CNN's Christiane Amanpour is clearly campaigning for the reelection of the current White House resident.
In an interview with Raul Castro's daughter Mariela to be aired later on Monday, Amanpour actually asked her guest, "Do you want Obama to win the next election?" (video follows with transcribed highlights and commentary):
Amanpour appeared on Starting Point to preview her interview with Castro on CNNI.
Before a clip of the discussion was even played, the chyron at the bottom of the screen read, "CASTRO DAUGHTER SUPPORTS OBAMA: 'Seeing the candidates, I prefer Obama."
With the foreshadowing clear enough for a kindergartner to understand, host Soledad O’Brien asked, “You also talked to her about the Obamas.”
A video clip of the interview was then played with Amanpour asking, “Did you expect more from President Obama, or has he gone as far as you expected him to go on the Cuban issue? Do you think he wants to lift the embargo so that there could be proper relations between Cuba and the United States under a second Obama term?”
Talk about loaded questions. Could Amanpour have done a better job setting her guest up to campaign for the current White House resident without actually writing her answer?
Castro predictably replied, “I believe Obama is a fair man, and Obama needs greater support to be able to take this decision. If Obama counted on the full support of the American people, then we can normalize our relationships. We could have better relations than what we had under President Carter.”
Not surprisingly, Amanpour didn’t ask her guest how that worked out. Instead, it was back to campaigning for the president.
“Do you want Obama to win the next election?”
“As a citizen of the world, I would like him to win,” Castro unsurprisingly said. “Seeing the candidates, I prefer Obama.”
The clip ended there leading Obama-loving O’Brien to marvelously say, “So interesting. Do you think it has any impact at all?”
She can only hope.
With Obama campaign segments like this, maybe for the next five months CNN should change its name to ONN.
Just saying.
