Dr. Phil . . .

Ralph Luker bring's up Derek Catsam's incisive comments on Dr. Phil in a post below. Derek was clearly ahead of the curve on this matter: Michelle Cottle, in a recent New Republic, terms Phil the"bad doctor," and sums up his approach to self-help as telling people to do what he says.

The best Dr. Phil articles, however, I have read--as well as the most amusing pieces of any sort written on the 2004 campaign--came from the always witty TV editor of the Washington Post, Lisa de Moraes. In a two-part series, she analyzed apparances by first George and Laura Bush and then John and Teresa Heinz Kerry to appear on Dr. Phil's program (with Dr. Phil's wife present, to provide balance). In what was a less-than-edifying campaign, these appearances were nonetheless a very low point.

DeMoraes' best line:

"Daytime talk show hosts live in an alternate universe in which everything revolves around them. How else can you explain the decision of Phil McGraw, aka 'Dr. Phil,' to begin his interview with the president of the United States, leader of the free world (which, come to think of it, maybe isn't so big considering how much of it isn't speaking to us), in the following manner:

"'Thanks so much for having us in to your beautiful home. I'm really committed to putting family back in America. I think that's what you have put in the White House. I think it's what we need to put back in America and I'm devoting so much of my third season to 'family first,' what I call 'family first,' and putting it back together. In preparation for a book that I've done, I've conducted a survey of 20,000 parents and asked them all the questions I could about parenting. I was shocked at one thing: Forty percent of them said, 'If I knew then what I know now, I probably wouldn't have started a family.'"

"So how does the president of the United States respond to an opening 'question' like that?

"'Shocking.'

"Bush did not elaborate as to whether 'shocking' was a reference to the fact that so many parents wished they'd used birth control, or reaction to a TV talk show hack using the president of the United States as a prop while delivering a big fat plug for his syndicated television show and upcoming book."