Wow! How original! Hillary Clinton is taking a trip in a van to Iowa. That pretty much describes the attitude of Meet The Press host Chuck Todd in reaction to Hillary Clinton's "Scooby Doo" van. Chuck tweeted in ecstasy over supposed spontaneity of such an "original" idea, completely forgetting the brutal reality as we shall see. As a result, poor Chuck was widely mocked in reaction.
Before we go to the mocking, let us first look at Chuck Todd's happy tweet over the Scooby Doo van. An original idea...except for the last time it was trotted out in a Hillary campaign.
So hard in this new media age to do anything that looks spontaneous to political world. This Hillary road trip idea has done just that
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) April 13, 2015
Wow! How original! And chock full of spontaneity A political first! Well, except for the last time it was used in a Clinton campaign as reported by Daniel Halper in Time Magazine during Hillary's first senate campaign fifteen years ago:
They were driving around New York in an armored brown van, “which we had called the mystery machine, the Scooby Doo van, which was an interesting thing to drive and learn to manipulate,” the agent tells me in an interview. That’s because Hillary and her staff objected to the customary limo the First Lady would normally use. They complained the “optics” weren’t right for an aspiring senator who wanted to look like she was a woman of the people—and not a product of the White House.
As a result Chuck got plucked bigtime on Twitter:
@chucktodd Yet it looks so fake...and is easily mockable. SNL will have a field day with it. This kind of thing works in Hollywood film.
— Benjamin P. Glaser (@BenjaminPGlaser) April 13, 2015
@chucktodd oh puuleez... it's only day #1.. save the fawning for later
— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) April 13, 2015
@chucktodd <--- Democrat operative with a byline.
— TANSTAAFL (@TANSTAAFL23) April 13, 2015
@chucktodd This is as spontaneous as the business trip I have scheduled for the 2nd week in September.
— Gerry Daly (@GerryDales) April 13, 2015
.@chucktodd Aww, your swooning over Hillary's calculated image-creation was so adorbs, sad to see it take a reality-brick to the face.
— Patterico (@Patterico) April 14, 2015
Finally, after enduring much well-deserved mockery, poor Chuck finally had a revelation:
So it appears everything Clinton camp is doing is right out of NYSEN playbook including the van and Scooby. #rutroshaggy H/t. Everyone.
— Chuck Todd (@chucktodd) April 13, 2015
Exit question: Will Chuck Todd's painful odyssey of Scooby Doo revelation be chronicled on his Nerd Screen this Sunday on Meet The Chuck?