Appearing on Wednesday's NBC Today to grade the performance of the 2016 candidates and potential candidates thus far, Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd declared that Hillary Clinton was doing all she could to contain her presidential aura: "You know, the irony here is you have a whole bunch of Republicans who are trying to look presidential. She's desperately trying to not look presidential."
Todd began the discussion by observing: "This whole idea of saying, you know, 'I'm going to be – I'm not going to be presumptuous about this. I'm going not to be inevitable,' and all these things." Co-host Matt Lauer added: "Not a foregone conclusion."
Todd wanted to give Clinton top marks for her campaign launch, but acknowledged flaws:
I thought her first day was outstanding. I thought these last two days have been, shall we say, satisfactory, for this reason – which is why I give her an overall satisfactory grade for the announcement. She's had all this time to say something, and yesterday, the first thing she says, platitudes, she had no message yet. So until we find out the why, you can't give her an outstanding grade for this.
Turning to the Republicans on Wednesday, Todd gave Florida Senator Marco Rubio a similar mixed assessment:
Look, I think he turned what could have been a lemon of a situation – Hillary Clinton overshadowing your announcement – and I thought he made lemonade out of it. I thought his speech was very good. I thought he created a contrast that was interesting, making the youthful generational contrast with Hillary Clinton, which is also a subtle contrast to Jeb Bush. So he did a two for the price of one. The one reason it's not getting an outstanding grade for the announcement and only a satisfactory, there's no follow-through this week. What did he have to do?...He went back to Washington. He's not in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Oddly, Todd only briefly mentioned the candidacies of Ted Cruz and Raul Paul, instead moving to unannounced GOP contenders Jeb Bush and Chris Christie – both of whom he gave grades of "needs improvement."
Here is a full transcript of the April 15 segment:
7:07 AM ET
MATT LAUER: Chuck Todd, moderator of Meet the Press, is here with an early campaign report card. Chuck, good morning to you.
CHUCK TODD: Good morning, sir.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Candidate Report Card; Chuck Todd on How the Hopefuls Are Holding Up]
LAUER: You're going to be giving us your grades for the people who rolled out their campaigns this week and a couple of people who haven't yet declared. Let's start with Hillary Clinton. First of all, she dodged Kristen's question on the strategy.
TODD: Big time on that, absolutely.
LAUER: But it's very clear she wants to appear differently this time around than she did in 2008. Talk about it.
TODD: Well, look, and I think her first day she certainly sent that message, right? This whole idea of saying, you know, "I'm going to be – I'm not going to be presumptuous about this. I'm going not to be inevitable," and all these things.
LAUER: Not a foregone conclusion.
TODD: Exactly. You know, the irony here is you have a whole bunch of Republicans who are trying to look presidential. She's desperately trying to not look presidential.
I'll tell you this, I thought her first day was outstanding. I thought these last two days have been, shall we say, satisfactory, for this reason – which is why I give her an overall satisfactory grade for the announcement. She's had all this time to say something, and yesterday, the first thing she says, platitudes, she had no message yet. So until we find out the why, you can't give her an outstanding grade for this.
LAUER: She declared on Sunday, the following day, slightly overshadowed by Hillary Clinton, was Marco Rubio. Big contrast, he held a huge rally, tried to get away from some of his liabilities of youth and inexperience by saying, "No, they're actually benefits for me because I'm the leader of a new generation." How's he doing?
TODD: Look, I think he turned what could have been a lemon of a situation – Hillary Clinton overshadowing your announcement – and I thought he made lemonade out of it. I thought his speech was very good. I thought he created a contrast that was interesting, making the youthful generational contrast with Hillary Clinton, which is also a subtle contrast to Jeb Bush. So he did a two for the price of one. The one reason it's not getting an outstanding grade for the announcement and only a satisfactory, there's no follow-through this week. What did he have to do?
LAUER: He went back to Washington.
TODD: He went back to Washington. He's not in Iowa and New Hampshire. If you look at Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, they were able to stretch out their announcement for a week.
LAUER: A couple of guys who appear to be running but have not yet declared. Jeb Bush made a speech yesterday, says, look, you know, he's part of a political dynasty, but he wants everyone to know he's his own man. How is his pre-campaign going?
TODD: I think financially, it's going great. He's going to raise a ton of money. I think message-wise – and particularly look at this week – this week shows you how high the hurdle is for him. You've got one dynasty candidate announcing on the Democratic side. Then you've got your protege Marco Rubio in your home state in your hometown announcing, making the case against you by making the case against Hillary Clinton. He's got a lot of work to do. I would say he needs improvement, simply to figure out how is he going to deal with the Bush question, the sort of fatigue.
LAUER: Also a lot of work to do, Chris Christie. He's up in New Hampshire right now trying to bounce back from a dip in the polls. We could see indictments to close aides of his in the Bridgegate scandal as early as this week. And yet, he's telling voters, "I'm willing to take on very difficult issues like entitlements."
TODD: Well, that's what you do when you're in a little bit of desperation mode, Hail Mary mode. Look, he's watching Jeb Bush scoop up all this New York area money. That's one problem. Second problem, conservatives don't trust him. You brought up all of the issues in New Jersey. And we didn't talk about his economic record, which frankly is shaky. I think – I understand the decision to say, "I'll be the brave guy, I'll be the tough guy." Guess what? There's never a constituency in a primary for that kind of talk. Primary voters want to fall in love. That's not a message to get you to have people fall in love with you.
LAUER: Chuck, we appreciate it. We're going to head to New Hampshire right after the show today for an exclusive interview with Governor Christie. You can catch part of that conversation tonight on Nightly News and then more tomorrow morning here on Today. Chuck, again, thank you.
