NYT: October 23, 2008
The Perils of Instant Analysis
By Kate Phillips
Chuck Todd, NBC’s political director, caused a bit of a stir yesterday when he commented on the air after an MSNBC interview with Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin that the two seemed to have little chemistry. He wondered aloud whether what he perceived as testiness between the two signaled Mr. McCain’s discontent with the troubled Republican ticket. But today, Mr. Todd and others who compile MSNBC’s First-Read’s early morning news summary, seemed to back-pedal on that analysis, saying voicing those impressions demonstrated how dangerous over-analysis can be.
Following Brian Williams’ interview yesterday, Mr. Todd first told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews about the joint session with Mr. McCain and Ms. Palin in Ohio: “There was a tenseness. I couldn’t see chemistry between John McCain and Sarah Palin. I felt as if we grabbed two people and said ‘here, sit next to each other, we are going to conduct an interview.’ They are not comfortable with each other yet.”
He continued: “When you see the two of them together, the chemistry is just not there. You do wonder, is John McCain starting to blame her for things? Blaming himself? Is she blaming him? And maybe they don’t feel they can win right now, so they are missing that intensity. That was the thing that struck me more than anything. You almost wonder why they wanted the two of them sitting next to each other.”
This morning, with a bit of hindsight, First Read wrote:
"The Dangers Of Parachuting In:
Spending part of the day with the McCain-Palin campaign for yesterday’s interview was both an enviable and unenviable task. It’s always tricky to over-read exhaustion. The campaign pushed back hard on an initial impression one of us said on MSNBC — that there was a lack of chemistry between McCain and Palin during the interview — and cautioned us not to read too much into the campaign soup that’s exhaustion, mixed with a couple of tough news days for the ticket, some bad poll numbers, a healthy skepticism of the press, a pretty tough New York Times Magazine piece, and the fact that the two candidates don’t spend every day together.
It was the same dynamic as you might see with Obama and Biden, except they have the luxury of having the motivation of positive news on their side, which can loosen folks up. Bottom line: The McCain campaign appears a bit tight (which is understandable given where we are in the campaign). But there is a bunker mentality that folks like us, when we parachute in, can miss. It’s a good lesson for all of us: Always be cautious from over-analyzing a situation; it can be dangerous punditry."
The interview with Mr. Williams will be broadcast over several nights on NBC, with the second segment tonight.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/the-perils-of-instant-analysis/VIDEO OF CHUCK TODD'S HONEST OPINION, LIVE ON "HARDBALL" WITH CHRIS MATTHEWS:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-bHIqxkmdw
Chuck Todd: "Tense....Both of these candidates are on the verge of 'pulling a Bulworth.'"
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