Opinion: Should Scott Brown run for Miss Teen USA 2007?
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Zoinks! That was fast.
For someone who campaigned as an outsider, Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown sure sounded like an established Washingtonian insider on Sunday.
Appearing on his first-ever ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday morning, Brown did what politicians do: not answer the question.
And he was good at it. Robert Gibbs good. Well, at least when the tea party came up.
Brown, as you recall, chose not to attend a tea party rally in his....
...home state earlier this week. That led to some grumbles, but he was largely spared from too much criticism as the Senate was in session.
But you gotta ask him about the no-show. And Bob Schieffer did.
This is where the newly minted senator displayed some impressive moonwalking skills.
‘What is your relationship to the tea party?’ Schieffer asked. ‘Do you consider yourself a tea partier, as it were?’
Instead of answering either, Brown blabbed about what he thought a tea party member was before identifying them as ‘Democrats, Republicans, independents, young, old, happy, sad, rich, poor.’
And then he mentioned he was grateful for getting elected.
When asked if he would have gone to the rally if the Senate was not in session, Brown said he had ‘been to rallies before.’
And then, of course, adding in the default ‘great respect’ line. Most politicians do this when speaking of another politician -- whether they have great respect for that politician or not.
‘I have great respect for Sarah [Palin] and what she’s doing,’ the robot inside Brown said, not answering the question.
Brown saved the best for last. Schieffer asked him if he agreed with a CBS News poll that showed most people identified with the tea party movement believe the president was pushing the country toward socialism.
Get Brown’s meandering response:
Well, I know that the president should start to focus on jobs and job creation, and that hasn’t been done. Since I’ve been here, we’ve done healthcare, which they obviously rammed through by using a parliamentary procedure that has never been used for something this big, ever. And then the bill, as we’re finding out, is flawed, seriously flawed. It’s going to cost medical device companies in my state, you know, thousands of jobs. But then we’re taking -- we’re talking now about regulation reform. We’re politicizing that. Maybe -- I’ve heard illegal immigration is going to come forth. When we were in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only thing they talked about, from the presidents all the way down to the poorest farmer, were jobs. Since I’ve been here, I’ve heard zero talk about jobs. So I’ll leave that up to the political pundits, but I know, from what I’ve seen, that we need to focus on jobs. And the president has just got to do so.
Wow. It might be a stretch to say he could have put on a tiara at this point and run for Miss Teen USA 2007. But his response and Miss South Carolina’s timeless answer have some similarities.
Remember? She was asked her thoughts on a poll showing that a fifth of Americans couldn’t locate the U.S. on a world map.
Her meandering response?
I personally believe, that U.S. Americans are unable to do so, because uh, some, people out there, in our nation don’t have maps. And uh … I believe that our education like such as in South Africa, and the Iraq, everywhere like such as … And, I believe they should uh, our education over here, in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa, and should help the Iraq and Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us.
Fair comparison? Well, neither of them answered the question. Although only poor Miss South Carolina really tried to. Brown just didn’t want to. Watch the videos and decide for yourself. (Brown starts not answering the Tea Party questions about halfway through).
Watch CBS News Videos Online -- Jimmy Orr
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