Press the Meet

If the candidate you like does something like this...

[transcript taken from Meet the Press]

MR. RUSSERT: ...said this, "To call that dream a fairy tale, which [xxxxxx] seemed to be doing, could very well be insulting to some of us."

POLITICO: Tim, let me--let me just stop you right there.

MR. RUSSERT: But, no...

POLITICO: No, wait a minute.

MR. RUSSERT: No, I didn't stop you. Let me just go through...

POLITICO: No, but you did not give the entire quote and so...

MR. RUSSERT: No, but you...

POLITICO: The entire quote was clearly about the position on Iraq.

MR. RUSSERT: But I'm...

POLITICO: It was not about the entire candidacy. It was not about the extraordinary, you know, abilities.

And again later...

POLITICO: But let's look at the--let's look at the...

MR. RUSSERT: But...

POLITICO: Wait a minute, let me finish.

MR. RUSSERT: It's, it's import...

POLITICO: Let's look at the entire context.

MR. RUSSERT: Well, let's just...

POLITICO: Because by 2004, Tim, by the summer of 2004...

...and so on. I can interrupt, but I can't be interrupted.

I take that as a bad sign. Why not let Tim finish? It makes me start to think that Tim is right about something and he's about to make you look bad with it. If he's not right, or you have a perfectly valid explanation, then be confident, let him finish, and then dismantle his argument.

Don't try to steamroll. It doesn't make you look like a listener.