Opinion: Ticket Replay: Clueless Anderson Cooper seeks to be Donna Brazile’s ‘boo’

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From time time in the next couple of weeks, The Ticket is republishing some of our favorite items from the last 18 dramatic political months. This one originally appeared in this space on June 5, 2008:

Ah, we must be thankful today to politics for exposing us to what is to many a new English word: ‘boo.’ Not as in scary gremlins at Halloween. But as in ‘She’s my boo’ (girlfriend) or ‘He’s my boo’ (boyfriend).

Thanks to a tip from loyal Ticket reader Brady and a tip of the hat to this site, we saw that word quickly became one of Wednesday’s most-searched items on Google News. And why do you suppose that was?

Because CNN’s Anderson Cooper didn’t know what it was either and walked right into an embarrassing expression in a back-and-forth during Tuesday night’s election coverage with Donna Brazile, a network commentator and a Democratic superdelegate, allegedly uncommitted.

She had said that Barack Obama, who had just clinched his party’s presidential nomination, had called her not to seek her support but to discuss his proposed ways of ensuring party unity for the fall election after the sometimes-bitter primary campaigns against Sen. Hillary Clinton.

Cooper was pressing Brazile on what Obama actually said. ‘He’s told everyone,’ she replied, ‘that he plans to sit down with Sen. Clinton at the right time.’

Cooper replied: ‘I’m looking for something he hasn’t told anyone else -- just you.’

‘Anderson,’ Brazile replied with cocked head, ‘you’re not my boo.’

The panel laughed. And Cooper walked right into it. ‘I wanna be your boo,’ he said, pausing as the panel broke out laughing. ‘I don’t really even know what that means.’

At that, Brazile, who was Al Gore’s presidential campaign manager in 2000, looked at her watch and asked, ‘Anderson, are we still on TV?’

‘Yes, we are, Donna Brazile.’

‘Well, I think I better watch my words.’

‘Someone can explain it to me later,’ said Cooper.

And presumably someone did.

Now, even Ticket readers know.

--Andrew Malcolm

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