Now that a Republican wave in the midterm elections has resulted in a GOP Senate, big gains in the House and shocking wins in governors races across the country, it's important to look back on the breathtakingly inaccurate predictions made by liberal journalists about candidates like Wendy Davis, Scott Walker and others. Abortion advocate Davis lost by 20 points in Texas, securing just 39 percent of the vote. Yet, on July 1, 2013, after the Democrat's fillibuster in the state senate, CNN's Miguel Marquez hyped, "A Democrat in the governor's mansion here? Unthinkable a week ago; a ‘maybe' today." On... continue reading
On Wednesday's CBS This Morning , co-host Norah O'Donnell fretted that the newly elected Republican Congress would dare to pass legislation: "If you look at a number of these new senators, they're quite conservative. Why wouldn't they go along with what Rand Paul has said? They're gonna send bills up to the President, as he told Charlie Rose last night, 'We're going to keep sending bills up to the President and we'll see whether the President wants to work with us or not.' Is the President going to be forced to veto a bunch of bills?" In response, political director... continue reading
MSNBC and CNN zeroed in on the supposed radical right-wing views of Senator-elect Joni Ernst during their live election night coverage. Just after 2 am Eastern on Wednesday, MSNBC's Luke Russert played up how Ernst was " able to have these rather extreme Tea Party views; and then, moderate them closer to the election ." Just over two hours earlier, CNN's Dana Bash gave the Iowa Republican a similar label, and made a prediction about her political future: [MP3 audio available here ; video below ] DANA BASH: I can tell you that somebody like Joni Ernst – yes, in... continue reading
Tom Brokaw, former anchor of NBC Nightly News , had a busy midterm election night as he appeared on both NBC and PBS’s midterm coverage programming. During Brokaw’s appearances on the two networks, he repeatedly minimized the significance of the GOP’s electoral victory. During his appearance on the PBS program Charlie Rose , Brokaw disgustingly claimed that talk radio hosts insist “Obama's voters are people who live in excrement. That was his phrase. And they expect us to lift them out of excrement.” The former NBC anchor began his rant by complaining that Obama “gets hammered 24/7 by Fox News... continue reading
During CBS News’ midterm coverage in prime time on Tuesday night, Face the Nation moderator Bob Schieffer repeatedly dismissed the significance of the GOP’s electoral victory and peddled liberal talking points to explain away the midterm results. Speaking to CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley, Schieffer began the network’s election coverage by declaring that “the mood is nasty” in America and “the mood is exactly what we've been talking about all week. It's now being reflected in the exit polls. People don't like the way things are going.” The CBS host continued to minimize the GOP’s midterm victory by insisting... continue reading
Following the big Republican wave in Tuesday's midterm election, on Wednesday, Today co-host Matt Lauer immediately demanded that the new GOP-controlled Congress capitulate to President Obama: "Republicans have control of the House and Senate for the first time in eight years....In January, voters are gonna say,'What are you going to do with the power?' Opposing the President's policy is not a policy. Specifically, what can Republicans do with this power?" Lauer directed that question to New Jersey Governor and Republican Governor's Association head Chris Christie. In part, Christie replied: "People want to get things done. That's why Republican governors were... continue reading
Despite the Republican Party taking control of both houses of Congress as well as winning additional governors mansions, ABC’s Good Morning America made sure to throw some cold water on the GOP victory. On Wednesday morning, co-host George Stephanopoulos and ABC News Political Analyst Matthew Dowd pushed the line that despite the GOP's midterm victory “the Republican brand is still very damaged.” After the entire GMA panel agreed that the GOP experienced a “tidal wave” win last night, co-host George Stephanopoulos wondered “coming into the night, the Republican brand was as damaged as the Democrats, how do they do coming... continue reading
Early Wednesday morning, liberal CNN political commentator Cornell Belcher groaned during CNN’s midterms elections coverage that the Democratic Party’s top campaigner in President Barack Obama was unable to defend attacks against his record and help Democrats on the campaign trailer because he “was basically locked away in the White House.” During a panel discussion about how the election results panned out and how it all went wrong for the Democrats, Belcher followed fellow CNN commentator and former Obama adviser Stephanie Cutter and complained: "One of the things that's been difficult I know for the White House is quite frankly that... continue reading
Appearing on MSNBC, Tuesday night, for election returns, anchor Andrea Mitchell angrily denounced Republican ads on Ebola as "scary" and "non-factual." Hardball host Chris Matthews lamented that ISIS terror attacks had dropped off as an election issue: "How did that cease to be an election issue?" This prompted Mitchell to blast Republicans for their Ebola ads: "But it's not a substantive argument. It's a scare tactic...by the Republican opponents of Democratic incumbents who tried to focus on ISIS and Ebola in the scariest, most non-factual ways to take the, you know, the eye off the real, the real issues, which... continue reading
During NBC News’s 10:00 p.m. Eastern midterms elections coverage, NBC News political director and Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd emphasized that the 2014 midterms were not a Republican wave, but changed his mind within the hour to stating the possibility that it may indeed be a GOP wave. At 10:04 p.m., Todd told Brian Williams in response to his request to walk through “how the Republican plot line” for the evening has unfolded thus far: “What I would say is that everybody is holding serve. Ok? It's a good Republican night, but it's not a wave.” [MP3 audio here... continue reading