GQ’s Keith Olbermann announced Monday that he is “retiring from political commentary in all media venues.”
The 58-year-old leftist reassured everyone, “No illness. No scandal. No firing. Just I’ve said what I’ve had to say,” and added, “It was as obvious as I made it seem. I give my work everything I can, so it’s not like I can dial it back.”
Olbermann made the announcement that he is all out of words at the conclusion of his 147th episode of The Resistance, the online show he has been doing for GQ since September of last year.
During this particular show, Olbermann reassured his dwindling hard-left fanbase that President Trump “was finished” after he mocked Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as “Pocahontas.” Warren, of course, is infamous for claiming to be of Cherokee descent and using that false claim to advance her wealth and career.
Olbermann, who has failed at or been fired from almost every news and sports outlet on television (ESPN, MSNBC, Fox News, Current TV, NBC Sports, NBC News, Fox Sports, CNN), finally landed at GQ with an online show that had absolutely no impact whatsoever on the news cycle.
From his cheap-looking studio, the only time Olbermann made a ripple in our culture was when his ego-driven rage and clueless rhetoric sailed so far over the rainbow people could not help but stop and laugh.
With such a small and angry mind, it is not at all surprising that Olbermann has “said what I’ve had to say,” has run out of things to say.
Moreover, it has to be frustrating for him to realize just how far he has fallen. During George W. Bush’s presidency, Olbermann enjoyed a cushy primetime spot on MSNBC and was widely seen as the leader of the anti-Bush left. Today, he is just another aging has-been screaming about stuff from his basement, someone no one pays attention to until he gets too loud and obnoxious.
It is hard to imagine who will miss Olbermann. Even as he devolved into something well beyond self-parody, his self-righteously bitter rants have had a been there, done that feel for many, many years.
Olbermann is out of words and has nothing else left to say, for one simple reason: he is utterly incapable of any kind of insight. Even the left is tired of him. He has never had anything to offer other than shallow proclamations delivered by way of self-satisfied indignation, and that finally got to a point where his career collapsed entirely.
The sugar high of rage does not illuminate, fury does not make sense of things, volume is not a replacement for acumen.
Olbermann’s utterly humorless wordsmithing and delivery have always been puddle deep. He was always the guy in the break room constantly bitching about work, about the same things every single day. He was The Most Uninteresting Man In the World.
Yes, for a time and in a media world where 750,000 total viewers is enough to keep CNN on the air, Olbermann was able to find his niche, was able to hit the sweet spot of a handful of angry leftists looking for someone to express their mania. But the truth is that he ran out of things to say sometime in 2007.
And for a decade, right up until Monday night, everyone except Keith Olbermann knew that.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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