OIbermann Vs. Swann: Battle Of The Intellects

Leitch|published: Thu 12th January, 12:00 2006

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We'll confess a slight affection for Keith Olbermann, though we sometimes think this conversation happens in his head every day:

Keith: It's very difficult to be the smartest person in this room right now. Keith's Other Voice: I know. It is our curse

But we very much enjoyed this clip from "The Dan Patrick Show," where Olbermann surprises gubernatorial "candidate" Lynn Swann with some, you know, actual questions. A reader sums it up for us.

Around 2:20 p.m. ET last Friday, Patrick introduces Swann on the show. Patrick said (in a humorous tone) that, in light of the Swann's prior work with ABC and Disney, he was going to have OIbermann ask Swann questions. Swann seemed to think that this was going to be lightweight question theater (he joked to Patrick that he didn't know he'd changed to a news show). Olbermann's first question was on the current dispute between McCain/Warner/Graham and the Bush administration on the administration appearing to disregard an act of Congress: What did Swann think about the split within the Republican party, and which side was he on? Swann spouted a non-answer and ended the answer with the statement that it wasn't a state issue, so it didn't really matter to the Swann campaign.

Olbermann, in one of the sweetest comebacks I've heard in a long time, responded that if Swann wanted a state question, he had one: Senator Rick Santorum is talking smack about going after federal funding for New Jersey if they won't agree to dredge the Delaware River. What does Swann think about that? Swann was silent for four beats, then said that he had been on a bus, and he hadn't seen the papers (even though it's been a contentious issue for close to a month), and he really didn't know anything about the issue Olbermann was talking about. Olbermann, very quietly and with as much polite snark as he could possibly get away with, suggested that Swann may want to make a note of that one, and threw it back to Patrick with the question, "Are you glad you wanted to do that now?"

To be fair, political questions are really hard.

You're Doing A Heckuva Job, Swanny [Deadspin]