Not that many people sit through an hour of MSNBC in the middle of the day, but the one o’clock hour (Eastern time) was raising eyebrows at our geeky office. The hourly anchor, Norah O’Donnell, first glowed over the proficiency of the Obama campaign in bringing John Edwards aboard in Michigan last night:
It was a political masterstroke, having this rally just during the nightly newscasts at 6:30, really it was the equivalent of a punch in the stomach for Hillary Clinton, who at that time was meeting with superdelegates and financial backers out at her house trying to prove that she’s still got some kind of momentum left in this.
A.B. Stoddard of the Hill told O’Donnell the timing was “unbelievable.” But was it really? A cynic could argue that Obama probably lined up Edwards weeks ago, and saved it for a bad primary result like this. If not, is the timing really “unbelievable,” for Edwards to wait to endorse Obama until it was painfully obvious he would win? Isn’t it funny how reporters hide all their cynicism in an office drawer when it comes time for Obama superlatives?
Just 20 minutes later, Norah brought back the hyperbolic words, but this time it was negativity toward the Republicans:
And turning now to the presidential race and congressional politics, there is been another blow to the GOP and that has left members bickering about the party’s future.The latest loss of a House seat in Mississippi is the third defeat for Republicans. in special elections this year. Some have called the climate as the worst since Watergate.
The “some” in this case is Rep. Tom Davis, who’s retiring from Congress over his bitterness that Virginia conservatives wanted him to go through the inconvenience of a convention to win a nomination for the U.S. Senate.