Chuck Todd’s debut as “Meet the Press” moderator yesterday brought a return of the press as a prominent component of the program.
And now the rest of the press is chiming in on Todd’s debut:
The New York Times‘ Alessandra Stanley writes about the imperfect, yet perfect Todd:
Chuck Todd was an imperfect host of “Meet the Press” on Sunday. And that’s perfect. His questions to President Obama were succinct and pointed, but Mr. Obama is not a rewarding guest in a one-on-one interview. He tends to give long, meditative and atonal answers that wear down listeners. Mr. Todd was respectful, not fawning or fake-fierce, and he challenged some of the president’s assertions.
The Washington Post‘s Manuel Roig-Franzia thinks Todd is a straight-talking “work in progress”:
“We’re living in a house as we remodel it,” he told viewers. That little admission near the top of the show encapsulated Todd’s appeal while simultaneously laying out the challenge before him. Here was a host who was going to tell it to you straight. And here was a host who knows he needs to do something — something big, big, big — to resurrect a sagging brand. If the show had been a holiday meal, Todd would have been the host apologizing for the quality of the dinner before it was served. Yes, the turkey and yams sound like the usual fare, but I didn’t have much time to prepare! Come back tomorrow and I’ll dazzle you with the leftovers!
The New Yorker‘s Amy Davidson saw more lively discussion.
“Meet the Press” has been on the air since 1947; Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan each appeared on it seven times, Obama a dozen. It trades in a sense that it’s an important thing for important people to do. Todd, too, has probably been reminded more than once that a large part of his job is theatre. And Todd is good at it, in a character-actor sort of way, which is probably the best approach; it leaves open the possibility of acting up. An actual review will have to wait for a couple of weeks when he doesn’t have the President on, and has to make something interesting out of another appearance by Lindsey Graham or Debbie Wasserman Schultz. The panel discussion was alive, though, and the let’s-get-out-of-Washington segment was better than those can be. Todd is more present than Gregory.
The Associated Press’ David Bauder examines Todd’s interview with President Obama.
Todd has talked about moving the show beyond a strictly Washington mindset, but his three questions to Obama on immigration reform and the panel discussion about it afterward all dealt with the political impact of the president’s decision to delay action and not about the substance of reform. The most illuminating part of the interview came when Obama, gently prodded by Todd, admitted weakness in dealing with the “optics” of his job after he was criticized for being pictured golfing shortly after denouncing militants for beheading American journalist James Foley.