Hewitt Peels A Brokaw

RADIO TALK-SHOW host Hugh Hewitt is a master of the interview. His particular skill is painting a picture of a subject’s political views when the subject refuses to be categorized.

No, they say, in answer to the question about voting for Reagan or Bush. I don’t tell who I voted for. So Hewitt spends the next 30 minutes—or 60 minutes—painting an exact picture of the subject’s world view. Just so his listeners will know.

Last week Hugh Hewitt interviewed Tom Brokaw on his book Boom! Voices of the Sixties. For Hewitt, the book was predominantly about the Left Sixties, and it left out the story of the Un-sixties Sixties. But Tom Brokaw wan’t about to admit that.

No, the fact that the subjects in the book were 55-12 left of center to right of center didn’t mean anything. Anyway, Hewitt was stereotyping people.

Eventually, Hewitt asked about Richard Daley, mayor of Chicago.

HH: Right. One of the best portraits in here, because I think it’s so jarring given who he is and what he believes, is Richard Daley, current mayor of Chicago. He’s a Boomer, his son’s in the military, his dad was at ’68, and he’s frustrated with environmentalists, because they won’t let him update his airport.

TB: Right.

HH: It’s a fascinating portrait…

TB: And does he come down on the left of center?

HH: He’s left of center. Sure he is. He’s a Democrat activist…

TB: He’s a centrist. He’s a centrist. The way he runs Chicago is as a centrist.

HH: Well, of course the way he runs Chicago. But the way he’ll get Hillary the votes that she needs to win Illinois is nothing got to do with the center, is it?

You can’t do it any better than that. Sure, Dick Daley in Chicago governs as far to the right as he can. Why wouldn’t he? He wants Chicago to prosper. But when it comes to practical politics he’s a Democrat and that means electing whatever the Democrats nominate.

When you carry water for the left that means you belong on the left. Nothing wrong with that. It’s just nice to get it out in the open and not pretend.

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Christopher Chantrill blogs at www.roadtothemiddleclass.com. His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

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