Moments after President Obama made his briefing room statement about race and Trayvon Martin, CNN’s BREAKING NEWS graphic swirled, faded, and cut to anchor Brooke Baldwin, who was visibly flushed with excitement. Brooke announced, “Wow, what a surprise we have all witnessed, if you have been tuned in the last half-hour, we were watching THE President surprise everyone…”
She went on to describe Obama’s statement as “very, very personal; very heartfelt.” Baldwin then assured her audience that Obama had “not used a teleprompter,” because he had “given much thought and much time to making this message VERY personal.”
The CNN anchor then went to a video clip saying, “But FIRST, here’s the president, making this personal.”
Apparently, Baldwin thought Obama’s statement was personal.
After the clip, Breathless Brooke returned with her panel: Candy Crowley, Sonny Hostin, Jessica Yellin, and Gloria Borger.
After another “Wow!”, Baldwin (who looked like she might have been trembling) turned things over to Chief White House Correspondent, Yellin.
If you hadn’t known what she was talking about, based solely on Yellin’s awe-inspired melodramatic rhetoric, you would think that something had happened on the level of the first man walking on the moon. Barely able to contain herself, Yellin described Obama’s statement as something “as personal and as bluntly as I have ever heard him speak about racism in America and his own experience of racism in his life.”
Yellin later added that this was “an important moment for this president, and an important moment for America.”
After again reminding us of how “incredibly personal” Obama was, Baldwin then turned things over to Candy Crowley.
As excited as the rest, Crowley jumped right in to tell us that Obama is a “thoughtful guy” and the “sort of person who thinks these things through.”
Crowley obviously missed Obama’s “acted stupid” racial debacle.
Crowley closed her comment by pointing out that Obama has just “elevated the discussion.”
Sonny Hostin, the only legal analyst in the country who was shocked by the Zimmerman verdict, was left a little speechless due to the “so many thoughts she had running through her mind. After mentioning that she was the mother of a “young, brown boy,” she then put those thoughts together and used Obama’s words to trash our country and judicial system as racist.
Finally, it was political analyst Gloria Borger’s turn, and she started out with some hysterical nonsense about how Obama didn’t want this conversation to be about him — even though this is the second time he has chosen to interject both himself and his race into a local crime that had nothing to with him or racism. Borger found this, “stunning.”
Borger than narrowed her eyes and talked about how Obama came to the podium as an “African-American male and reflected soberly about some important issues we have to discuss in this country.” Borger was in awe over how Obama “distilled ” all of these complicated issues one statement.
My favorite part of the discussion, though, was Borger’s non sequitar. Baldwin had a good moment when she said that she wanted to make clear that the “Stand your Ground” law had nothing to do with Zimmerman’s defense.
Borger then jumped in to say, “But it is the law in thirty states.”
Huh?
Bottom line: For almost fifteen minutes it was hard to tell if you were watching a cable news network, or a slumber party-cam with five breathless Beliebers after a Justin Bieber concert.
The gushing was as non-stop as the criticism and intelligent insight was non-existent.
Throughout the segment, Obama was constantly referred to as an “African-American.”
Like George Zimmerman, Obama has one white parent.
CNN, however, only refers to Zimmerman as a “white Hispanic.”
UPDATE: 90 minutes later, CNN is still at it.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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