Since he died, I have heard various people talk about how he dropped out of school at a young age. Well he reeked of that.
He reeked of being the type of person making up for not having a certain credential and/or not being very smart. Typical of such people he glommed onto the orthodoxy of the day, PC liberalism, and fought like a tiger to defend it rather than to have to think.
Just like the idiots in Hollywood, he was too uneducated or too stupid to think for himself. [Actors, musicians etc at least have the excuse they were too busy learning their craft to learn or understand economics, politics etc.] He was ok in front of a camera so he adopted the orthodoxy of NYC and said in lock-step all the things you quoted. His lack of education and brain power led him to pretend to be "thoughtful" by not thinking at all and just memorizing the left orthodoxy. Unfortunately at his moment in US history, it served him far too well.
No more superficial than another liberal icon, Ed Morrow.
He reminded me of John Kerry in that way. A member of the pretentia.