Steve Roberts, the astute political analyst for ABC, (and husband of Cokie Roberts, pictured) provides for an exceptional five minutes of back and forth Washington chatter for the KGO Radio morning news every Monday.
Roberts has several DC connections and has a pretty good beat on the beltway meter and it's very apparent if you give a listen to his weekly gig on KGO, where he's interviewed by Ed Baxter and Jennifer Jones.
On Monday, asked by Baxter about how the current gas price spike could hurt the Obama Adm., Roberts said, indeed the gas price fiasco and current Libya situation, (which Obama has seemed wishy-washy on) could become a political liability in the 2012 election.
"It's the economy and 'that', said Roberts. "If the gas prices shoot up and unemployment remains high, then the 'President has a problem."
What I like most about Roberts' analysis is that he's plain-spoken. He doesn't mince words either. And while I've been a regular critic of KGO's over-embellishment of Facebook, the Roberts segment is first-rate and entertaining.
You don't have to dumb down your audience with inane social-networking minutiae. If you do a decent interview, that'll hold down any audience.
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Yep, and good to see that Cokie Roberts has a good partner.
ReplyDeleteBTW Rich, I seem to have heard Gene Burns from across the casa this past Saturday on his "Dining Around" show. He sounded great!
It is great to hear Gene! Steve and Cokie Roberts are mature,seasoned commentators on inside-the-beltway matters...but I'm not sure that it is a surprising insight..that high gas prices and curious U.S. military involvement in the middle east could affect the political fortunes of the current President.
ReplyDeleteRich, these are prepared interviews. These segments as well as the ones with Sam Donaldson and the occasional Amanpour bits with Baxter and Lee have them reading prepared questions. They are calling into other ABC radio shows as well.
ReplyDeleteThe tell is with Baxter, when winging it his questions are full of "ummms", these aren't.
I enjoyed their daughter's (forget her first name) weekly tech/science show produced at KQED-TV for a couple of years around 2000, which unfortunately went away with the dot-com bust.
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