By C.J. JANOVY
Who did better on Meet the Press yesterday morning: former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, or Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill? Here’s a transcript.
Tom Brokaw called it “a historic Meet the Press moment, the first time that we've had two women who are acting as surrogates for the two national campaigns.” I call it an overall disappointing performance by McCaskill, who too often answered Brokaw’s questions with talking points rather than the trademark candidness that earned her fans during the primary season.
I’d be tempted to say Fiorina might have put in the better performance, but only because she never swayed from her eerily soft-spoken, scary quiet-mom demeanor. On the subject of the economy, she kept emphasizing that “as a business person I pay attention to the numbers” while McCaskill inexplicably never countered with her experience as a state auditor.
McCaskill got in a couple of fun zingers about the former CEO sitting next to her, though:
John McCain's economic policy was drafted in a corporate boardroom. Barack Obama's economic policy was drafted at a kitchen table. It is about the families in America that are hurting. It's about a square deal for the workers. You know, Tom, in our country right now the average CEO of a, of a corporation makes 400 times the average worker's salary.
In the end, Brokaw couldn’t resist asking either woman whether she’d accept her candidate’s Vice Presidential nominee.
Creepy Fiorina handled it with political cool: “I don’t deal in hypotheticals.”
By then, McCaskill was back to her usual disarming self:
Brokaw: “Senator McCaskill, you come from the battleground state of Missouri. You're a popular first-term senator. And Senator Obama does need help with women of a certain age. After the campaign...”
McCaskill: “I think you just said I was old.”
They went back and forth a few times with Brokaw trying to get out of her whether Obama’s team was vetting her, but McCaskill dodged in a way that made it seem like yeah, he probably was. All I know is: She’d be a hell of a lot better choice than boring ol’ Kathleen Sebelius.
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Dear Jenn:
I didn't know McCaskill had any fame, but I think you got the whore part right
McCaskill is a famewhore--a complete embarassment to the people of Missouri.
Buyer's remorse.
Yay! Finally some local media calling pushing our own Senator, and not an out of state governor.
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