Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Grounded

The Morning Joe Rebuttal for December 22nd, 2009


Observations:


1) While the cat’s away, the show makes quick work of repaying constituents defiled during said cat’s tenure. Lawrence is emerging as the show’s defacto 2nd in command and while he knows that it would be different had Scarborough been on the air, without him a great deal of time was spent crediting Harry Reid and by implication Nancy Pelosi. It is direct contrast to how the show would have gone without the involvement of Delta Airlines.


My only hope was that MSNBC was on the small LCD screen directly in front of JS on his flight. Not to get all food fight, but it’s a great fantasy to think that Joe would have been forced to watch as the vehicle bearing his name countermanded his core principle that the character of Harry Reid should be assassinated at every turn.


2) This show proves you can expect standout work, even given the absence of its star. Credit the above theory that Lawrence is a solution to the drift that often occurs when the cast is limited to Mika and Mike Barnicle (or Pat Buchanan, or similar). There was however not a single Republican interviewed in it’s journey through an important news day, and that was a drift of another sort.


What can happen as a result of only hearing the sales pitch of the left is the building of false hope. Hope that conference will bring some meaningful change, that the rules of cloture will somehow take a holiday, or that the five holdouts on the far right of the Democratic party will start acting like Democrats. They won’t. What you’ve got now is what you’re going to get. Lawrence again is the measure of certainty, not allowing any false scenario to seem likely.


This is not at all at the expense of Mika. She had a strong go at it today leading with some biting questions and playing gritty commentary from Michael Steele to leading Democratic Senators throughout the show, while saying she actually agreed in principle to Steele’s logic despite his typically reckless manner. It might at some level seem sexist to point to Lawrence as a leader when the co-anchor is present. I can only assess by results of shows both current and past. The recent strength by Mika of holding her own in shout downs from her own partner, in returning the show from the features abyss with some of the iciest stare in the business and by showing up today in a big way is undeniable. I think the nod to Lawrence has more to do with who has the best ability to make a credible case for what happens next. While Mika is channeling outrage in a Bernie Sanders interview, who between her and Lawrence knew in advance that in it’s current state the Senate had 5 votes for single payer?


3) Ahh the airlines. It’s a snowstorm destroying the Christmas travel plans of a nation, with airlines holding a show’s own star hostage, and being slapped with new rules to prevent them from acting like plantation masters to their customers. Dollar votes mean a lot, but apparently not enough. Each of the last many years the major airlines have lost multiple billions of dollars, they have made egregious errors in their attempts to find more revenue, and have lost the message war so completely that you will not find one member of the media or political establishment not camped adversarially against them.


Southwest Airlines, and, to a lesser extent but still near, Jet Blue and Virgin America are the only airlines left domestically that deserve a red cent. The American consumer has concocted every scheme known to man to ensure no financial certainty to the negative outliers United and US Air. And close relatives Delta, American, Continental and Northwest know they are on red alert with all customers, and have policies that can only be defined in a word as alienating.


Competition can turn a once proud industry leader like United Airlines into a wounded monolith bent on eating it’s young, apparently. They still play that song in their ads, but what do you think it means to alienated consumers or former employees who’ve had their pensions voided by corporate greed. I like that other song better anyway, “Bags fly free”, by their competitor.


That’s all for today, see you tomorrow.

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