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This MUST-SEE excerpt is taken from last night's special Friday edition of "The Last Word", during the rewrite segment. The video speaks for itself, but I thought I would highlight in this diary some key points that I believe that every Obama supporter (and every voter) ought to understand.
This also is an indictment of the MSM, which has played into the superficial narrative of the "best" performer as an important or sole criterion for determining who gets to be in the Oval Office making critical decisions that impacts our lives, our children's lives, as well as the global and domestic integrity of this country.
This segment is a little under 9 minutes long, and Lawrence first begins with an excerpt from the "West Wing" (NBC) to build up to his point. To get to the main part of the segment, you can fast-forward to ~ 3:10. But I just wanted to emphasize some of O'Donnell's primary take-home points for those of us who have been tempted to buy in to the media narrative of who won/who lost the first Presidential debate.
These debates are about finding the best president, not the best memorizer. If it's a memorizer you want, then Kevin Klein or any other American-born actor who has learned all 1,495 lines of Hamlet, the biggest part Shakespeare ever wrote deserves your vote.
In most presidencies, there will not be one instance-not one in four years in office, where a president has to think on his feet in the instant about a policy decision, nor would you want him to. You want a president to carefully consider every governing decision, to take as much time as it takes to make the best decision; to give more thought to, to seek on advice on things.
We don't televise oval office meetings or any of the other real business of governing, and so the public and news media for the most part have no real idea of how governing is done and who does it well. Then, that same news media presents presidential debates and instantly tells us who won and who lost in a contest that is ALWAYS judged more on style than on substance. Post-debate pundit analysis always rewards wit as if it's a presidential job requirement, but wit has no value in the Situation Room. Who do you want in the Situation Room - the funniest guy? The best memorizer? Or the most thoughtful and careful and deliberative decision maker?
That post-debate analysis all too often loses sight of the most important fact that debate audiences should remember: We are not electing a Debater-in-chief, we are electing a Commander-in-Chief.