I could hardly get through this without dissolving into fits of giggles, but suffice to say that Chuck Todd et al are depressed because the campaign is so “joyless”:
“Until the candidates restore joy, it’s impossible for us to be joyful,” NBC News senior White House correspondent Chuck Todd told POLITICO. “The campaigns are trying so hard to manipulate us, to work the refs, to withhold access. If these candidates were comfortable, the campaign might be joyful to cover.”
I’m sure there’s some truth in all that. But it’s a pretty joyless time so expecting a rock show probably isn’t very realistic. It’s a shitty time in America and our politics reflect that.
But for some of them, I think it’s really just that they deeply yearn for a president who does stuff like this:
As for campaigning, perhaps President Obama could shake things up by landing in stadiums on Marine One as George W. Bush used to do. They loved that:
As music blared from stadium loudspeakers, Marine One, the presidential helicopter, carrying Bush, his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, and first lady Laura Bush, landed in left field, dusting some of the 10,000 cheering supporters with dirt from the warning track. Bush emerged to the theme of the movie Top Gun.
Update: Josh Holland’s gathered some more complaints from the press. Apparently the restaurants in Charlotte routinely put too much lemon in the bearnaise sauce.