NBC's Chuck Todd couched it in terms of how “both parties” are peddling “fear” in this year's election season -- but his formulation Tuesday night of how 2008 was “the hope election” while this one will be “the fear election” – offered a likely preview of how the MSM will try to discredit voter repudiation of liberal Democratic Obama allies when they hardly cast in a negative light the 2008 voter rejection of a third Republican term.
Todd concluded a short NBC Nightly News story:
I had one observer tell me, if 2008 was the “hope election,” 2010 may be known as the “fear election,” as both Republicans and Democrats are playing on the fears of voters about the future of the economy to try to win votes in November.
NBC's chief White House correspondent, and former political director, presented a brief look at “finger-pointing” from House Republican Leader John Boehner who urged President Obama to force his economic team to resign, followed by Vice President Joe Biden's retort about how Republicans had turned a surplus into a deficit.
Flashback. When Republicans won back the House and Senate in 1994, the late Peter Jennings reflected the media's denigration of it as a “temper tantrum” by “angry voters.” ABC World News Tonight anchor Jennings in his daily ABC Radio commentary from November 14, 1994:
Some thoughts on those angry voters. Ask parents of any two-year-old and they can tell you about those temper tantrums: the stomping feet, the rolling eyes, the screaming. It's clear that the anger controls the child and not the other way around. It's the job of the parent to teach the child to control the anger and channel it in a positive way. Imagine a nation full of uncontrolled two-year-old rage. The voters had a temper tantrum last week....Parenting and governing don't have to be dirty words: the nation can't be run by an angry two-year-old.
From the Tuesday, August 24 NBC Nightly News, transcript provided by the MRC's Brad Wilmouth:
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Pessimism about the economy boiled over in public in the political arena today, with top Republicans and Democrats trading accusations over whose fault it is. Our chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd with us from our Washington newsroom. Chuck, I'll say it with sarcasm: This is what people love about Washington, isn't it?
CHUCK TODD: Yeah, that's right. It is finger-pointing time. Look, John Boehner – he's the House Republican Leader – and he gave a big speech on what he would do if he were Speaker of the House, should Republicans get control of the House in November. And here's what he had to say about the President's economic team.
JOHN BOEHNER, HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: President Obama should ask for and accept the resignations of the remaining members of his economic team starting with Secretary Geithner and Larry Summers, the head of the National Economic Council.
TODD: Well, Vice President Biden served as the surrogate for the Obama administration, and here's what he said in response to Boehner's call.
VICE PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: They took a $237 billion operating surplus inherited from the Clinton administration, and left us with a $1.3 trillion deficit. And in the process, quadrupled the national debt, all before we literally turned on the lights in the West Wing.
TODD: Now, it doesn't take a polling expert to tell you the economy is the number one issue for pretty much every American out there. I had one observer tell me, if 2008 was the "hope election," 2010 may be known as the "fear election," as both Republicans and Democrats are playing on the fears of voters about the future of the economy to try to win votes in November, Brian.
