Quote of the Day: Chuck Todd Edition

"Nobody's going to mistake Donald Trump for a presidential candidate ... other than Donald Trump."

Chuck Todd, on Meet The Press.

Make Chuck Todd Do His Job Petition

I don't hold out much hope on Chuck Todd being an actual journalist. I do support Nicole Belle's petition as a way to call out Todd on his open hostility to fact-checking.

In a Morning Joe segment this week on misinformation about the Affordable Care Act, NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd made the outrageous claim that it isn’t his job to inform viewers when Republican politicians lie about political issues.

How is it possible that the Political Director of NBC News doesn’t think it is his job to inform NBC viewers with facts about important political issues?

Todd appeared on Morning Joe and made this remark to Ed Rendell.

"What I always love is people say, 'Well, it's you folks' fault in the media.' No! It's the President of the United States' fault for not selling it."

I do agree with Todd that it is not the media's job to sell Obamacare. What angers Belle and other progressives is Todd's glib attitude on fact-checking the MSNBC guests he interviews. Being a member of the Village is more important than journalistic accuracy to Todd.

Marco Rubio Busted By Chuck Todd

I noted that Sen. Marco Rubio made the laughable comment that President Barack Obama is running a "culture of intimidation."

Tas and I both noted that Obama is still operating under the delusion that Republicans want to be bipartisan. Apparently, Obama forgot about the impeachment hearings and the government shutdowns of the last Democratic presidency. Obama said this at a recent fundraiser.

"I genuinely believe there are Republicans out there who would like to work with us but they’re fearful of their base and they’re concerned about what Rush Limbaugh might say about them. And as a consequence we get the kind of gridlock that makes people cynical about government."

No, Mr. President, Republicans have no interest in governing. They can barely be bothered to show up to work and legislate.

An interesting happened on MSNBC. Rubio was ranting on about Obama running a "culture of intimidation" and refusing to be bipartisan. Chuck Todd noted that Rubio's Reclaim America PAC has been attacking the President and can hardly be accused of being bipartisan. As usual, Rubio fumbled the response. That is happens when Rubio conducts his interview with conservative radio and Fox News. He isn't used to getting asked a question that isn't a softball.

"This is not just limited to the I.R.S. This is a culture of intimidation, a willingness to play hardball politics against your political opponents."

Chuck Todd: Your PAC put out an email raising money on the IRS issue… That’s campaigning, that’s politics, too.

Rubio: …But here’s the point. I’m trying to get a petition of American citizens and Americans who support us in this endeavor so that we can rally people together to work against these sorts of abuse of power. That’s different from going around and saying I am going to put on my website every single day, every donor to the Obama campaign. I’m going to attack that individual, a private citizen by name, and I’m going to try to create this culture where people feel intimidated as they oppose me. Those are two very different things I’m talking about.

Almost every fundraising email is written in the form of a petition. Neither party ever submits those signatures as a petition. It just a fundraising ploy.

Major Breaking News Story

Chuck Todd and Ben Smith report that John Bolton is not running for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. Americans anxiously await the moment when Sarah Palin announces she is not running.

Republicans Gang Up On Haridopolos

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“I think it’s important that Republicans join together and support Ryan’s plan,” said Mack, who passed up a 2012 U.S. Senate bid and hasn’t endorsed a candidate in the GOP primary between Haridopolos, Adam Hasner and George LeMieux. “I’ll tell you why: if we fail to act, then the program goes bankrupt. So those who are choosing not to support either this plan or another plan are choosing to let Medicare go bankrupt.”

Asked by MSNBC’s Chuck Todd if he thinks it was a “mistake” for Haridopolos to oppose the plan in a GOP primary, Mack said “I do.”

Mack goes on to say that the Ryan plan would save Medicare. The opposite is true. Medicare as we know it would cease to exist. Republicans want to replace Medicare with a voucher program that does not match health care cost increases. The Congressional Budget Office ruled that Ryan's plan would increase the deficit by $145 billion. Ryan's bill would increase the number of uninsured people by 54 million.

CBO LETTER TO SPEAKER BOEHNER

Under H.R. 2, about 32 million fewer nonelderly people would have health insurance in 2019, leaving a total of about 54 million nonelderly residents with insurance coverage would be about 83 percent, compared with a projected share of 94 percent under current law...

