Chuck Todd (US National Archives)

Over the weekend, I watched political analyst Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Facebook live and he made a salient point. Although Hutchinson has appeared on MSNBC and FOX News Channel, he says the pundits’ views are not necessarily better than the average person.

And this brings me to Chuck Todd. Todd is considered to be one of the leading political pundits in the country. He hosts “Meet The Press,” and “MTP Daily” on MSNBC and previously served as NBC White House correspondent. So why does he make such dumb statements?

I stopped watching “Meet The Press,” several years ago when I discovered they featured a revolving cast of geriatric pundits. Apparently, they seem to think only white men are qualified to discuss politics in a country that is getting more diverse by the minute. A study by Media Matters showed that pundits on the supposedly middle-of-the-road Sunday morning shows actually skew to the right. A 2018 study, showed 48 percent of the pundits were conservative, 42 percent were moderate and only 8 percent were liberal.

The other Sunday morning political shows aren’t much better. ABC’s “This Week,” regularly features right-wing propagandist/performance artist Ann Coulter and treats her as if she’s a serious pundit. Coulter recently said ICE shouldn’t do wellness checks on children in detention centers.

However, even though I avoid the Sunday political shows, I still see the clips online. So I was stunned to read Todd’s interview with Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke. He said, “You aren’t the first candidate to say, ‘I’m going to bring this country together.’ The most recent Democratic president, a lot of people put their hope in the thought he was the answer that was going to do that. Why do you think that didn’t happen in Obama’s eight years?”

He followed that by asking O’Rourke if being a white man was a disadvantage in the Democratic presidential race.

What? A recent poll shows the two leading candidates in the Democratic primary were Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden. Last time I checked, neither of them are brothers.

Todd’s criticism of Obama is baffling. Does he have short-term memory problems? Or is he clueless about the racial politics in this country?

Firstly, Obama had eight years in the White House, and it’s going to take more than two terms to solve this country’s racial problems. The Root’s Michael Harriot also supported this in a blistering column on Todd.

Anyone with a superficial understanding of race issues in this country can see Obama’s election actually increased divisions. And it wasn’t because of anything he did, it was simply because he existed. Obama’s election inflamed many white people simply because they didn’t think a black man should be in that position.

“Lest we forget, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, 95 percent of governorships, the majority of state legislatures and almost every seat of power in America are all occupied by Caucasian buttocks. The real reason Barack Obama didn’t eliminate white supremacy in America is simple: White Supremacy is the most American thing of all,” said Harriot.

Secondly, anyone with a superficial understanding of race issues in this country can see Obama’s election actually increased divisions. And it wasn’t because of anything he did, it was simply because he existed. Obama’s election inflamed many white people simply because they didn’t think a black man should be in that position.

Obama’s election also sparked an increase in hate group memberships and the Secret Service was flooded with threats on the president’s life. And that wasn’t because of his political positions.

And once he got into the White House, Obama bent over backward trying to reach out to the GOP. His signature legislation, Obamacare, was based on a plan designed by Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts. Many people on the left-wing of the Democratic Party were not happy with Obamacare because it simply forced people to buy the same problematic private insurance. Leftists accused Obama of governing like a moderate Republican.

Additionally, Republicans gave Obama absolutely no respect or political help. The right-wing noise machine kept running birther stories. Some Republicans, like neo-fascist Sheriff Joe Arpaio still actually believe Obama wasn’t born in the United States. During his abortive Senate run, Arpaio claimed that if elected he would find out the truth about Obama’s birth certificate!

Also, on the day of the inauguration, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) held a meeting with other top Republicans where they made a pact to block any legislation Obama tried to push through. Republicans had a visceral hatred of Obama, that was seen when former Rep. Joe Louis (R-SC) shouted “You lie” during the State of the Union address. In addition, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin refused to meet Obama at the airport when he visited the state. And former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer jabbed her finger in his face when she met him at the airport. Obama was never going to win them over. You can’t heal the country when a large chunk of the nation doesn’t think you deserve to be in the White House.

However, this isn’t the first time Todd has made unreasonable statements about Democrats. He also criticized Obama for failing to reach out to Republicans in his book “The Stranger” and said Hillary Clinton was “over prepared” during one of the presidential debates.

I don’t know what Todd’s deal is. Until I researched him, I thought he was a Republican. But he actually worked on Democratic Sen. Tom Harkins’ presidential campaign in 1992.

However, until recently he had a “let’s listen to both sides” attitude towards climate change. But in January, he declared that climate change was a decided matter and banned climate change deniers from the show. He was only about 30 years late.

I suspect Todd is suffering from a problem that has befallen many mainstream journalists. By trying to avoid being called liberal, he’s beginning to sound like a conservative.