For the second day in a row, ABC's The View on Tuesday featured a conservative female as a guest host. But Barbara Walters and the other co-anchors largely avoided politics as they welcomed Mary Katharine Ham. The Hot Air editor talked about her right-leaning views for a total of one minute. Then, the show shifted to the "hot topics" segments, including a discussion of the TV show The Bachelor, dieting and the drug addiction of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
During her brief window to discuss politics, Ham explained that she grew up in the "very liberal" Durham, North Carolina. She noted, "I went to public schools. Majority, minority districts and I had very up close experience with social programs and how they were working and who they were failing." Ham described her philosophy this way: "Look, when things get bigger, they get ineffective. When they get bigger, you can bully people easier." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]
On Monday, conservative radio host Dana Loesch appeared as a guest host and the show largely followed the same pattern. She talked about political evolution briefly and then the show shifted to less consequential "hot topics."
Is the point is to find a right-wing replacement for the departed Elisabeth Hasselbeck? (Otherwise, why the sudden addition of back-to-back conservative hosts?) If so, wouldn't it make sense to have more political talk?
The View's Facebook and Twitter page, despite being updated often, didn't mention Ham's appearance on Tuesday.
On Monday, the conservative Loesch appeared and explained how she transformed from a liberal to a conservative.
DANA LOESCH: Fiscal responsibility, like I started realizing the importance of people should be good stewards to their fellow man - and really big government is the - it's the problem of what happens when people just forget they should be kind and they should help people and they should voluntarily do it.
A brief transcript from Tuesday's The View can be found below:
BARBARA WALTERS: We're very happy to have you on. We know you're conservative. We like to have that voice on the show.
SHERRI SHEPHERD: So, did you start out liberal and then change?
HAM: I wouldn't say that. I didn't realize I was becoming conservative because I think I did pretty young. I went to public schools. Majority, minority districts and I had very up close experience with social programs and how they were working and who they were failing. Public schools, how they were working and who they were failing. And I said, "maybe I can evaluate how to make things better." And that really was the beginning of what I decided. And looking into the future, I said, "Look, when things get bigger, they get ineffective. When they get bigger, you can bully people easier. When they get more complex, people have trouble fighting the system.
JENNY MCCARTHY: Now, you just had a baby. Have your views changed or strengthened in any areas?
HAM: I would say, they might have been cemented so early that it didn't.
