On Wednesday's The Last Word on MSNBC, MSNBC.com executive editor Richard Wolffe joined host Lawrence O'Donnell in exonerating President Obama from blame for the recent wave of health insurance policy cancellations, with Wolffe going so far as to dismiss inexpensive insurance policies which presumably are focused on covering expensive, catastrophic health care as being "bad policies" not worthy of existence in spite of the fact that consumers were choosing to purchase them. Wolffe: I mean, it's an astonishing idea that somehow these bad policies, and I covered the insurance industry for many years, insurance [companies] sell cheap policies because they... continue reading
While NBC political director Chuck Todd appeared on Thursday's Today to report on President Obama's approval rating hitting a "record low" in the latest NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll following the failed ObamaCare rollout, he made sure to wrap up the segment by touting disaster for the GOP: "Things are so bad for them....Once again in our poll, the Republican Party had a new low in their personal rating, their brand rating. They had another low in their approval rating on Capitol Hill....As bad as things are for the President, they're still worse for the Republicans." [ Listen to... continue reading
ABC and NBC journalists on Wednesday and Thursday hailed Kathleen Sebelius as "falling on her sword" and "taking responsibility" for the ObamaCare website debacle. On World News , reporter Jim Avila complained about the Sebelius grilling as a "rude grandstand" and a "three hour circus of a congressional hearing." He dismissed it as "official finger pointing day on Capitol Hill." Yet, on Thursday, Avila sympathized with the Democratic Health and Human Services secretary, praising, "...The woman in charge of the Affordable Care Act fell on her sword with her first full-throated apology." The Obama official "was reluctant to pass the... continue reading
CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta – who was once considered for President Obama's surgeon general – gave cover to President Obama Wednesday in explaining his broken promise that Americans could keep their insurance. "It hasn't been explained very well," Gupta said of millions who will be dropped from their health plans and who must buy insurance in the ObamaCare marketplaces. He also failed to note that Obama made his promise after the health care bill was signed into law, even though its provisions would force insurance companies to drop many health plans. [Video below the break. Audio here .] "Well, the... continue reading
On Tuesday's PoliticsNation on MSNBC, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank joined host Al Sharpton in lambasting Republican Senators Mitch McConnell and Tom Coburn for attending a fund-raiser in New York City the day before the first anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. Sharpton griped: One year later, how's this for shame? Senators Mitch McConnell and Tom Coburn both opposed Sandy relief. So where were they last night on the eve of the Sandy anniversary? They were fund-raising, raising money in the New York area. Amazing. Senator McConnell was at a Greenwich, Connecticut, beach club, a building that flooded during Sandy. And Senator... continue reading
Besides facing a "credibility death spiral" on the issue of ObamaCare, as political director John Dickerson recently put it , Sharyl Attkisson pointed out on Tuesday's CBS Evening News that the very structure of the so-called reform could encounter a separate "death spiral" due to the " enrollment fiasco " surrounding HealthCare.gov. Attkisson cited unnamed health care analysts, who predicted a doomsday scenario for President's Obama's supposed signature achievement: [MP3 audio available here ; video below ] SHARYL ATTKISSON: The 23 small co-ops across the country that are part of Affordable Care are intended to provide competition. As they adjust... continue reading
While discussing the numerous ObamaCare failures on Wednesday's NBC Today , chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd felt it necessary to gratuitously bash Republicans: "And suddenly you have the picture of two parties, a Democratic Party led by the President that apparently doesn't know how to govern, has a competency issue when it comes to this health care website, juxtaposed next to a Republican Party who apparently has no interest in governing." [ Listen to the audio ] Todd didn't bother to explain or justify his slam on the GOP, he simply stated it as if it were a fact... continue reading
Apparently, a lot of conservatives remind Chris Matthews of the scarred and burned child murderer from the Nightmare on Elm Street films. On Tuesday, the Hardball anchor linked Republican Ted Cruz to the cinematic killer. He opened the program by spewing, " Is Ted Cruz the Republican Freddy Krueger? " [MP3 audio here .] According to Matthews, the Texas senator is a "grotesquerie that now presents itself as the righteous right arm of the Republican Party." Using Halloween imagery, the host attributed all of the GOP's woes to Cruz, slamming him as "this frightening Freddy Krueger that threatens this country... continue reading
John Dickerson didn't mince words about the "bad launch" of ObamaCare in his Tuesday item for Slate.com. The CBS News political director invoked one of deceased tyrant Kim Jong il's most infamous saber-rattling tactics: " Healthcare.gov launched with the fanfare and success of a North Korean missile ." Dickerson also rephrased his recent contention that "the administration could get into, sort of, a credibility death spiral " on the issue of ObamaCare. He stated that "when the website doesn't work and the promises of 2009 and 2010 are revised, questions of credibility infect everything the administration says. This can lead... continue reading
On Tuesday’s Charlie Rose show, former Vice President Dick Cheney came on to promote his new book about surviving heart disease and was treated to a nasty swipe from the host about his Iraq war decision making. When Cheney told the PBS host and co-anchor of CBS’s This Morning that he had wished he had gotten his heart transplant done sooner, Rose took a swing, meant as a joke: “Might you have seen Iraq differently if we had more oxygen to your brain?” Cheney laughed off the cheap shot. The following exchange was aired on the October 29 edition of... continue reading