The Inquiring Manatee

NBC News' Day in the White House

    

Last night I watched the first hour of NBC News' two-night special on its unusual behind-the-scenes access to President Obama and the White House on a day last week. The documentary continues tonight.
     NBC took 32 cameras into the executive mansion and the West Wing. The producers then did a marvelous job of quick editing. This is top-of-the-line TV news, as only the best pros can do it.
     For me, the program is nostalgic. I spent six years in those cramped White House rooms, from 1991-1997. Most of my colleagues who were then in the White House press corps are gone from the briefing room, but it was good to see Helen Thomas and CBS' Mark Knoller still there.
      I felt sorry for Chuck Todd, NBC News' super-smart White House correspondent. He was elaborately "bigfooted" by anchor Brian Williams, himself a former White House correspondent for the network during my years covering the presidency. Todd was on camera just a bit, which I hope will assuage the sting of being bypassed. It comes with the territory, Chuck.
      When I first saw Brian Williams working at the White House, I was prepared to dislike him. The TV network reporters, first of all, made outrageous amounts of money compared to print journalists like myself (I was working for Long Island-based Newsday). Williams was a dapper dresser. And he was so good-looking, so obviously headed for the top.
       Then I got to know him a bit when we were on the road in Nashville with President Bill Clinton. There are no nicer, more admirable guys than Williams. He is hilariously funny, wickedly verbal, extremely outgoing and friendly. In the end, you begrudge him nothing. His talent and charm deservedly put him at the top of the media heap.
        Williams is doing a great job as "NBC Nightly News" anchor. And the White House behind-the-scenes programs, fast-moving and well-conceived, are terrific. Tune in tonight.

A Plug for "No. 1 Ladies Detective Service" on HBO

  

I haven't seen a preview, but based on a favorable Los Angeles Times review my wife Irma and I are going to try to tune in (or at least tape, while we watch "Desperate Housewives") HBO's "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Service" at 8 p.m., or repeated at 10 p.m., Sunday night. The adventures of Precious Ramotswe and her allies in a simple village in Botswana have made for great books, and it appears that HBO spared no expense in getting the casting and atmosphere right for a TV production. They even hired the expert British cinematographer who shot "Atonement."
   Try not to miss it.

Live, From ABC News -- A Second Debate

TRANSCRIPT

   Charles Gibson: Good evening. From Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, ABC News is privileged to present this added, last-minute debate on the eve of the Pennsylvania Democratic primary. I'm Charles Gibson, here with my colleague, George Stephanopoulos, of ABC's Sunday "This Week With George Stephanopoulos."
    The candidates, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, were with us in Philadelphia and have very graciously agreed to take part again tonight. I'm cautioning our studio audience to withhold their comments and applause -- except now, as we bring out the contenders. First, here is Senator Clinton. (Applause.) And Senator Obama. (Applause.)
   Our format tonight: The same as at the National Constitution Center a few nights ago. We anticipate another fascinating debate. But first, these messages. (Audience boos and jeers as ABC cuts to commercial break, which lasts five minutes. Caduet, Vytorin and that little green butterfly.)
    Gibson: They're turning on me already! But we're back with a first question for you, Senator Obama: There is video footage all over YouTube, sir, showing Michelle Obama wearing skirts at or above knee level in 1973. Now, don't you think your association with this scandalous attire renders you unfit for the presidency?
   Obama: I do know this Michelle person slightly, from the neighborhood and from a charitable board we served on together a number of years ago. But in my defense, I have to say that criticizing me because an acquaintance of mine engaged in questionable behavior when she was, let's see, 9 years old, doesn't meet the test of common sense. And this sort of trivial digression from the issues that truly concern the voters of Pennsylvania and the 49 other states of America demonstrates the old politics that I am running to change, with a message of hope. What people want to know, for example, is how I plan to bring our men and women home from Iraq. And ....
    Gibson: We'll get into that some time before our two hours end, Senator. But our innovative clock that keeps track of the relative time accorded to the candidates shows that Senator Clinton has not received time matching that given to Senator Obama. So, Senator Clinton, have at it.

