Friday's USA Today featured an op-ed, " Centrist Obama mustn't sacrifice too much ," from Rich Benjamin, a Senior Fellow at something called "Demos ," who admitted he remains "besotted by President Obama" as he gushed: Obama is...rebooting his operation to what he knows best: wizard of all things to all people and master of warm healing. He is acting as a multi-hued, but blank, canvas upon which a swath of Americans can project its diverse hopes and dreams. President Barack Tabla Rasa. Benjamin, author of Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America (I never... continue reading
On the February 12 World News Saturday, ABC correspondent David Kerley highlighted claims by Bob Greenstein of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy that the Democratic-controlled Senate and President Obama would block Tea Party-backed cuts from this year's federal budget, thus protecting Republicans from their "less than responsible actions." After Kerley began his piece by recounting that Tea Party Republicans in the House had pressured House Speaker John Boehner to support a plan cutting $100 billion in spending from the current fiscal year, calling the cuts "broad and very deep," the ABC correspondent included a clip of Greenstein asserting... continue reading
During a report on Friday's CBS Early Show, congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes emphasized division in the new Republican Congress: "The prospect of a mutiny had sent Republican leaders scrambling to craft an even leaner budget , and make good on their promises to the Tea Party....Just this week, small groups of conservatives defeated two of their own party's measures on the House floor." Cordes went on to highlight tensions at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington: "Former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were booed by one faction of attendees. While Donald Trump, who's toying... continue reading
Pivoting off the Chris Lee resignation story NBC's Meredith Vieira, on Friday's Today show, declared it was a "rough week for the Republicans" noting that "they've seen several of their bills defeated in the House." Vieira, who was joined by David Gregory, also questioned "How big of a setback is this for the party?" Gregory, for his part, did at least acknowledge the reason some of the bills were defeated was because freshmen Republicans were actually keeping to their campaign promises but then went on to note the GOP had "a lot more cohesion" when they were in the minority... continue reading
Chris Matthews on Thursday used the ongoing developments in Egypt as a way to bash conservatives, deriding the "tea-bag" types who don't fully grasp the situation. Matthews appeared on Andrea Mitchell Reports and described how he perceived the conservative response to Egypt: "And conservatives are very fearful of this. They look at crowds like this, they don't like the looks of them. They don't like protests. They don't like people in the streets." Trying to create an ideological divide in how Americans are responding, the Hardball host attacked, "...M ore often than not, the thoughtful progressive sounds very much like... continue reading
On the February 8 edition of MSNBC's Last Word, left-wing comedian Bill Maher disparaged Bill O'Reilly as "unpatriotic" for the way in which the veteran Fox News anchor conducted his interview with President Barack Obama on Super Bowl Sunday. "And Bill O'Reilly, who claims he's such a patriot, how unpatriotic in my view to treat a president that way," railed Maher. "How does that look to other countries when you're interrupting and belittling? I just find it astounding." Moments earlier, anchor Lawrence O'Donnell praised Maher for being "a man who reaches across the political divide every week on his show."... continue reading
Civility was in short supply Wednesday on the Dylan Ratigan Show, as the MSNBC anchor after which the show is named used words and phrases such as "moronic" and "dog's ass" to demagogue the GOP's proposal to trim the federal budget. "How can you be serious about cutting spending when your spending proposals are truly a flea on a dog's ass?" howled Ratigan, who went on to demonize Republicans as "nasty" frauds who want to "get rid of all the food for poor people." The plan Ratigan derided as "a flea on a dog's ass" is to cut $32 billion... continue reading
All three evening newscasts on Wednesday and the morning shows on Thursday identified disgraced former Congressman Chris Lee as a Republican. On the February 10 Today, Kelly O'Donnell twice tagged the ex-representative, who resigned after shirtless photos of him surfaced online, as "conservative." The NBC reporter asserted, " The former Congressman is a former businessman, considered an up and coming conservative ." Just seconds later, as a picture of the politician appeared, she added, " This is the image, shirtless and flexing, that tanked the political career of Chris Lee, a conservative, Republican Congressman from Western New York ." Continuing... continue reading
NBC's Meredith Vieira, on Thursday's Today show, challenged former Minnesota Republican Governor and potential presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty for daring to call Barack Obama a fiscal "chicken" as she (citing his Democratic successor Mark Dayton) accused him of not being a fiscal conservative. After Vieira initially questioned if Pawlenty had the requisite "star quality" to run for President, she then threw the words of the current Democratic governor of Minnesota in his face, as seen in the following question: VIEIRA: Let's talk about, you know you're a self-proclaimed fiscal conservative and you criticized the President after his State of the... continue reading
Chris Matthews, on Wednesday's Hardball, really laid it on thick in his tease for his upcoming special on Bill Clinton's post presidency as he exalted: "Other American presidents have done things before, after leaving office, but nothing on this level or planetary scope" and glorified: "We've never had a world leader like this before!" The MSNBC ad for the documentary, entitled Bill Clinton: President of the World, already treats the former president as a superhero and Matthews, in this end of show pitch, continued that motif when he promised viewers: "When you see it all put together, you'll believe what... continue reading