Talk Talk: McChrystal: He'll Always Have Paris

Sunday, June 26, 2010

Talk/Talk will be off for month of July and resume in August.   Every week CUIP's president Jacqueline Salit and strategist/philosopher Fred Newman watch the political talk shows and discuss them. Here are excerpts from their dialogues compiled on Sunday, June 27, 2010 after watching selections from "PBS NewsHour, "The Charlie Rose Show," "The Chris Matthews Show" and "This Week." Newman: Everyone did what they did knowing that it would probably have these consequences. And it did have these consequences. So, it's sort of an exercise in utter predictability. Salit: I appreciate that because this whole affair does have that quality to it. On one hand, it's presented as this great drama, and it is. In American history, it is dramatic when a president relieves a general of a command in the middle of a war. It doesn't happen that often. But when it happens, it is a dramatic event. And, at the same time, as you say, this one does have a quality of everything that happened along the way seeming to be very predictable. I feel like someone's already writing a script for a Hollywood movie called "McChrystal" and they've already cast it. Maybe Bruce Willis is going to play McChrystal. Newman: Well, it might seem like a movie because it's about the military. Military movies are very popular for a reason. Salit: Which is? Newman: It's all about doing the right thing. Read Talk/Talk in its entirety here. Rolling Stone's "The Runaway General" by Michael Hastings here.