Charlie Rose boosted a jaw-dropping line from Politico's Roger Simon on Friday's CBS This Morning, which concluded that the Republican presidential debates were hurting the party's chances at defeating President Obama: "It is said that in Chicago, where they are running the Obama campaign, that they're so giddy that they want to run naked in Millennium Park" [audio available here [1]].
Simon's actual sentence in his Thursday piece was more graphic:
These debates are making the Obama staffers in Chicago so giddy that after each one they are tearing off their clothes, running through Millennium Park and howling at the moon. And why shouldn't they? The American people, after being treated to hour upon hour of Republican candidates...are slowly discovering something: Barack Obama doesn't look that bad any more.
The CBS anchor made his paraphrase of the Politico writer's line in a remark to correspondent Norah O'Donnell. The head-turning remark from Rose prompted co-anchor Gayle King to laugh off-camera and reply, "That's a visual." O'Donnell also laughed, and stated that "they don't want to interfere with these debates. They think the more the American people watch these debates, they get a better understanding of their opponents, the Republicans. This president is trying to stay above the fray at this point."
Rose has certainly revealed his liberal leanings since he began his stint on the new CBS morning show. The previous morning, he took issue with Florida Senator Marco Rubio [2] for attacking the President's State of the Union address. The journalist replied, "I saw him honoring the military of America and a lot other things where we should be coming together. That doesn't seem to be divisive."
On January 17, the anchor threw the race card at Newt Gingrich [3], hinting that the former House Speaker should apologize for a supposedly insensitive comment about food stamps. Two days later, Rose trumpeted a line from the front page of the New York Times [4] about "Romney riches...being seen as new hurdle."
The transcript of the relevant portion of the segment on Friday's CBS This Morning, which began at the top of the 8 am Eastern hour:
CHARLIE ROSE: Norah, it is said that in Chicago, where they are running the Obama campaign, that they're so giddy that they want to run naked in Millennium Park-
GAYLE KING (off-camera): (laughs) That's a visual, that's a visual-
NORAH O'DONNELL: (laughs) Yeah-
ROSE: I think Roger Simon said that or some- (laughs)
O'DONNELL: They don't want to interfere- yeah, they don't want to interfere with these debates. They think the more the American people watch these debates, they get a better understanding of their opponents, the Republicans. This president is trying to stay above the fray at this point.