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In our second part of our two part series in honor of Barbara Walters we look back at her great partnership with 20/20 co-host the legendary Hugh Downs. It was Hugh Downs who as a host on the NBC Show "Today" pointed out Barbara Walters as a talent that needed to be given an opportunity on the air.  It was a partnership that lasted for five decades off and on, first at NBC and then for a quarter century on ABC's 20/20.

They were one of televisions great teams.  so for those of you with only vague memories of these two television icons together we present you the two of them at the top of their game in 1996. 

The campaign of 1996. was the campaign of my lifetime that featured my political hero Bob Dole challenging Bill Clinton for the Presidency of the United States. It was just six weeks out from the November election. 20/20 decided to profile them both on two Fridays during the general election.  i could think of no better example of all the things I have tried to stress as to why Barbara Walters was simply the best journalist in the business. 

It shows her fairness to one Republican and one Democrat, it shows her skill at asking tough questions in a way nobody found offensive, it showed her ability to humanize her subjects instead of playing to any caricatures the public might have had about them, and finally it shows just how well the team of Walters and Hugh Downs worked together in these two examples from the show they hosted. 

It is is a great look back at these icons of journalistic and presidential history from the most important year of my life, 1996. 

Questions or comments at , [email protected] , https://twitter.com/randal_wallace , and http://www.randalwallace.com/
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