Matthew Yglesias has his underwear bunched up tight that so many journalists admire Tim Russert's tough questions approach to journalism.
The crux of the matter is this reputation for being a "tough questioner" and the notion that Russert's brand of toughness is worthy of emulation. And it's true that Russert is a tough questioner. Watch any Russert-moderated debate or a typical candidate appearance on Meet The Press and you'll see that he goes way out of the way to put the politician in a tough corner -- he'll ask about some unimportant issue that's politically awkward, he'll drag up a quote from five years ago to try to trip you up, he'll ask about stuff your husband said, he'll harp on whatever recent story has most damaged your candidacy -- he's tough.
The fact that the candidate's answers don't square with either the public's opinion (say, on giving driver's licenses to illegal aliens) or with one's husband--the potential First Man--on the threat of global terror--doesn't seem to bother Yglesias at all. Don't ask a question that is potentially embarrassing unless it's about...global warming.
Climate change, for example, is a hugely important question. As a result, candidates ought to be subjected to questions about their climate change plans. And as it happens, the plans released by Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards are all based on good science and good economics. So asking them questions aimed at elucidating their plans shouldn't lead to any embarrassing incidents. Shouldn't, that is, unless the candidates are unprepared to discuss their own plans in an intelligent manner which really would be worth knowing about.
John McCain, by contrast, might or might not end up embarrassed by serious questions about his plan, which moves in the right direction but on a schedule that's too slow and in a way that's too inefficient. Serious questions would give him the opportunity to make the case for half-measures and whether or not he winds up embarrassing himself would turn on whether or not he can give a convincing rationale for what he's doing -- which is at it should be. His Republican counterparts, by contrast, would almost certainly wind up embarrassed by serious questions about their views of climate change since their policies are badly at odds with reality.
Oddly enough, Tim Russert asks the sorts of tough questions voters are interested in; he asks candidates' views on immigration and terrorism. I suppose to Yglesias, these aren't areas we should be concerned about at all. Only global warming--which is still being debated among scientists as to its origins and effects--is worthy of questioning.
It's a good thing we don't have Yglesias asking the "tough" questions. He's more interested in advancing his left-leaning agenda than in finding out candidates' stances on issues Americans are concerned about.
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