With Hasselbeck’s absence, Caroline Rhea and Melissa Claire Egan filled in as guests co-hosts. After the "Hot Topics" segments, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper previewed the upcoming presidential election. Walters noted this observation.
BARBARA WALTERS: It’s very difficult. We don't seem to have a Republican on this panel except that nobody knows your opinion or my opinion Anderson [Cooper]. That’s the only saving-
JOY BEHAR: Maybe Melissa’s a Republican.
MELISSA CLAIRE EGAN: No!
Nobody knows their opinions? Both Walters and Cooper are apparently not doing a very good job hiding it. Barbara Walters endorsed left wing films such as Michael Moore’s "Sicko" and Al Gore’s "An Inconvenient Truth." She offered some very kind words about Venezuelan socialist dictator Hugo Chavez, hinting he would do well if he ran for president of the United States. Walters also belted out a big "hooray" for Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Anderson Cooper offered up a puff piece on John and Elizabeth Edwards, gave Jimmy Carter a forum to blast President Bush, and fretted that private funds, not the government, paid for the Center for the Intrepid for wounded soldiers.
Nobody knows their opinions? Hardly.
