Horserace Ad Absurdum

Paul Chesser, Climate Strategies Watch

That the presidential race inhabits every nook and cranny of the mind of cable television news hosts became ridiculously clear in a Wolf Blitzer interview with Chevron Corp. CEO David O'Reilly:

Blitzer: You know you have — you and ExxonMobil, the Big Oil companies –have a huge public relations problem. In all the recent polls, when the American public is asked, who do you blame for these huge gas prices at the pump, they — more than any other single source — they blame Big Oil. They blame you. What's going on?…

Blitzer: There's other blame, but more than any other single source, they blame Big Oil….

Blitzer: Because you have had record profits, right?

O'Reilly: We're investing those record profits.

Blitzer: But billions and billions of dollars in profits, more than ever before….

Blitzer: You know that Barack Obama says if he's president, he wants a windfall profits tax. He wants to take a chunk of your profits right now and give it back to the American people. John McCain opposes that, as you know. So I assume you would like to see John McCain elected president?…

Blitzer: So, I guess, given the stark difference when it comes to Big Oil between Obama and McCain — let me rephrase the question — do you want McCain to be elected?

Talk about obsessed — and can someone please tell me how that's "rephrasing the question?!"

If you read the whole interview, CNN's iReporters show themselves to be better questioners than the Blitzer.