Posted on 11/09/2014 5:36:30 AM PST by relictele
Hadn't watched the McLaughlin Group in quite some time as they had lost or jettisoned some of the more interesting panelists (and no, Jay Carney wasn't one of them!).
The lineup seems to have stabilized although these poor folks are looking O-L-D...perhaps because they are. Felt bad for McLaughlin who apparently was wearing someone else's suit, so baggy was it on his frame. I'm not condemning anyone for aging or illness but it was a bit alarming.
In the days before cable news and the internet, the McLaughlin Group were one of the few doses of political candor and a place where conservatives could get a word in among the DC swamp creatures.
I still recall their 1994 Congressional predictions in which they got it horribly wrong but then so did many others thus the shock of the result.
The show aired Nov 2 but I didn't watch on the DVR until after the election and did a quick tally of predictions and accuracy.
I haven't transcribed any of their remarks except to say that despite his life membership in the Obama Fan Club, Clarence Page kept saying it could be a long night for Democrats. As you might expect, Pat Buchanan and Eleanor Clift were most strident in their analyses and choices.
Clift has always been a lost cause but there was obvious desperation bordering on panic in her voice. She is a relic of the 60s - a true believer with a simplistic, childlike belief that Dems are always good and the GOP is always bad.
What does it all prove? Not much except that the choices made and views expressed were one long parade of DC conventional wisdom. These people are ostensibly paid for their informed opinions but it was clear that they were parroting things they had heard elsewhere with the usual swamp creature focus on ad buys and polls. Issues never got a look-in.
Cynical at best and lazy at worst.
Useless.
I got news for ya, McLaughlin is 87. So yes, he’s old.
Mort is 77, Pat is 76, Eleanor is 74, Clarence Page is the youngster at 67.
Btw, those predictions are God awful. These people are supposed to be professionals for crying out loud.
You bring back old memories with this post. Eleanor Clift above all. She was the prototype screech owl of the left. I started watching them in the 70’s after relocating to the Washington area in 1973. If I recall correctly, Eleanor worked for Newsweek and her credentials for the job were that she had been secretary to Montgomery Clift’s(The actor) brother, who she married. I’m sure someone as old as I am will correct me if I’m wrong.
She is now the widow of one Tom Brazaitis (sp?) who wrote political op-eds for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. He was 100x the obtuse lefty his wife was, if that’s possible.
Never heard of that connection between Eleanor and Montgomery Clift.
It seems like a hundred years ago that we used to gather for McLaughlin and Agronsky every Saturday evening. It was 35 years ago!
This is still on?
I havent watched this since I was a teenager in 1996.
The host must be 100 by now.
My memory is not completely gone. I checked with Wiki.
Clift’s first marriage was to William Brooks Clift, Jr. (1919–1986), the brother of the actor Montgomery Clift.
She was a secretary at Newsweek.
I used to watch the McLaughlin Group decades ago because there wasn’t much else on TV. Areas where I lived only had 2 or 3 channels/networks. PBS came into being and the McLaughlin Group was one of their programs.
In later years, it seemed that McLaughlin became more left-leaning. Partly because of the times it aired and the commentators, I quit watching.
As old McG signs off each show with his trademark ‘bye bye’.
It was a bit entertaining watching him play the old, bile-filled, crumudgeon of a host. Reminded me of a boss I had years ago in both looks and demeanor.
Back before we got cable that was a must watch show we would tape. Yeah Elenore was always the broken record of the group.
It was the only thing on at one time, three libs to one conservative and McLaughlin. Crossfire was on too, beginning in 1981 or so. I remember poring over American Spectator’s and Commentary Magazine back then, just to get something besides liberal poison. Rush and the internet changed a lot of things.
I quit watching when Eleanor declared Clinton and Gore the “beefcake ticket,” and lectured us all on the Year of the Woman. That was 22 years ago. Haven’t watched that show in a very long time. She reminds me of my mother in law, and they have the same temperament and views.
Not totally useless. Back in the day I'd show my history class clips of her cheer leading for the Clinton's then have them read the “exclusive” interview with Hillary Clift did in Newsweek at the height of the cattle futures scandal.
Then the class would answer questions like why she was picked to do the interview, examples of her bias, what would a neutral reporter might have asked, etc.
Great lesson on media bias and propaganda, thanks Eleanor!
Bitter old bag.
That useless piece of party line trash Eleanor was the only one to pick runoff for Louisiana, and it was always dead-obvious that it would happen. Everyone picked Orman in Kansas, which is ridiculous. OTOH, everyone picked Cotton (heh) and Ernst.
Lawrence O’Donnell used to be on there and he would almost be spitting as he was blasting Republicans. Looked like the idiot Olberman. McLaughlin got rid of him quickly.
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