"Tim Russert Must Be Stopped"

This bit from the Stump at New Republic about Tim Russert's worthless schtick says it all:

I thought Obama held his own on "Meet the Press" yesterday, which is about the best one can hope for on that show. How we got to the point where one of the most important rituals in politics involves playing gotcha for an hour on network television is beyond me. It's a completely preposterous exercise, and Russert was closer to self-parody yesterday than I've
seen him in a while. I can't recall a single question that straight-up asked Obama to lay out his first-order thoughts on an issue, as opposed to addressing some alleged inconsistency or hypocrisy.

I heard the beginning of the interview on the radio. About the second thing out of Russert's mouth was some quote Obama gave last year where he minimized the differences between Hillary and him. "Senator, do you still believe that?" And we're off.

Tim Russert's show is a complete waste. He can have a guy like Barack Obama on for an hour long one-on-one, and you come away with almost nothing, no sense of what makes this candidate tick, nothing with which to weigh him versus other contenders. Instead you're forced to endure Russert throwing his spaghetti at his guest hoping something sticks.