Olbermann In a Better Suit: Did Williams Suggest Palin Appeal Rooted in Racism?

Subtract the subdued demeanor and the good tailoring, and how much difference is there between Brian Williams and Keith Olbermann?  Take Williams' post-Palin speech analysis.  Was the Nightly News anchor suggesting Palin's appeal is rooted in racism? He certainly made a clarion call to his fellow MSMers to keep up the good fight against her. Ann Curry interviewed a woman delegate who described Palin as "the American woman  . . . who's had all the experiences that we have."

When it came Williams' turn to comment, he twisted the delegate's words into an invidious comparison between Palin and Barack Obama.  Williams seemed perhaps to be suggesting Palin was appealing to racism.

View video here. 

ANN CURRY: What was the most important message, do you think, that Governor Palin gave tonight?

DELEGATE: That she's American woman. And that she's here for all of America.

CURRY: When you say "American woman," you mean with all of the things she talked about, the issues in her family, raising a child with special needs, what are you specifically talking about, that she's "American woman"?

DELEGATE: She's done it all.  She represents all of America.

CURRY: So you say you identify with her?

DELEGATE: Correct. I think she's had all the experiences that we've had. And she knows what it's like to live in America.  She's lived the dream in every aspect.

Later, Williams.

BRIAN WILLIAMS: Two points I'd like to make, Keith.  Number one, Ann Curry's interview on the floor with the women delegates tonight. One of them said of Governor Palin "she has lived the dream, the American dream, in every aspect." That was what was attractive about her story to this delegate. Guess who else you can say that about? And yet we're looking at parallel universes here: an "us versus them." She's one of us, he's one of them kind of argument.

I saw nothing in the delegate's statement to suggest she was making anything like an "us versus them" argument. To the contrary, the delegate could not have described Palin as being any more inclusive: "she's here for all of America," and "she represents all of America." But Williams managed to detect some secret code.  Next, of all the pundits he might have cited, Williams chose one: Joe Klein, reading passionately from Klein's call to the MSM to keep up the good fight against Palin.

WILLIAMS [seen in the screencap waving Klein's comments]: Secondly, about the attacks on the media tonight, Joe Klein's on the board, his blog for Time magazine, and I'll quote briefly: "I hope my colleagues," meaning his colleagues in the news media, "stand strong in this case. It's important for the public to know Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the bridge to nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, banned books at the local library, and thinks the war in Iraq is, quote, a task from God. The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme."  Just another Wednesday night in Minnesota.

He might just as well have added: I'm Brian Williams, and I approve Klein's message.

On Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough had a very different take on Klein and the way the MSM has gone after Palin.  Joe spoke after the clip was played of Palin saying "I'm not going to Washington to seek [the MSM's] good opinion.  I'm going to Washington to serve the people of this great country."

JOE SCARBOROUGH:  It's so funny.  These reporters saying [imitates self-righteous voice]: "we're going to stand [firm?]"  Joe Klein, who I love, but he said [again imitates self-righteous tone]: "we're not going to back down. We are going to stand up.  She raised taxes."  You know what?  They're not talking about that.  They're talking about the first three days she was in town, the pundit class --

MIKE BARNICLE: Killed her.

SCARBOROUGH: -- were all following a lie on Daily Kos where they said that she didn't have the baby, that one of her children had the baby, and Joe Klein—who I like very much and I respect his work—but he, and all of the journalists last night, they were being self-righteous last night, saying [that voice again] "we will not be swayed by this woman."  You know what?  They're pretending that the first three days of this week didn't happen. It did, and it was pathetic. And that's why that line worked last night, because the media acted in an abhorrent fashion.