Chris Christie Proves Just How Stupid the Sunday Shows Are
by David Weigel
In October 2006, a little further along in that presidential election cycle than we are now in ours, freshman Sen. Barack Obama appeared on Meet the Press to hawk his new book. The subtext: Obama might run for president. But Tim Russert didn't lead off with a question about that.
"Let me start with Iraq, because you write about it in your book and you’ve been talking about it on the campaign a little bit," said Russert. "This is what you told New Yorker magazine: 'There’s an old saying in politics: when your opponent’s in trouble, just get out of the way ... in political terms, I don’t think that Democrats are obligated to solve Iraq for the Administration.' Is there an obligation in nonpolitical terms?"
As the interview went on, Russert picked quotes and numbers from Obama's book and threw them right back at the senator. Did he want to intervene in Darfur? Which government programs did he think weren't "working as advertised"? Why did he vote against John Roberts' confirmation?
None of this made news at the time, because by the end Russert asked whether it was "fair" to say Obama was considering a bid for president, and four months later Obama was running. But it was a model interview, one that got a slippery candidate to search for answers on a ton of policy questions by digging through his record and his own quotes.
I bring this up just to emphasize how laughable Sunday's rounds of interviews with Chris Christie went. If the governor of New Jersey came away thinking that the Beltway media would be easier to conquer than the media in New Jersey, he could be excused—no one even tried to lay a glove on him.
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