Tim Russert is an exceptionally good broadcast journalist. I say this with no ambiguity. However, like every one of us, sometimes you just have a bad day. Tim Russert had a bad day at the office yesterday. Regularly on a Sunday morning, political junkies all over the world, tune in to NBC to watch his “Meet the Press” program. He generally brings in elected officials and prominent political people, to answer tough questions about contemporary issues. He is quite good at what he does. Yesterday he brought in Hillary Rodham Clinton.
If someone was to ask me to use one word in summing up yesterday’s performance by Tim Russert, it would be: pusillanimous. From jump-street, he seemed ruffled by Hillary Clinton’s brashness and recalcitrance. He dropped the ball many times. In this column I will give you six areas of questioning that Russert should have asked-or followed up on- to answers HRC gave. These questions relate to just on one issue alone: the controversy swirling around her Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Barack Obama remarks. When you are through reading them, then imagine what would have happened if I had delved into other issues. Enjoy.