NP: Real Salt Lake vs. Colorado Rapids

Steve Benen still doesn't understand why Newt Gingrich keeps getting invited onto talk shows. While I'm not going to contend with the claim that it's not fair, not understanding why Newt gets airtime is either disingenuous or ignorant. Newt Gingrich is a political celebrity, and with all celebrity, that can eventually trump qualifications or relevance. At the end of the day, he's got name recognition that Jim Wright will never have. Some of that is because of his profile when he was still in Congress, and some of it is just that he has a funny name that people remember. Most of it is a combination of both.

I don't know that the GOP consciously worked at this sort of talk-show circuit marquee appeal, but they've got more of it than the Democrats. Attacking the outcome of that disparity on the basis of what left-wing pundits define as the qualifications for inclusion is a non-starter, because the operational definition is much, much different. Until Benen recognizes that -- or rises to the level of producer of a major news debate program -- he's going to be spitting in the wind.