Eager to join in the leftist media worship of former First Lady Michelle Obama for her speech at the Democratic National Convention, on Tuesday, CBS This Morning co-host, Democratic Party donor, and Obama vacation pal Gayle King couldn’t help but gush about her friend being a “closer” who threw “elegant shade” at President Trump.
Turning to 60 Minutes correspondent John Dickerson during the 8:00 a.m. ET hour, King engaged in her usual DNC hackery as she marveled over Obama’s hostile remarks:
Let’s start with Michelle Obama, because seems she certainly has set a very high bar when it comes to energizing the party. You know, they didn’t call her the closer for nothing back in the day. She was – she started out at some point in the speech where she said, “I hate politics,” and then proceeded to give a very political speech which is out of character for her in terms of tone, content, and the delivery. A lot of people – I was looking at it last night, I heard it described as elegant shade.
Dickerson chimed in by quipping: “Well, as I under how shade works, you have to be a little less direct than she was. I mean, this wasn’t so much shade as it was actually, it felt like to me, a huge spotlight, right, on what she says is the problem, which in her very clear and direct words, is the incumbent president.”
Not wanting King to have all the fun celebrating the partisan speech, Dickerson proclaimed that Obama had already accomplished the mission of the convention:
They have to do three things at this convention and she did all three. One is energize the base. She basically said get out and vote immediately....The second thing is define the turf of what this election is about. They want to it be about character and the response to both COVID-19 and the racial discussion we’re having in America....Michelle Obama made the case that Donald Trump’s lack of empathy and character has a cost in terms of American lives. And then the final thing is testimony and witness about Joe Biden, which she did in talking about what she knows in the personal Joe Biden. That’s what they’re trying to do all week and she did all three of those things.
King claimed that “even the Republicans were saying that Michelle Obama knocked it out of the park last night.”
The host then worried if the virtual nature of the convention was effective: “But what do you make of this virtual convention? Do you think it delivered? I think it’s so hard to have these kind of events with no audience when you’re so propelled by the audience applause.”
While Dickerson acknowledged that the quality of the program matters, he expressed hope that Obama’s speech would go viral online: “What we will see is whether a speech like Michelle Obama’s, which was clearly the highlight of the night, gets passed around in social media and on YouTube and rest of it, and if that’s the case, then it does what a traditional convention tries to do.”
Democrats can always rely on a little help from their friends in the lapdog media to make sure that every word they say will be applauded and cheered.
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Here is a transcript of the August 18 segment:
8:04 AM ET
GAYLE KING: CBS News senior political analyst and 60 Minutes correspondent – there he is – John Dickerson, hello. John Dickerson was up late last night. Thank you, John, for getting up early with us. I know you were up covering the convention last night, I was watching you guys.
JOHN DICKERSON: Great to be with you, Gayle.
KING: We’re always glad when you’re here. Let’s start with Michelle Obama, because seems she certainly has set a very high bar when it comes to energizing the party. You know, they didn’t call her the closer for nothing back in the day. She was – she started out at some point in the speech where she said, “I hate politics,” and then proceeded to give a very political speech which is out of character for her in terms of tone, content, and the delivery. A lot of people – I was looking at it last night, I heard it described as elegant shade. What did you make of it?
DICKERSON: Well, as I under how shade works, you have to be a little less direct than she was. [King laughs] I mean, this wasn’t so much shade as it was actually, it felt like to me, a huge spotlight, right, on what she says is the problem, which in her very clear and direct words, is the incumbent president.
They have to do three things at this convention and she did all three. One is energize the base. She basically said get out and vote immediately. Democrats are very worried in this COVID election that they’re going to have trouble voting and getting out the vote. That’s always a challenge for Democrats, it’ll be more of one in this race.
The second thing is define the turf of what this election is about. They want to it be about character and the response to both COVID-19 and the racial discussion we’re having in America. And David Axelrod used an expression that I think was useful, which is that character has a cost. In other words, it’s not some abstraction. Michelle Obama made the case that Donald Trump’s lack of empathy and character has a cost in terms of American lives.
And then the final thing is testimony and witness about Joe Biden, which she did in talking about what she knows in the personal Joe Biden. That’s what they’re trying to do all week and she did all three of those things.
KING: Yeah, it seems that even the Republicans were saying that Michelle Obama knocked it out of the park last night. But what do you make of this virtual convention? Do you think it delivered? I think it’s so hard to have these kind of events with no audience when you’re so propelled by the audience applause.
DICKERSON: You know, when we talk about this, people think, why are we so obsessed with the way it looks and the theatrics of this? Well, because what conventions do, at least in the modern age, is use the theatrics as a kind of freight train on which they put the message. And that’s to energize the base, it’s also to speak to undecided voters, and also try to put the opposition in a box. So how it comes across, matters. And I think that there are – obviously they were wrestling with that. What we will see is whether a speech like Michelle Obama’s, which was clearly the highlight of the night, gets passed around in social media and on YouTube and rest of it, and if that’s the case, then it does what a traditional convention tries to do. There are all kinds of internal things they’re trying to do, too.
You know, Bernie Sanders’s speech was a message of unity for his supporters, a kind of narrow casting there. Handing the microphone over to regular people was a nice touch in terms of trying to speak to that unity message. So there were some nice attempts to do what you would normally do in a convention, but I think the real question is, how does it live on afterwards in the social media world, to see if it really has any effect that’s long lasting?
(...)
