just sayin'

He apologized immediately and profusely.

And then there's that guy at Fox News (I forget which anchor) who botched the report about the bin Laden raid. And there are others. See below.

But yeah, time to retire already.

I caught it. He said "Obama", then after a pause said "Osama Bin Laden"

I admit I've done this too, even accidentally calling Obama Osama once or twice in the heat of debate. Unfortunate coincidence.

Good thing our president is named Adolph Whitler.

for a 75-year-old.

I see this all the time on DU -- putting down Jim Lehrer because of his age, doing the same to Bob Schieffer multiple times on this thread. There is no virtue in being born one year over another, and moreover wisdom is variable, whatever the date on the brain.

It is all those decades of being a doormat for Washington politicians that made him so spectacularly bad in this role.

Martha Raddatz and Candy Crowley were able to manage OK. We need more moderators like them in the future.

Whatever "wisdom" Schieffer has is hopelessly conventional and it isn't aging well.

"He did a mostly good job for a ___________."

Fill in the blank with the group of your choice, identifiable by gender, ethnicity, etc., and tell me if that sounds thoughtful and unbiased. If it doesn't to you, then consider how it sounds when you judge the person based on age.

His questions were lame. He lost control of the discussion in the first 5 minutes. He failed to press either candidate for clarity. He did nothing to keep them on track with a foreign policy discussion, and he let Romney filibuster several times.

I didn't think it would be possible for him to be as inept as Jim Lehrer, but he did it.

Let's hear it for the ladies. They did a great job. Old white men, time to step aside.

Archie is to meet SDJ and Edith implores him that, whatever he does, he shouldn't mention Davis' false eye. Over and over he tells himself not to mention the eye. Of course practicaly the first thing he says, when offering him coffee, is "Do you take anything in your eye?"

How many newspeople fear that the unusual nature of the two names and their similarity will trip them up, and it can easily reveal itself through just such a gaffe. I cut him major slack.

(Btw it may not be coincidental that race-influenced nervousness is at play in both situations. I don't think Schieffer is a racist but like all of us he knows there's sensitivity there and it just adds to the stress level.)