CNN in February lost a high-level White House alumnus connection when Jay Carney, the former Obama press secretary, left his contributor gig at the 24/7 cable network for a killer job at Amazon.
Longtime Democratic strategist and talking head Paul Begala had this take on the news:
Cable news just got smarter. Uglier too. Welcome to CNN, Dan! RT @cnnadam: Welcome @danpfeiffer to @CNN! http://t.co/9DfLPpDTW3”
— Paul Begala (@PaulBegala) June 1, 2015
And, possibly, more predictable. When CNN hired Carney after his June 2014 exit from the podium in the White House briefing room, Washington bureau chief Sam Feist conceded that in the beginning, a recently departed White House aide may just toe the official line. But over time, the analysis would be come more independent. “Their positions will diverge and I’m sure you’ll see that,” said Feist at the time. Carney stayed for just six months.
We shall see whether Pfeiffer can bang out the insidery-yet-independent commentary that CNN appears to be seeking.
Pfeiffer is debuting on the Web with a piece lauding the benefits of a competitive Democratic presidential primary race. Though loaded with too many “-ly”-adverb-comma sentences (Like: “Finally, competitive primaries make better political parties.”), the piece makes a few solid points about the months to come. For example: “There is an important caveat — one that [Karl] Rove hints at in his column about the Republican side: Competitive, hard-fought primaries are good until they aren’t. There is a moment where they can go from competitive to irreparably divisive. The Obama-Clinton race came close to crossing that line a couple of times, but never did because both candidates worked hard to repair the breach.”
We’ve asked CNN for comment.