Chuck Todd is a Zero

I don't watch "Meet the Press" because it's mind-numbingly stupid. Sometimes though, the stupidity on there reaches those of us who don't watch it. Chuck Todd had one of those moments last weekend, when Arsalan Iftikhar schooled him:

Chuck Todd used a Wall Street Journal op-ed by ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali to launch an indirect attack on Muslims albeit with much civility. She wrote the following:

If we take the position that we are dealing with a handful of murderous thugs with no connection to what they so vocally claim, then we are not answering them. We have to acknowledge that today’s Islamists are driven by a political ideology, an ideology embedded in the foundational texts of Islam. We can no longer pretend that it is possible to divorce actions from the ideals that inspire them.

Chuck Todd asked Arsalan Iftikhar to comment about Ali's oped based on the loaded snippet above. Arsalan Iftikhar was ready for that type of question. After all, the media is infected with those that have picked up the mantra of the right wing to continue an effective demonizing of Muslims.

"I would say that she is being too reductive in her reasoning," Iftikhar said. "And I think that it is important to keep in mind that when you are dealing with the second-largest religion in the entire world of 1.7 billion people, you know there is no minority demographic group today in Western societies that is placed with more collective guilt than Muslims. And I think that it is important that we do not have this double standard in terms of calling out terrorism. I think terrorism today has been co-opted to only apply when brown Muslim men commit acts of mass murder and when white Christian people like Anders Breivik in Norway kill 77 teenagers and try to bomb the prime minister of Norway's office, we didn't ask Norway's Christian leaders to come out on national TV and condemn. So I think it is a little reductive in her conflation."

I'd love to say that's the dumbest thing that Todd said lately. It's not. He went on to say stupid things about Hillary Clinton:

CHUCK TODD, MSNBC: A lot of Republicans obviously believe 2016 is going to be the best chance at the presidency in a long time, or they wouldn't be clamoring to get in.

One of the things we don't talk about this, boy this means a lot of Republicans look at Hillary Clinton and are not intimidated. This means a lot of Republicans look at Hillary Clinton and are not intimidated. I’m sorry, nobody a month ago thought Bush, Romney, and Christie could all be running in this race. The assumption was they would sort each other out. They're not, so I think they all see it as. There's not 2020, there's no waiting...

That's a cute theory, but last I looked, the stage was filled with Republicans in 2008 and 2012. It was filled in 1996 too. There wasn't a lack of Democrats in 2004, or even 1984 and 1992. I suppose no one was intimidated by Presidents Obama, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, and Bush. They were all "not intimidating." I mean, who even comes up with these stupid ideas like him? Is it him, an intern, a writer? I'm curious. There are always people willing to run for President, every four years. The stage is only ever empty in re-election years, and even then not always. Chuck Todd probably heard this from some Republican staffer and repeated it on Morning Joe.

Chuck Todd seemed like a smart enough guy when I watched him cover the 2008 election. He understood demographics, geography, and basic politics. Either we say his ceiling then, or he got lazy. Either way, the guy is a zero now.