Hillary Clinton and Katie Couric Need Each Other. But Not in the Way You Might Think

You might be expecting this post to be about how Katie Couric and Hillary Clinton need each other in terms of the upcoming debate in North Carolina, and how they can each bolster and support the other even simply by appearing as moderator and participant in a debate. Some might say Katie’s hard balls questions don’t often amount to much more than a balloon toss, and that her warm, compassionate presence might bring out the best in Hillary. But this post is suggesting a much more fundamental way: They need each other trans-personalitizationally.

Regardless of what may lie beneath Hillary Clinton’s public persona, she has often been criticized as coming across as cold, steely, distant, calculating, manipulative, disingenuous, and superior. And at the other end of the spectrum, Katie Couric has been criticized for taking on the seriousness and heaviness of being a nightly news anchor because she is seen as being light, fluffy, perky, giggly, sunshiny, casual, chatty and gregarious. News light. Less filling.

If there were a medical or psychological procedure that would allow each of them to trade 20% of their personality with the other, they would both achieve higher approval ratings than they have been able to reach in recent years. Katie has what Hillary is missing, and Hillary has what Katie is missing.

A 20% exchange would not be too much to make Hillary unpresidentially perky and chatty and giggly, but it WOULD give her the warm likability and subtle effortless sunshine that would help millions feel more of a connection with her. She would be able to exude much more naturally and much more often the strong but caring feminine humanness that has in rare occasions peaked out from behind her shield, always to positive result. And if Katie wants to be taken seriously as an effective lead anchor, she must both shed a portion of her own light happiness and exchange it for the gravitas and heavy steel that Hillary exudes. 20% should be enough to bring her into the ball park with her professional nemesis (ok, we’ll de-dramatize that to “compeition”) the charming, likable, funny and authoritative Brian Williams.

It’s a simple and perfect plan, with only one tiny flaw: The procedure is not quite ready for testing in humans. And fortunately or unfortunately, depending on who you are rooting for, time is quickly running out for both of them. Hillary has mere weeks to bring about some dramatic shift that few see as likely at this point. Being infused with 20% of Katie, while losing 20% of at least Hillary’s public persona, just might be enough to do the trick (Think of how the President’s poll numbers sky-rocketed after a similar change in the movie “Dave”). And it is likely only a matter of months before Katie Couric “decides” to step aside, most likely to a CBS position on 60 minutes or a custom made weekly evening show that will be a better fit for her (It’s a pity a return to morning news would be considered a failure. She had the guts to take a big risk. Why not smile, relax, and return to what you do best?).

If anyone does know how to safely conduct the 20% trans-personalitization procedure, please contact them ASAP. (And while you’re at it, I could do with a similar exchange with George Clooney, but a higher percentage would likely be needed).