A quick note on "On the Record."

I hate to pile on WCVB after some people took offense to my critique of their new political show last week, but they really need to find somebody with a political background to host this thing if they want it to work. I've never met Ed Harding, he seems like a nice guy and he's a fine news anchor, but if you are going to host a political show you need to know politics and be able to ask insightful questions.

There's a reason that "This Week" works - George the Greek know what he's talking about, and can get more out of guests than stock answers.  Harding and Liz Brunner (a slightly better host than Janet Wu, but without the political background and knowledge), struggled with this, particularly in the first segment.

Brunner's first question was a good one: How much of your personal fortune have you spent, and how much will you spend? However, she let Pags off the hook with a simple, "I don't even know what that number is."

No follow up from either host.  There is no way a guy with a background in accounting doesn't know exactly how much he's spent of his own money to this point, and at least a ballpark figure of what he's willing to spend.

Two other gems from the interview:

Harding: Does someone who wants to be a Senator from Massachusetts have to be a politician? Or do you not have to be a politician?  Um...what?

Brunner: Who is Steve Pagliuca?

So glad they covered those dynamic issues, but didn't press Pags on his voting record again, or ask him if he was on pace for signatures (and whether or not he was paying for them), or ask him ANYTHING about his background at Bain - how many companies bought or sold, how many jobs created or eliminated, whether or not his opponents will use it against him, etc.

I really think the region needs a show like this, I just don't know that Channel 5 has the tools to pull it off.  All their competitors (WHDH - Hiller, Fox25 - Battenfeld, WBZ - Keller, and NECN - Braude) have a political personality with the charisma and knowledge necessary for the medium.  WCVB needs to find that person (and it needs to be one person, this co-host stuff has to stop) to make this work.

Side note: Ed Harding was back with his pop quiz, and the questions were slightly more relevant for Pags than they were for Capuano: 1) Who's the commanding General in Afghanistan? 2) How many troops in Afghanistan? 3) How much has Mass received in stimulus funding? 4) What is the Federal deficit? 5) How many unemployed workers in the U.S.?

Pags answered : 1) General McChrystal - correct, 2) 55K - answer is 68K, but Harding gave him credit, 3) $7 billion - answer is $4 billion, but Harding gave him credit, 4) $12 trillion - correct, $11.9 trillion, and 5) 15 million workers - correct, 15.1 million workers.

Harding gave Pags a 5 out of 5. I think he may have been a bit generous on his rounding.