“I’m going to dissent from the ‘it was fine’ judgment that I’ve seen around the web and heard on this podcast — and rendered after her convention speech myself — and say that this was a catastrophe,” said Cooke.

“That was the best she could do.”

As Cooke pointed out, “All of the advantages that were conferred upon her by Dana Bash’s easy questioning, by the editing, by the combination of interview and infomercial that they put together, yielded that. The word salad you just mentioned was the first clip CNN released, the highlight. . . . That. That was the best that she could do.”