Sometimes the liberals on MSNBC become so involved in their take on a story that they need a conservative guest to remind them that there’s a big world out there they never cover.
That was the case on Thursday, when the frequent Trump critics on the weekday Morning Joe program were reminded by presidential biographer Jon Meacham of an obvious truth: “It is possible ... in America to have a conversation about someone and not be about the incumbent president.”
It comes as no shock that co-host Joe Scarborough set up a question for Meacham by noting that “we knew this day was coming” since George H. W. Bush was 94 years old and the conservative biographer had spent a long time “studying” the 41st president and the rest of the Bush family.
The MSNBC anchor asked his guest if he was “surprised, and is the family surprised by the degree of the outpouring of respect and admiration that this country and the world has poured on George H. W. Bush's life and memory?”
Meacham then inserted a touch of reality by replying:
You know, this may sound saccharin, but has the virtue of being true. I don’t think surprised is the word. I think grateful is the word. You know, you’ve known him forever.
We’ve all thought about him and studied him, and I think particularly in recent years we’ve longed for a guy who would, in fact, put his -- put the overall good ahead of his own personal issues.
Remembering that Morning Joe has spent a great deal of time and effort slamming the current Republican occupant of the White House, Meacham walked back his last few words.
“And this is not about the incumbent,” he noted. “It is possible, by the way, in America to have a conversation about someone and not be about the incumbent president.”
The conservative biographer next added “just one other point on this, for people who might be getting tired of the encomiums and think it’s all maybe overboard or whatever.”
Meacham stated:
I believe as strongly as I believe anything that George H. W. Bush is as interesting for his imperfections as he is for his virtues because we learn far more from sinners than we do from saints.
[This] is a damn good thing given the relative proportion of the two in the population. And if you create these unreachable heroes, they lose the capacity to teach.
As NewsBusters also reported, CNN was so obsessed with attacking Donald Trump that six minutes and 34 seconds after the conclusion of Bush’s funeral, the cast of analysts and journalists started attacking the current GOP official.
Over on MSNBC, the analysts started the barrage early when they attempted to psychoanalyze the body language of the Presidents attending the funeral. Brian Williams uncomfortably described the current Commander in Chief as a “presence” while deriding how “there was a presence in the front row that needs to be discussed and that was the current President.”
Meanwhile, back on Morning Joe, Meacham also noted: “The great thing about biography [and] history is these kinds of moments, when you can take a look at the totality of a life.” Unfortunately, the people at MSNBC are not very likely to take Meacham’s advice to heart, but even the slightest break in the current barrage would be a welcome change for many viewers.
