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This just in: David Gregory is officially out as host of Meet the Press and is being replaced by Chuck Todd, effective Sept. 7:
Confirming one of the longest-running and most tortuous rumors in the television business, NBC News announced on Thursday that David Gregory was being removed from his post as anchor of the network’s Sunday morning discussion program “Meet the Press” and would be replaced by Chuck Todd, NBC’s White House correspondent.
News of the impending switch has been reported on an unofficial basis for several weeks, and the timing of the move was confirmed in a report on the website of CNN on Thursday. But NBC delayed in making the confirmation official until it had finally worked out the terms of Mr. Gregory’s departure.
MTP was never a very good fit for Gregory, the argumentative and blatantly partisan NBC correspondent who stepped in the job after Tim Russert was felled by a fatal hear attack in 2008. The show was hemorrhaging center-right and conservative viewers who had respected Russert’s relative impartiality; whether Todd will be an improvement remains to be seen. Even the lefties at Salon are unimpressed:
NBC took stock of the problems facing its “treasure” of a news program and the diagnosis was that it just didn’t have enough respect with “insiders.” Here’s the thing: “Meet the Press” already has a “loyal following among newsmakers and political junkies.” The show is a pageant of Beltway insiderism in which the least-credible, least-respected talking heads in the industry sit on pundit panels and blurp up conventional wisdom. “Insider cred” is the reason Gregory hung on as long as he did – he’s a member of the D.C. establishment and was able to survive a years-long string of failures out of deference to his own status. If that’s what “insider cred” brings to the equation, then it’s a problem to be solved, not a goal to be achieved.
In that respect, I’m not sure what, exactly, Chuck Todd brings to the table that Gregory doesn’t. He’s a Beltway insider, has a predilection for both-sides-do-it-ism, and exhibits the pundit’s knack for diving timeless truths from a poll’s cross tabs. Sure, he’s a “political obsessive” with access to sources and the attention of newsmakers and “political junkies,” but “Meet the Press” hasn’t lacked for any of those things. And if, as Allen’s report indicates, it’s generally agreed that Todd’s TV chops aren’t up to the level of Tim Russert’s (or even David Gregory’s), then what, exactly, is his appeal?
Meanwhile, on Martha’s Vineyard:
What, me worry?
Your tax dollars at work and play, courtesy of the criminal organization masquerading as a political party, Washington, D.C. division. Nothing like keeping Barry dancing the night away on the Vineyard, in the style to which you know damn well he’s become accustomed. Luckily, there’s nothing important going on elsewhere in the world:
President Barack Obama was photographed getting his groove on at a Martha’s Vineyard birthday party last night at a dinner where he sat next to Hillary Clinton following her well-publicized criticism of his foreign policy.
Reporters were not allowed into the private dinner celebration at the Farm Neck Golf Club, but White House spokesman Eric Schultz said afterward: ‘The Obamas danced nearly every song. A good time was had by all.’
Nope, nothing happening around the globe. Nothing at all. From Hot Air:
In an open letter to President Barack Obama in Politico Magazine, [Ali] Khedery chided the president for his commitment to a policy of “benign neglect” toward the Middle East. He advised the president to give up on his current team of advisors, who have not served him well leading up to and during this present region-wide crisis, and surround himself with new voices.
“One former aide from your White House team recently told me: It’s not just that they don’t understand. It’s that they don’t want to understand what’s happening in the Middle East. They just want it all to go away,” Khedery wrote. “But it’s only going to get worse.”
Which is why his warning to CNN host Jake Tapper should be that much more disturbing. Unless the United States gets its head around the fact that what is occurring in Iraq has the potential to become a full-fledged regional war (in many respects, it already is), America can expect that “another 9/11 is imminent.”
Naturally, some foreigner or other has to go and rain on the parade:
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius took a shot at Obama on Tuesday for continuing on with his two-week vacation while Iraq burned. ‘I know it is the holiday period in our Western countries,’ Fabius said, ‘but when people are dying, you must come back from vacation.’
But heck, it’s great to be king. Especially when you’re the country’s most avid duffer, as Joseph Curl notes here:
As Barack “Eldrick” Obama approaches his 200th round of golf since his election as president, here’s a fact to put that into perspective: Since January 2009, Tiger Woods has played 269 rounds of golf.
And Tiger, beleaguered by injury, is almost certainly done for the year. So that means the president, if he keeps up with his pace of play during his 15-day vacation in Martha’s Vineyard (a round a day) and his normal weekly round, will pass Tiger sometime next spring.
Think about that for a minute. The president of the U.S., juggling the American economy and the entire world’s problems — Iraq is in full meltdown, the Middle East is a powder keg, Russia is moving on Ukraine — has played golf nearly as much as a guy whose day job is playing golf…
He may complain about the “One Percent,” but he doesn’t mind being one of them — as long as the American taxpayer is footing the bill.
Did somebody say ‘foursome’?
Impeach Obama? Heaven forfend! According to Investors Business Daily, he’s the best asset the GOP has:
Liberals claiming Republicans want to impeach Obama should first explain why Republicans would want to. Obama is Republicans’ greatest political asset and Democrats’ greatest political liability. And for Republicans, he promises to be an asset that continues to pay dividends…
If Republicans are correct and the administration is truly incompetent, its performance promises to only get worse, as allies disappear from Capitol Hill and experienced staffers depart the White House… So from a political standpoint, impeachment is the last thing Republicans should want. They’d be better off repealing the Constitution’s 22nd amendment limiting presidential terms. Right now, Obama’s the best asset they have … and could remain so for some time to come.
Ah, I hear you say, but what about Hillary!? (Via Drudge):
I’m sick of people who don’t appreciate their blessings
Let’s ask this guy:
Game over!
Hey — every puzzle has its pieces.
Meanwhile, back in New York City, Mayor DeBlasio proves once more that fascists never change:
Mayor Bill de Blasio gave his unflinching support Wednesday to a call from the city’s top cop that New Yorkers being placed under arrest should submit to police rather than fight back. “When a police officer comes to the decision that it’s time to arrest someone, that individual is obligated to submit to arrest,” the mayor said.
The issue has become a hot-button topic since the death of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who was put in a fatal NYPD chokehold after he resisted arrest for selling loose cigarettes.
Looking that up in my copy of the Constitution right now. Little help, here…
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