A few days ago, TCG speculated that Keith Olbermann might be thinking about running for president--as a Democrat, of course. After all, KO is a lot better spoken than the last Democrat to run for the White House! More broadly, if this is the information age, it only makes sense that figures out of the information age would seek to be leaders. I mean, as John Kerry has just reminded us, a single verbal misstep can blow you out of politics; so it might make sense to draw future candidates from television, where the whole focus of the training is to do well when the camera is rolling. Remember Ronald Reagan?
But now an intriguing item about Lou Dobbs' possible run for the presidency appears under the byline of one Wallace Baine in The Santa Cruz Sentinel. Baine doesn't put forth any evidence, let alone any sort of confirmation from Dobbs, but the writer nonetheless spins an interesting scenario about Dobbs:
"But now, with a new book dramatically titled 'The War on the Middle Class,' Dobbs has turned his nightly CNN show 'Lou Dobbs Tonight' into a platform for the pet issues he believes are threatening the American way of life.
"Dobbs could emerge as just another polarizing figure on the political scene like we really need another one of those. Those who are paying attention either look at him as a fearless truth teller to government and corporate elites, or a dangerous xenophobic nationalist stoking nativist racism for ratings. Either way, Dobbs has a very seductive message. Essentially, he says that the vast middle class in America has almost no real political representation in Washington. That's sounds like a prelude to a run for office, if you ask me. [emphasis added]
Baine is on to something. Dobbs does sound more and more like Ross Perot, another figure who pretty much began his 1992 candidacy on CNN--"Larry King Live" to be exact. It's a free country, of course; Dobbs has a perfect right to run for the White House, or any other office. But so long as he is anchoring a show at CNN, he will have to be careful to stay on the proper side of the line between news-gathering and politicking. There's a big difference between making news and gathering news, and this article suggests that we, the news-consuming public, should help Dobbs stay mindful of that distinction.
