Appearing on Friday's CNN Tonight to plug his interview with former President Bill Clinton, CNN's Fareed Zakaria -- host of Fareed Zakaria GPS -- gushed over Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, calling her an "incredibly impressive public figure," "very intelligent," "very well-briefed," and "very smart on policy."
He also suggested that, if only she had "charisma" and her husband's ability to "effortlessly" explain the email scandal "with a smile," that it "could change" the problems with her campaign.
After a clip of Bill Clinton blaming his wife's weak poll numbers on her opponents pushing the scandal, at about 10:34 p.m., host Don Lemon asked Zakaria about the interview:
That is incredible, Fareed. How concerned do you think they are about this race? Because I heard Peggy Noonan the other day saying this is shades of 2008 all over again for Hillary Clinton. Do you think they're worried?
Zakaria lavished praise on Hillary Clinton as he began:
Look, they have to be worried. They would be silly not to be worried. The truth of the matter is Hillary Clinton is an incredibly impressive public figure, in my opinion. She's been very intelligent. She's always very well-briefed. She's very smart on policy. She's put out more policy papers, I think, than any other candidates.
He then lamented:
She has trouble with the, sort of, charisma element, you know? And the fact that she, that that is always a struggle for her, produces, you know, invites some of this. And she hasn't had the ability to do what Clinton just did, which is to explain the email controversy with this long arc with the, you know, he has this way of effortlessly explaining it all which I think, if she could do, with a smile, it could change things.
