Norah O'Donnell lived up to her reputation on Tuesday's CBS This Morning for tossing softball questions at liberal guests while hounding conservative ones. During an interview of Obama campaign flack David Axelrod, O'Donnell wondered if "the minority vote will be bigger than it was in 2008." Charlie Rose assisted his co-host in asking, "Are we looking at a new Democratic majority - a different voter group that are coming together to be the majority in America?"
By contrast, the former NBC correspondent peppered Romney adviser Kevin Madden with questions that cast doubt on the Republican presidential candidate's chances to win. CBS political director John Dickerson also mangled polling data on minority support for Romney by asking Madden if the former governor "has trouble even breaking out of single digits with Latinos, and, certainly, with African-Americans...isn't that a problem for an incoming president - to do so poorly among minority voters?"
The morning show brought on the two campaign senior advisers for back-to-back interviews. Rose turned to Axelrod first and inquired "what it is that's most crucial today for you to win." Surprisingly, the CBS anchor interrupted the Democratic guest mid-answer with a tougher follow-up question: "But are you worried about the....one thing the Republicans keep talking about - the enthusiasm for Governor Romney as he crisscrosses the country. That's the one thing, they think, suggests a good day for them."
O'Donnell then chimed in with her slanted question about the minority vote: "David, you talk about the data being encouraging....One of the things we're looking at tonight, as we do our election coverage, is the size of the electorate - the makeup of the electorate. Do you think the minority vote will be bigger than it was in 2008?" The PBS veteran concluded the first segment with his hint at a "new Democratic majority."
The former NBC journalist then immediately led the Madden interview by sticking to her fixation on hyping Romney's supposed negatives/disadvantages, which carried into her two follow-up questions:
O'DONNELL: But Kevin, if Pennsylvania was so important, why send the governor there only in the last week? Why not make it a state that you made a play for throughout the campaign?
O'DONNELL: ...If you look at the battleground states and the early vote, the Democrats are ahead, in terms of the early vote, except in the state of Colorado, where the Republicans appear to be ahead there....Is that a problem for Governor Romney if the Democrats are doing better in the early vote?
Dickerson ended the second interview with his misleading claim about the Republican's "single-digit" support among Hispanics. In reality, Romney's support ranks in the 20 to 30 percent range in polls conducted by ABC, NBC, and Fox News.
The full transcript of the David Axelrod and Kevin Madden interviews from Tuesday's CBS This Morning can be found at MRC.org.
