Posted by
Mike Bates on Friday, January 16, 2009 2:34:23 PM
On yesterday's CNN Newsroom,
anchor Kyra Phillips made no effort to curb her enthusiasm for Barack Obama.
She spoke with feminist author and Democratic activist Naomi Wolf about
a recent cover of Ms. Magazine featuring Obama in a Superman pose.
Some feminists took exception to the cover; others, like Wolf, did
not. As the segment ended, Kyra Phillips summed up as follows:
PHILLIPS: Well, if anything, I think this just
exemplifies how Barack Obama is going to be out of the box on
everything, whether it's who he decides to have speak at the
inauguration or what covers he decides to go on the front of or who he
puts into his administration. It is all going to be about going out of
the box and making people talk and bringing everybody together, whether
it's gender, race, whatever it is.
Thinking out of the box, that's Obama alright. Mr. Originality's
stacked his administration with loads of Clinton administration
retreads. In terms of magazine covers, it's doubtful that he decides
which periodicals feature him. Did he pose as Superman for Ms.? Not
likely. That would have been a step down for his messiahship.
Then there is Phillips's belief that Obama is "bringing everybody
together, whether it's gender, race, whatever it is." That's patently
unrealistic. The notion that any politician can bring everyone -
regardless of life experiences, political views, values, opinions, and
traditions - together is a liberal pipe dream. And a selective pipe
dream at that. After years of bashing President Bush and other
Republicans, it's expected that magically all Americans will suddenly,
joyously unify as one big happy family under Obama.
Earlier this week, Phillips
mentioned in an exchange with Tony Harris, another CNN Newsroom anchor,
that she's attending the inauguration on her own time:
HARRIS: Good stuff. OK. We are one week, one day out from Inauguration Day. Look at that scene.
Kyra, can you imagine Washington, D.C.?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: I'll tell you what. I mean, even though I'm not working that day.
HARRIS: Right. I know you're going to be there, right?
PHILLIPS: I am going to be there. I do not want to miss this moment
in history. That's what it is. I mean, when's the last time we remember
this kind of buzz over a president?
I'm sure that Kyra Phillips, with her starry-eyed prediction of
Obama "bringing everybody together," is more than happy to keep
amplifying the buzz.