In the interest of a distinctly non-Hannity full disclosure: I was Facebook friends with John Dickerson for almost ten years (I deactivated my account earlier this month--different story for a different time) and while I would never call us actual friends, we did interact several times over the course of that period. John has always been professional, open-minded and generous to me in those exchanges.
That said, this is some ridiculous normalization and infantilizing of not only Donald Trump but the office of the presidency. Dickerson should be embarrassed to call himself a journalist with this article.
The problem isn't that the office is too difficult to do. It's not that it would be difficult for anybody.
At risk of lifting the entirety of Driftglass' oeuvre, the problem lies in the Republican Party. They have spent generations telling us that government is the problem while they grift as much personal profit from it they can. They legislate morality they cannot comply with themselves. They lie, they cheat, they steal, they work the refs and then they clutch their pearls when you suggest that maybe they're the problem and talk about how both sides should reach out.
No, no, no. The presidency isn't an impossibility, John. There are some very capable people who have held that office, even in the face of Republican (there's that word again) obstructionism and made things pretty good (not perfect, I grant you, but that's the real impossible standard). But as long as the media gatekeepers normalize incompetence and malice, as long as they question if anyone could really do the job well, as long as they don't point out that the incompetence, recalcitrance and grift is distinctly on ONE side of the aisle, we'll all keep going round and round in these useless circles.
Do better, media.
ABC's "This Week" - Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez; Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. Dan Abrams of ABC; Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz; former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah. Panel: Jonathan Karl, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, Democratic Strategist Stephanie Cutter and Amy Chozick, author of “Chasing Hillary.”
NBC's "Meet the Press" - Perez; Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine; White House legislative affairs director Marc Short. Panel: Democratic pollster Cornell Belcher, Andrea Mitchell of NBC, Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report and David Brody, co-author of “The Faith of Donald J. Trump: A Spiritual Biography.”
CBS' "Face the Nation" - Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Iran's foreign minister, Javad Zarif; former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. John Dickerson, co-host of “CBS This Morning.” Panel: Rachael Bade of Politico, Mark Landler of The New York Times and Mike Allen of Axios.
CNN's "State of the Union" - Corker; White House counselor Kellyanne Conway. Panel: former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa.; former Rep. Bakari Sellers, (D-SC); Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution; and Linda Chavez, former Reagan administration official.
CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" - Pulitzer Prize winner Ronan Farrow, author of “War on Peace: The End of Diplomacy and the Decline of American Influence”; Mona Charen, author of “Sex Matters: How Modern Feminism Lost Touch With Science, Love and Common Sense”; Dan Senor, former Bush chief spokesperson of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq; John Paul Rathbone of the Financial Times; Julia Sweig, author of “Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know.”
CNN's "Reliable Sources" - David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker; Michael Hancock, mayor of Denver. Panel: Edward Felsenthal, editor in chief of Time magazine; John Avlon, editor in chief of The Daily Beast; and Sarah Ellison, staff writer of The Washington Post.
"Fox News Sunday" - French President Emmanuel Macron. Panel: Juan Williams of Fox News; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; former Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., and Michael Anton, former spokesman for the Trump National Security Council.
So what's catching your eye this morning?
