Let's Give It To Chuckie T ... He'll Ask It!

Well, let's give the boy a hand.

Maybe he cribbed notes, from a reporter sitting near him, or, perhaps, he finally went out and bought the book "How To Ask Questions At Press Conferences for Dummies", then again, it could be all that training for the new show he's being handed.



In any case, Chuck Todd of NBC disappointed the Obama Team by actually asking a rather pertinent question last evening, during the President's Prime Time News Conference.

We couldn't see if Chuckie T. was wearing an earpiece, so some editor could spoon fed him a question to ask.

You know, that had to cross the NBC suits' minds, after the previous two Press Conferences, when Our Man Chuck stood up and drooled all over himself, querying the President with questions straight out of Michelle Bachmann's universe.

It wouldn’t surprise me if his co-workers are calling Chuckie T. "The Mailman" today, cuz, last night, Chuckie T. delivered!

Here's how it went;

Chuck Todd.

QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. Want to move to Pakistan. Pakistan appears to be at war with the Taliban inside their own country.

MR. OBAMA: Right.

QUESTION: Can you reassure the American people that, if necessary, America could secure Pakistan's nuclear arsenal and keep it from getting into the Taliban's hands, or worst-case scenario, even al Qaeda's hands?

Not bad ... Not bad ...

Pakistan has been in the news, it's a hot spot, lots of things going on there.

And, as to the news conference, the big 100 Days Extravaganza, aces all around for the President, particularly, Tom Shales, at the WaPo;

The questions put to Barack Obama at his news conference last night covered nearly every topic but the Craigslist Killer, and if that had come up, Obama probably would have answered it in stride.

[Snip]

He's not the student who wears a button that says, "Smartest kid in class," but clearly he is, at least when surrounded by the White House press corps.

Obama can use a five-dollar word such as "overarching" in one sentence and a few sentences later utter a folksy "doggone it." His verbiage is a melting pot that's always bubbling. A few times, he did stumble over words, and once or twice appeared semantically stranded, unable to find the precise language he wanted to use. But compare him with his predecessor and such moments seem trifling.

And, dig what he had to say about "The best political team on television", and MSNBC;

Meanwhile, CNN, in what looked an awful lot like desperation, embedded the news conference in a day-long (or is it week-long) gimmicky "National Report Card" routine, as hired experts and members of Congress rated the president on this and that. Graphically speaking, it was a mess, and one sympathized with Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer and other CNN talents caught up in one of those Producers' Brainstorms that didn't work.

[Snip]

MSNBC showed its strengths -- at least two of them, anyway -- by going to ravaging Keith Olbermann and ravishing Rachel Maddow. Two smart people are a lot better than an arsenal of computerly contraptions.

Yeah, the sun is shining all over NBC, and MSNBC today.

Chuckie T. got his question straight.