We won't try to weave too much political-cultural significance into the spat that erupted on Morning Joe today. Just sit back and enjoy the spectacle as Joe Scarborough struggled to get in a word edgewise with Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation.
Scarborough was seeking to cite statistics showing that by a ratio of about 40:20, more Americans identify as conservatives than as liberals. That, he argued, makes it hard for Dems like Obama to govern from the left, and suggests that lefties like vanden Heuvel should cut the prez some slack.
Somehow, a certain Frank Sinatra song comes to mind. Or not. View video here.
Watch and chuckle as Joe literally throws up his hands in frustration. Things started to head downhill after vanden Heuvel argued that if Dems escape Election Day in better shape than expected, Pres. Obama would owe it to his base of African-Americans, Latinos, single-women, young people and working people, and that he should "dance with them that brung you." That down-home talk doesn't seem to fit in the mouth of someone with Katrina's patrician air. But we digress . . .
JOE SCARBOROUGH: It is so much easier to run as a conservative Republican for president. And if you look back, conservative candidates win. Moderate Republican candidates don't win. But if you're a Democrat, you've got to run as a moderate, because the numbers don't add up. Poll after poll after poll shows we're a center-right nation.
KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL: I disagree.
SCARBOROUGH: Poll after poll shows --
HEUVEL: Let me finish, because--
SCARBOROUGH: No, let me finish --
HEUVEL: Here's the deal --
SCARBOROUGH: No, no, no, no, no. No, I am not going to let you finish. I --
HEUVEL: Here's the deal --
SCARBOROUGH: I have got to give you facts and then you can respond to facts.
HEUVEL: Here's the facts.
SCARBOROUGH: No!
HEUVEL: Here's the facts.
SCARBOROUGH: Listen to numbers. Just stop.
HEUVEL: The polls show --
SCARBOROUGH: Just stop and listen to facts --
HEUVEL: The polls show --
SCARBOROUGH: [in resignation] All right.
HEUVEL: The polls show that if you poll people today --
SCARBOROUGH: [giving up] Go ahead, Katrina.
