David Broder, man of few words:

On last week's Meet the Press we thought that David Broder didn't have much to offer. Now we've checked the transcript and it confirms our view. He spoke only five times on substance (with an additional two remarks at the end of the show about his appearance 40 years ago). 467 words. Here they are:

ON THE PLAME SCANDAL
    The principle is pretty simple. It is the government’s responsibility to keep the government’s secrets secret. It is not the press’ responsibility. Our inclination, once we have information, is to try to verify it, to amplify as much as we can, the background and the context. But our basic obligation, then, is to share information with the public. What routinely is done, is what Bob said he did in this case, which is to say to the government agency, “Is there any reason why I ought to do what is unnatural, which is to withhold the information?” Now, I don’t know what was said specifically to Bob, as to that case. We have his word as to what it was, and he had to make the judgment as to whether they gave him a compelling reason to withhold that name.
    Well, I was at the Democratic National Committee meeting yesterday where Al Sharpton said the president is moonwalking this question, and I think he’s got it about right. It is hard to believe that if the president, when he was dealing with a finite universe of possible leakers, did not really put the heat on, that he couldn’t get an answer to his question.

ON THE CALIFORNIA RECALL ELECTION
    Well, I was told last night, by somebody who’s been tracking very much what Ron said, that the race has gotten more interesting but that there still seems to be a firm majority in favor of the recall. This is a flawed process. A man who I was talking to said, “If Leon Panetta’s name had gone on the ballot as an alternative, he would be winning this race hands down. But because of this peculiar process there, people are in a dilemma because they don’t want to keep Governor Davis as their governor, and they don’t really want to see any of these alternatives become governor.” The overriding sentiment seems to be, “Let’s shake up Sacramento,” which is bad news for Governor Davis.
    They may very well be right. And people take these elections seriously when they’re choosing a chief executive, whether it’s for the country or for the state. And the people that I talked to, when I was in California, have this concern about their state. It’s not a question for them of simple celebrity. It is a question of who can get the problems of California —begin to address those problems. So when you attack the credibility and the behavior pattern of the presumably leading candidate, you are going to have some effect on the voters.
    I don’t think it has much effect on 2004. Bush is going to have to make the case himself to the California voters as to why they should support him when they did not in overwhelming numbers last time.

ON HIS APPEARANCE ON MEET THE PRESS 40 YEARS AGO
    Oh, no.
    Thank you.

posted by Quiddity at 10/11/2003 07:42:00 PM