WTF, Chuck?

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Enigma4Ever at Watergate Summer comments on Chuck Todd’s clueless sounding question at the president’s prime time presser Tuesday night. She was so impressed she gave him the coveted Dumbass of the Week award. Way to go, Chuck.  It was a very bad question. If you’ve wiped it from your memory it went like this:

Todd: Some have compared this financial crisis to a war and in times of war past Presidents have called for some form of sacrifice. Some of your programs whether main street or Wall Street have actually cushioned the blow for those that were irresponsible during this economic period of prosperity, supposed prosperity that you were talking about. Why, given this new era of responsibility that you're asking for why haven't you asked for something specific that the public should be sacrificing to participate in this economic recovery?

The president answered sensibly that there was plenty of sacrifice out there in that the American people are pretty screwed right now. I’m paraphrasing there, of course. But Chuck didn’t cover himself with glory at Prime Time Presser I either. Juan Cole summed that exchange with, “What the hell?”

Question: Thank you, Mr. President. In your opening remarks, you talked about that, if your plan works the way you want it to work, it's going to increase consumer spending. But isn't consumer spending, or overspending, how we got into this mess? And if people get money back into their pockets, do you not want them saving it or paying down debt first before they start spending money into the economy?
Obama: Well, first of all, I don't think it's accurate to say that consumer spending got us into this mess. What got us into this mess initially were banks taking exorbitant, wild risks with other people's monies based on shaky assets and because of the enormous leverage, where they had $1 worth of assets and they were betting $30 on that $1, what we had was a crisis in the financial system.'

So, that’s two out of two for Mr. Todd. This is disappointing for those people who spend most of their weekday evenings watching MSNBC. Whoever (cough, cough) they might be. We they kind of thought of Chuck Todd as the home team. Plus, while he might not always have been right about everything he did always seem to be a beacon of sanity among the ensemble of personalities there. Kind of like Barney Miller was at the 12th precinct. Personally I think that both of the questions sound kind of Brokawesque. These are memes Brokaw had flogged when he was more in the spotlight. Chuck, please step away from the Brokaw, come out of the bubble and find out what regular people are dealing with. Otherwise you’re on a course for an Epic Fail and no one wants that, right?