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Tempers Are Not Just Frayed Among Politicians And Partisans In Campaign 2008

April 18th, 2008
By JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

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Fuses are exceedingly short among cable talking heads as well. Did MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough walk off the set — or did he merely choose not to participate any more in an on-the-air discussion with progressive talk’s rising radio and cable star Rachel Maddow? Details and the video are HERE.

Even if Scarborough did walk off, it’s unlikely to hurt his standing with his network. Scarborough is a unique and authentic talent. He’s a former pol and former professional Republican talking head who broke out of the pack due to his independent viewpoints and the fact he comes across so well on television. Maddow is also a major talent: not all radio types do well on television and she comes across as an assertive and thoughtful progressive who represents her side exceedingly well.

But look at this event as a sample of what’s going on this election year. Tempers are frayed on all sides and discussion often deteriorates into shouting and anger. Scarborough’s point was he won’t do screamfest talk shows a la Crossfire and Maddow’s point was that he was interrupting her while she was giving her take on events. You decide..

Expect this motif to get much worse after the Democrats choose a candidate. Right now (as can be seen in the blogosphere) there is a three way split between people who support Republican Senator John McCain, and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. McCain is an increasingly strong candidate — someone who appeals to independents, Democrats and is now successfully shoring up the GOP’s longtime winning coalition.

If trends continue, by August GOPers will realize they have an authentic chance to win a once-seemingly-unwinnable Presidential election and Democrats will realize once a candidate is picked that they could well blow winning a once-seemingly-easy Presidential election. If you think tempers are frayed now…and given how America’s political culture increasingly sparks anger and confrontation…fasten your seat belts.



This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 5:57 am and is filed under Media, Barack Obama, John McCain, Newsweek Blogitics, MSNBC, Hillary Clinton, Republicans, 2008 Elections, Talk Radio, Cable Talk Shows, Democrats, Politics. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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    Temperatures are rising and tempers are flairing up almost everywhere. I suspect that is part of the reason why Howard Dean <ahref="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/18/dean-i-need-a-decision-now/">said this on CNN last night:

    An increasingly firm Howard Dean told CNN again Thursday that he needs superdelegates to say who they’re for – and “I need them to say who they’re for starting now.”

    “We cannot give up two or three months of active campaigning and healing time,” the Democratic National Committee Chairman told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “We’ve got to know who our nominee is.”


    The general election race has started. I suspect a lot of "Private Conversations" are being held right now. If this was a old fashioned Christian revival we might label this phase as come-to-Jesus time.
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    progressive talk’s rising radio and cable star Rachel Maddow? is a judgment that makes me want to smoke/inject whatever it is that you are ingesting. She is beyond obnoxious and makes me think of a young Janet Reno in her attractiveness. Have you checked MSNBC's ratings versus Fox's recently?
 
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