Tom Brokaw, the interim host of NBC‘s Meet the Press, and NBC analyst Chuck Todd expressed bafflement on last Sunday’s Meet the Press (10/26/08) at how Latinos had “turned on the Republican Party” and their “friend” John McCain:
TODD: I mean, this, this Hispanic–one of the things we–underreported story of the cycle is how Hispanics have just turned on the Republican Party, hurting John McCain. Frankly….
BROKAW: Who is a friend of theirs.
TODD: Who is a friend of theirs.
BROKAW: Right.
TODD: You know, this is a Shakespearean–you know, the S…
BROKAW: Right.
It’s hard to know exactly where Todd was going in identifying this as “Shakespearean”–perhaps he was likening Latinos turning on and “hurting” their “friend” McCain to the famous scene of betrayal in Julius Caesar, in which the Roman leader’s friend Marcus Brutus collaborates in Caesar’s assassination?
The analogy suggests that, even as the GOP presidential campaign sputters, McCain is now facing treachery from the very people who were his allies.
Et tu Jose and Maria?
Where would Latinos be if they didn’t have pundits like Todd and Brokaw to let them who their friends are!
Back in the real world, where issues have an impact on how people vote–it would appear that the pundits may have the story completely backwards. A new report from the Center for American Progress suggests that Latinos actually stand to lose out economically under McCain’s economic policies.
But then, pundits have rarely been known to let actual issues get in the way of their horserace storyline.
Those ungrateful so-and-sos … biting the hand that bleeds them.