RobertEmmet

By Robert Schlesinger

Claire McCaskill, the Missouri Democratic senator, and Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard exec, were Tom Brokaw’s guests on Meet the Press this morning. Brokaw closed the segment by quizzing the pair as to whether they were on their candidates’ short lists for vice president.

Brokaw pressed McCaskill on whether she was being vetted — asked to give up documents, etc.

Her reply: “I’m not going to discuss about the process because the campaign frankly has asked us not to.”

Question: Who is “us?” Is “us” surrogates or is “us” people who are being vetted? In context it sounded like “us” is those being vetted.

One other highlight and one other low-light from Sunday’s Meet the Press:

- Asked about Phil Gramm’s foot-in-mouth moment, Fiorina answered, in part, “Outside of Washington, where this is an interesting parlor game, I think most Americans are not really focused on what a bunch of surrogates are saying, they’re focused on what the candidates are saying.” So what surrogates say is not an important matter? So all the sturm and drang about Wes Clark’s comments about McCain’s being shot down not qualifying him for the presidency — was that a Washington parlor game too?

- A low-light: Brokaw pressed McCaskill about Obama’s position on Iraq, rehashing the stuff earlier in the week about how Obama might adjust his goals to the facts on the ground.

Brokaw: Obama “says he’ll listen to the commanders on the ground. He’s going there, but before he goes there, he says, ‘The day after I’m inaugurated I’ll have the Joint Chiefs in the office with instructions to get ‘em out in 16 months. So the real question is why even go if you know you want to do that in advance?”

I’m a huge Brokaw fan (not least because he blurbed White House Ghosts) but there are two problems with this question. The first problem is the underlying assumption that the military should be in charge of our Iraq strategy. Josh Marshall has been very good about pointing out the distinction — which the press seems to miss — between strategy and tactics. The president, in consultation with his national security advisers, will set the strategy (big-picture stuff) and the military should take the lead on the tactics (how we get there).

The strategy — withdraw from Iraq in an orderly and swift manner — is not affected by whether the tactics dictate that the pace is 16 months or 26 months. The fundamental point is that Obama wants out of Iraq, while McCain wants to stay long enough to “win” — and then for 100 years after that.

Of course Tom Brokaw — and most of the other press — knows all of this. Which brings me to my second point: Too much of press coverage is not asking smart questions but rather asking a campaign’s opponents questions. Presumably this is being fair and balanced.

The problem is that the questions campaigns raise about their opponents are loaded and skewed. They’re designed to bring down poll numbers, not clarify positions or bring out new information.

Just another example of the media falling down on the job, I’m afraid.