Lou Dobbs is increasingly alone at CNN. While the network has been moving left, he's been moving right--or, more precisely, to the populist right.
And so The Cable Gamer reckons that "Lou Dobbs' Independent Convention," highlighting citizen grievances against a rotten system, will be a sort of last hurrah for the veteran anchorman--at least at CNN.
Although Dobbs was once known as a standard-issue blue-suited business reporter, in the last five or so he has carved out an independent profile for himself as a populist crusader for the the ordinary guy and gal. CNN tolerates him because CNN likes business-bashing--so long as it doesn't step on the toes of advertisers.
Morever, when Dobbs speaks of "broken government," well, we know that that's intended by CNN to be a reference to the federal government, and specifically, the executive branch--controlled, of course, by George W. Bush and the Republicans.
To be sure, there's plenty broken about the executive branch of he federal government, but there's also plenty broken about the other two components of the executive branch: Congress, and the Courts. And of course, while some state and local governments are pretty good, most, as we all know, are pretty lousy.
Which is to say, there's plenty of blame to go around. And Dobbs himself is willing to spread the criticism widely, but the rest of CNN has a way of channeling up that criticism, the better to pour it out all over Bush & Co.
So this Independent Convention promises to be interesting. Here's how CNN is touting it:
CNN invites you to be a part of a week of special coverage September 8 -- Lou Dobbs' Independent Convention.
We want to hear from you about the issues that matter to middle-class Americans.
Do you believe Obama and McCain have the interests of middle-class Americans at heart?
Send in your photos and videos. Show us what the middle-class is, and what it stands for. Your stories could be used on Lou Dobbs Tonight.
TCG will be watching; the topic is a good one. But methinks that if Barack Obama wins the presidency this November, thus causing MSM hearts to go pitty-pat, there won't be much tolerance for populist criticism if it could be construed as being anti-Obama, as opposed to anti-Bush.
