could be the candidates will or not speak of those matters, but surely if they don’t it might be because they think Dobbs has already covered it. And covered it.
great TV: extinct
…unless the regal Donna Brazile slithers off her chair like a royal copperhead and tells Dobbs to ‘get real, and don’t be asking me insipid questions. Let’s get down…’
Then maybe we could hear something useful instead of soporifics about the most critical issues and engagements of our times …
Spirit of TV, stirring from the dead?