Fortunately James Fallows has spared me the hassle and inconvenience of writing the definitive breakdown of Obama’s impromptu chat this morning. The point he makes – which is entirely accurate and without error – is that this wasn’t about the birthers at all. This was about administering a restaurant-quality smackdown to the idiots of the press who let themselves be led around by the nuts by a reality TV character with a dead animal stapled to his scalp.
The key line for me is in the opening graf, where the President mentions the fact that Chuck (presumably Chuck Todd of NBC) commented that he couldn’t believe the President was going to be out there not talking about national security (on a day when Leon Panetta moves to Defense and Devid Petraus becomes CIA director). Obama’s reply? “I would not have the networks breaking in if I was talking about that, Chuck, and you know it.”
Okay, now show me on the doll where the President BITCH SLAPPED YOUR NETWORK, SON.
NBC has not shirked from feeding the beast, because Donald Trump is a featured part of their “entertainment” programming. I say “entertainment” because nobody remembers the last time NBC produced anything entertaining that didn’t involve Aaron Sorkin or Tina Fey. But sure enough, there goes a guy whose presidential aspirations were a joke two decades ago – and he’s getting treated as if his opinions were somehow more germane to American life than, say, that bouffant-ed orange traffic cone on Jersey Shore.
Trump is NBC’s baby. They put this jackass on our screen. And they allowed this nonsense to run, and fed it themselves, because they needed the attention. Which is what makes it entirely appropriate that Chuck Todd – who is and always has been in over his head as an actual political correspondent – got the back of Obama’s hand today.
But this is not the end of it. Trump’s not going away. He’s got attention and people taking him seriously despite the fact that anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows that Donald Trump cannot and will not be President, ever. And as long as people continue to do so, we will continue to have nonsense like this – today, tomorrow, and forever. Because our media validates stupidity. Our media treats stupid as a legitimate point of view. Our media caters to stupid. And until this changes, we are going to continue to be plagued by the kind of people who make it impossible to ever take the word “retarded” out of our vocabulary.