Thursday, June 23, 2022

On The Mark

For the longest time, I always expected sharp, clever insight from Mark Shields, who died last week at the age of 85, on the PBS NewsHour on Fridays when he and one of the many partners he had - first David Gergen, then Paul Gigot, and finally David Brooks - reviewed the week in politics.  Shields, an unpretentious Irish-American columnist who had honed his skills of political analysis from having worked in the trenches of Democratic politics (he worked for Bobby Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign), was always ready with a trenchant observation and a perfect understanding of the ways of Washington.

What made Shields a perfect political analyst was his plain speaking as well as his experience with politics.  He treated people the way he wanted to be treated - with respect - and he never talked down to anyone.  A native of Massachusetts, Shields was someone who lived inside the Capital Beltway but always knew what people inside Route 128 (the freeway that goes around Boston) were thinking and feeling.  He conveyed that Middle American sensibility on both PBS and, back in the 1990s, on CNN.  If there was any decency left in Washington, it's because of Mark Shields.

Mark Shields retired in 2020 after 33 years on public television, and made his exit at the right time, going out on top.  He knew when to quit.  In 1982, he ended his talk radio show because, as he aid, he had nothing left to say.  And I'm going to stop here in waxing rhapsodic about Mark Shields, because I have nothing left to say, either. RIP.       

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