Most of the time when we monitor shows, we do so with an eye to the hypocritical or outrageous. And usually, when it comes to me, I find myself rolling my eyes or making some snarky aside and moving on. But every once in a while, you come across something that is just a little hard to set aside and make you really sick with the implications.
Case in point: strategist Mark Penn--the same guy whose political savvy got presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign to crash and burn--came on Hardball to tell Chris Matthews what he thought could help raise President Obama's profile. His answer? Mark Penn thinks Obama needs something like an Oklahoma City bombing:
PENN: Cabinets don’t really sell things. The President himself has to reconnect with the people. Remember, President Clinton reconnected through Oklahoma, right?...
MATTHEWS: Yeah, because of the bombing down there…
PENN: …And President right now, he seems removed. It wasn’t until that speech that he really clicked with the American public. Obama needs a similar kind of happening.
MATTHEWS: You think words are enough for Obama at this point?
PENN: No. He’s gotta get some results. But words will work, I think, if he finds that right moment.
Listen to these two men--who eat, breathe and live politics all day long, divorced of its real world ramifications--speak casually of the political opportunity available should hundred or thousands of innocent Americans die because of a domestic terrorist act. This is what Mark Penn thinks could help Obama:
And Tweety doesn't blink an eye.
Now Ed Morrissey of Hot Air and Tommy Christopher of Mediaite think this is just a brain fart of some sort. But I can't be so charitable. This is a perfect example of the banality of evil.