   Clinton: Well, Charlie, I was beginning to notice that disproportionality of time. It's not that I wish to respond. It's that the Republican attack machine is sure to make an issue this fall of Michelle Obama's modish but radical attire. In sorrow, I know that many Pennsylvanians and, frankly, Democratic superdelegates have been taken aback by this matter, so revelatory of Senator Obama's allegedly deficient patriotism, which is not something that is true, so far as I know, but is something Republicans will say and therefore something that must guide all thinking Democrats. In contrast, I ask Pennsylvanians to compare my pantsuits -- so sensible, yet so soft and flattering. (She pivots.) Like this number, from Anne Klein, in subtle eggplant, available at the Macy's near that Lake Shinola place near Scranton, where my daddy took me hunting at the age of 4 months before he drove me for 2 laps around the nearby NASCAR track at 200 miles per hour. Yee-ha! Daddy had some setbacks in his life, but was he ever bitter? No. He remained guided, spiritually and culturally, by his God and his guns. Heck of a bowler, too. Did a lot better than a 37, that's for sure. Did I mention he was originally a Pennsylvanian? (Cut to reaction shot of Gov. Ed Rendell, beaming next to Chelsea Clinton, in audience.)
    Gibson: Again for Senator Obama, a Pennsylvania voter, Marie Pazza of Altoona, has this question for you via pre-recorded video. Let's take a look.

    Marie Pazza: Senator, Trinity United Church of Christ, Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church in Chicago where you have worshiped without a peep for 20 years, has a gospel choir that never begins the service by singing our National Anthem. Instead, they start singing about Jesus. Now I ask you, sir: Do you love the National Anthem, or not?

    Obama: No one reveres "The Star-Spangled Banner" more than I do. Now (laughing), don't ask me to sing the words of the second verse, because I might embarrass myself. But this culturally important, traditional song is something that has guided me through Hawaii, through Indonesia, through my Barry Obama years, to where I stand before you today as somebody running for the presidency. (Cut to Chelsea, glaring.)

    Stephanopoulos: Senator Clinton, your response?

    Clinton: Let no one among the elitist TV critics that didn't like the magnificent performance of ABC News in our Philadelphia debate call "The Star-Spangled Banner" a distraction. It is a key issue -- in fact, frankly, it is the Francis Scott Key issue. And here again, Republicans will say in the fall, I am sad to relate, that Senator Obama, whom I respect, falls short. By contrast, having carried the baggage of once publicly blowing the words of the National Anthem at a University of Arkansas football game in Fayetteville, I now have learned all the verses of "The Star-Spangled Banner." And that is just one more reason why I am the stronger candidate against that admirable war hero, John McCain, who, along with me, is a lot more qualified to be president than those out-of-touch snobs, Al Gore and John Kerry. Did you know, by the way, that Francis Scott Key set the words of this great anthem to the tune of a British drinking song, "To Amphitryon in Heaven?"

      Gibson: OK, considering what a few critics said, maybe we should be a little quicker tonight to get to what the carpers call the "substantive" issues -- such ratings-killers as health care and the collapsing economy. So let me ask you, Senator Obama: You have proposed billions of dollars in new government spending to help homeowners threatened with foreclosure on their sub-prime mortgages. And you have threatened to impose more regulation on banks and mortgage brokers. But don't the numbers show that any government regulation is bad for the economy, hurting growth, killing jobs and actually reducing government revenues? And doesn't a Republican National Committee study, recently cited by Sean Hannity of Fox News, prove that reckless homeowners who got in above their heads will never learn anything about the operation of the free market if they get a government bailout?

    Obama: Well, Senator Clinton and I take very similar approaches to doing for ordinary American homeowners what the Federal Reserve did for Bear Stearns and Wall Street -- giving them a helping hand in a time of crisis and need. And our active approach is in such contrast to Senator McCain, who sounds more like Herbert Hoover every day. I am going to run hard against Senator McCain, and whatever the Republicans aim at me, I am going to give right back to them. And that is why I am the stronger, more electable candidate.

    Gibson: And now, these messages. (Boos from audience.)

    Five-minute commercial break. Dulcolax, MiraLAX, the Nasonex bee. Lots of deadly side effects.

    Gibson: Welcome back. Oh, my gosh, we're out of time. As Senator Clinton and Senator Obama sign autographs, we're going to call a halt, regretting that we have no cable outlet enabling our award-winning political team to dissect tonight's stimulating debate for the next 4 hours. We know that our program tonight illuminated the best aspects of American democracy. In an unprecedented move, we had invited Senator McCain to join the Democrats in tonight's debate. He declined. Which is too bad, because we wanted to ask him about Charles Keating and when was the last time Cindy had some work done.

   And it's good night from ABC News, clearly not part of the liberal mainstream media, can't you see?