Lauer: Mideast Peace Conference Could Make Things Worse

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Talk about damned-if-you-do . . .

On this morning's Today show, Matt Lauer discussed with Tim Russert the Middle East peace conference that began today. After years of MSM criticism of President Bush for not getting more involved in the Israeli-Palestinian situation, how does Lauer react when the president undertakes an historic initiative bringing together leaders of all the area's countries for the first time? You guessed it.

View video here.

MATT LAUER: What about the risks, Tim? Because doesn't history show us that when something like this, an event like this, a summit, comes up empty, doesn't the region become more volatile in the wake of that summit than it was even going into that summit?

Russert was happy to oblige.

TIM RUSSERT: That has happened in the past; you're absolutely right.

You'd think that, on today of all days, Matt might be modest about his powers of prognostication. As I pointed out here, it was exactly one year ago today that Matt and NBC formally declared to the situation in Iraq to be a "civil war." Unsuprisingly, in light of promising developments in Iraq, Today didn't see fit this morning to note the anniversary of its declaration.