Top five best pundits

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: May 6, 2008

There are positives and negatives to listening to election results on cable news. You make tradeoffs, grudgingly accepting the presence of the annoying, insulting blabbermouths and ignoring their remarks while waiting on the smart people to get another turn.

Here are my personal top five:

Gloria Borger: Brilliant and flawless, her background as a journalist lends incredible perspective to her political analysis. I love listening to her.
James Carville: He is known as The James. What more can I say?
Donna Brazile: A former Clinton Administration official,she’s a no-nonsense, bottom-line pundit who makes no bones with her analysis. She cuts through the mess and won’t hesitate to call a fellow pundit when the you-know-what gets too deep—which is often, especially when the Worst 5 are around.
Jamal Simmons: A spokesman for Barack Obama, his unflappability is his best quality. No matter what, you can’t upset Jamal. He is an eloquent professional and the best among the presidential candidates’ emissaries.
Kirsten Powers: She’s a combination of Donna Brazile and Jamal Simmons. Intelligent, assertive and well spoken, she’s one of the best pundits the Democrats have.

Honorable mention: John King. Incoming election results and all the spin can blur the mind of even the keenest political armchair quarterback. The fog is cleared when the words are translated into pictures. Enter King and the Magic Wall. He engages the visual learners among us and delivers the news on a platform anyone can understand. That’s key during an election that has drawn record numbers of people—including plenty of political newbies—not only to the polls, but also to the intrigue of elections.

In a few minutes, the top five pundits to mute when you see their mugs.