Yesterday, CNN host and Obama debate-aid Candy Crowley treated her 10 or 20 viewers to a conversation with DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. If you're thinking that sounds like some kind of psychological experiment designed to test how much pain a human will tolerate before changing the channel, you've got a pretty good handle on what went down. In short, the interview degenerated into what may be one of the greatest, most concise, examples of exactly what's wrong with both parties.
The majority of conservative writers out there are focusing on the arrogance, dishonesty, and incoherence of Debbie Wasserman Schultz. To be sure, that's her usual M.O. and it appears here in spades. She plays the same game she always does. She changes the subject, plays the race card, drops the anti-woman card, and agrees that the GOP is a party of extremists who are more dangerous than both Ebola and ISIS. Before the piece is over she's refused to answer the central question, whether or not the midterms are about Barack Obama's policies, an impressive six times - despite the fact that Obama himself has said his policies are on the ballot.
To be blunt, she's the same old, completely mental, D.W.S.
On the other side of the debate is her Republican counterpart. Whereas Schultz bravely embodies the Dems schizophrenic refusal to acknowledge reality, Reince Priebus perfectly encapsulates the Republicans' inability to put up a respectable fight.
Granted, Priebus is on Candy Crowley's show - on CNN. He's a pilgrim in an unholy land. We get that. Still, if you're going to accept the interview, you'd better show up. Priebus doesn't do that. For most of the exchange, he sits there, silently staring off into space, occasionally chuckling, allowing Schultz to completely own the vast majority of their airtime. He makes no effort to rebuke her absurdities, offers no genuine alternative narrative, and - when even Crowley has had enough of Schultz's insipid yammering - he fails completely to take advantage of her terrible performance.
By the end of the segment, the whole thing has degenerated into a round of back and forth insults over the Florida Governor’s race, and even Crowley seems sick of it.
Regardless of you party preference, what CNN gave you was seven minutes of everything worth hating in American politics. We saw a barely coherent Democratic talking over a sheepish Republican on a biased news network hosted by a shill who couldn't be bothered to moderate her own program.
If this is the best we’ve got – on both sides of the aisle and in the media – we’re all in terrible trouble.
