Good Morning America announced that Ann Romney will be a guest host Wednesday, and her appearance says as much about media's changing face as it does about her husband's presidential campaign. In 2008, both Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain, wife of Barack Obama's then-opponent Sen. John McCain, stopped by shows like The View as co-hosts. But while the experience may seem lighthearted, Romney may have signed up for a grilling, reports the Los Angeles Times.
A time existed not that long ago when news outlets kept an arm's length from the subjects they would cover. But both "GMA" and Romney have bigger priorities today — with the morning show in a daily race to unseat NBC's "Today" as the a.m. ratings leader and Romney pushing hard to help her husband, Mitt, win the White House.
At least the show, which announced Romney's guest hosting duties Thursday, signaled that it intends to treat both sides equally when it comes to line-blurring. It hopes to find a spot to bring First Lady Michelle Obama on as a co-host too …
To wit: "The View" ladies had Cindy McCain on in April 2008 as a guest host. But as the election neared in September 2008, McCain and her husband returned as mere guests. The Republican couple got a good working over from the mostly-liberal hosts. They grilled both McCains about his running mate, then-Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, and about their multiple houses and about the separation of church and state. Co-host Joy Behar told John McCain that some of his campaign ads were "lies."
Cindy McCain said afterward that "The View" ladies "picked our bones clean."
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.