I'm calling this the Day's Daffiest Question Award. Suzanne Malveaux, come on up and accept it on behalf of CNN. You asked the question, after all.
Malveaux was interviewing Mike Huckabee this afternoon and talk turned to a tough editorial a New Hampshire paper had written about Mitt Romney.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX: Saturday, New Hampshire's Concord Monitor broke with tradition. They're not endorsing someone, but they certainly took a slap at your opponent, calling him "a phony that must be stopped." Do you think that they went too far?
View video here.
Huck managed to avoid breaking out in a belly-laugh at being asked whether a paper was being too tough on his bitter rival. But he did allow himself a smile as he gave a light-hearted answer.
MIKE HUCKABEE: You know, I would never jump in and try to criticize a newspaper when they have every right to write whatever they wish . . .
Having wrapped up the award with her "do you think they went too far?" question, Malveaux tried to stir up some trouble between the two candidates.
MALVEAUX: But you don't think he's a phony, do you?
HUCKABEE: I'm not even going to get into that. He's certainly had many things to say about me. I will defend my record. But I'm not going to try to jump in on what the Concord Monitor says and I haven't read the full text; I heard about the story, haven't read it so I don't want to evaluate their article. Hey, they may want to endorse me next week, so why would I jump on them?
So Huck won't say Mitt's not a phony. Shades of Mike refusing to say whether Mormonism's a cult. And how credible is the old "I haven't read the full text" dodge? It's right here, Huck.
Meanwhile, when it comes to daffiness, it's not going to be easy to top asking a candidate whether a newspaper has gone too far in criticizing his chief political rival. But I have confidence in the liberal media. Some enterprising MSMer will outdo Suzanne before too long.
UPDATE | 12-25 6:15 PM: In a later segment with Huckabee, Malveaux managed to give her earlier question a run for its money when it comes to inanity. She asked whether Huck would be willing to conduct a state visit to Iran. Huckabee said that it wouldn't be appropriate to reward the Iranians with such a visit until we knew what they were doing in terms of nuclear development and Ahmadinejad retracted his condemnation of Israel. Retorted Malveaux: "how is that not the bunker mentality that you criticized the Bush administration for?"
