Shame On MSNBC...

...and shame on Tim Russert and Brian Williams for their questions to Mitt Romney that appeared to be nothing but thinly-veiled attempts to say to GOP voters, "Hey, do you really want to support a wealthy Mormon guy?" 

During the second from the last segment of the Florida GOP debate, Romney was asked to disclose to Florida voters exactly how much of his own money he has contributed to his effort to win Florida.  The questioner, I believe it was Russert, even went so far as to ask Romney how he would respond to those who might accuse him of trying to "buy" Florida.  As if being wealthy is some kind of mortal sin.  Would MSNBC rather have him going hat-in-hand to some special interest group that he would later owe a favor?

If playing the class-warfare card wasn't bad enough, Brian Williams lowered himself into the muck and mire of bigotry with his eagerness to cite a poll expected out tomorrow supposedly showing that 44% of voters think Mitt Romney's Mormonism will cause him problems as a candidate.  Even though Mitt Romney has addressed his Mormonism in the past, one couldn't help but receive the impression that MSNBC believed that GOP voters needed one more reminder that Romney was a Mormon, you know, just in case they hadn't heard.  Governor Romney handled himself with a grace and dignity that far outclassed the cute but underhanded little effort by the MSNBC questioners to do what they thought might hurt his candidacy.  The Mormon question in particular was so outrageous because of what it suggests MSNBC believes about the GOP electorate. 

Update on Friday, January 25, 2008 at 04:22PM by Joe

Point of clarification -- the "Mormon" question was in fact asked by Brian Williams, but the exact text of the question was as follows: 

Governor, we’ve got an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll coming out in the morning that says, among a lot of other things, 44 percent of respondents say a Mormon president would have a difficult time uniting the country. And I know you’ve answered similar questions about what you were able to do with the Catholic vote in Massachusetts, but 44 percent nationally, writ large, is a large number.

Somewhere in between listening to the question and firing up my laptop, I misconstrued the question as being about Romney's electibility, not his governance.  That said, its a distinction without a difference, and doesn't at all change the point of my post.  The question was an attempt to remind voters that Romney was a Mormon and that people might have problems with a Mormon in the White House.

The Article VI Blog noted the question too, and after reviewing the actual poll referenced by Williams, has concluded that the question was "so completely wrong as to border on mendacious."

Comments

[james]

Excellent post. It was amazing to watch MSNBC be so obvious. I hope that most viewers caught it as well.

[beth]

Very well said. I had many of the same thoughts but wouldn't have said it so well. Their coverage was so obviously biased that it was hard to watch.

BTW - I haven't heard them ask John Edwards about buying the election or about his 29,000 sq ft home. Or about the millions that the Clintons can conjure up at a moments notice. Sheesh.

[Tom]

I have a problem with a Mormon in the White House. I'd have a problem with a Sunni moslem, an atheist, a Shia, and a Communist also.