The Ryan budget has nothing to do decreasing the deficit. Libertarian economist Tyler Cowen notes, "Over a ten-year time horizon, the Ryan plan increases the debt rather than decreasing it. Take that as a sign of how hard fiscal reform is going to be." This is Republicans fixated on killing Lyndon Johnson's and Barack Obama's health care reforms. Republicans hate it because Democrats passed it. It doesn't matter that this is similar the Republicans 1993 health care plan or Mitt Romney's plan. It must be killed because winning is more important than policy.

Haridopolos is wise to run away from a budget that has no chance of ever passing in the Senate. Republicans are fools if they think they can beat Sen. Bill Nelson with turning Medicare into a voucher program. Nelson is a rather well-liked Senator and Obama will be on the top of the ticket in Florida. If the Republican nominee runs with Ryan's plan then Nelson has an easy re-election.

Quote of the Day

"Sad to see folks talking about themselves in terms of being politically victimized. The victims are in Tucson, not on TV or radio."

Chuck Todd of MSNBC

Amen. Politicians and pundits are playing victim for being taken to task for their violent rhetoric. What did these pols and pundits think the public reaction was going to be when someone used violence against an elected official? We now see Fox News and Republican officials running from their own comments about violent revolution against Democrats.

Worst Candidate of the Year: Alex Sink

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I have a personal soft spot for the awfulness of Kendrick Meek and Christine O'Donnell. I should send personal thank you notes to both candidates for the great comedy material they provided this blog.

Alex Sink and Charlie Crist both made The Daily Rundown's finalists for worst candidate. What made Alex Sink stand out is she lost to Rick Scott. Losing to a man whose company was caught embezzling $1.7 billion from Medicare is pretty bad.

This campaign cycle had its share of horrible candidates. Rick Scott being one of them. It is not a stretch to think Sink would have trouble running a campaign against someone as loony as Allen West.

Tax Cuts Update

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Democrat Chris Van Hollen said the House Democratic caucus will not support the estate tax. House Democrats intend to pass a different tax bill than the Senate. Van Hollen said the bill will go to the floor for a vote in the lame duck session.

***

Paul Krugman said he can not support the Obama-McConnell tax cut compromise.

The actual stimulus in the plan comes from the other measures, mainly unemployment benefits and the payroll tax break. And these measures (a) won’t make more than a modest dent in unemployment and (b) will fade out quickly, with the good stuff going away at the end of 2011.

The question, then, is whether a year of modestly better performance is worth $850 billion in additional debt, plus a significantly raised probability that those tax cuts for the rich will become permanent. And I say no.

Krugman correctly believe the stimulus doesn't have enough for the $850 billion price tag. The one year extension of unemployment benefits and Social Security payroll tax cut only keeps things from getting worse. What is needed is a national jobs program. The best stimulus is giving people gainful employment. The Obama economic team though throwing stimulus dollars at the private sector would suddenly increase jobs. Lawrence Summers predicted the stimulus would drastically reduce unemployment. The White House now hopes to get unemployment down to 8.5 nationally before the 2012 election. The reason why Obama's original stimulus failed because there wasn't enough funded for job creation. Another factor is Obama and Summers compromised with Mitch McConnell on tax cuts that failed to justify their cost.

Senate Republicans seek to slash income and corporate tax rates as well as the overall level of spending in the bill. "We need to sober up here and take a look at what we're doing," said Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Summers said Obama wants to keep his tax cuts but will consider other changes. He said "Buy American" provisions for U.S. manufacturers could "send a protectionist signal."

The president "has been prepared to walk a long mile for bipartisan support," Summers said. In the end, he said, Obama wants the best possible package delivered to his desk by Feb. 16.

Obama and Summers caved. The stimulus had $237 billion in tax cuts. Republicans didn't vote for the stimulus bill and the economy still sucks. Obama and Summers are essentially using the same failed policy.

Obama's Says He's Too Tough On GOP

President Barack Obama complains to MSNBC's Chuck Todd about his bad rap of being too tough on Republicans. I literally laughed when I first saw this.

Alex Sink Continues to Back Bush Tax Cuts

I am sure the heads of progressives everywhere will explode after watching this video. Alex Sink doubles down and tells Chuck Todd she supports extending the Bush tax cuts. Todd asks if Sink wants the Bush tax cuts to be "permanently or temporarily" extended. Sink leans towards permanently extending the Bush tax cuts. Any plan Rick Scott had to attack Sink on tax cuts went straight to hell. The tax cuts are a major factor for the deficit

Jonathan Chait thinks it is a politically stupid idea for Democrats to support the Bush tax cuts.

I don't see how the question of whether the Obama administration should extend the Bush tax cuts only on income over $250,000 a year is even a question. This seems totally obvious. Let's walk through this.

1. Voters in general are in favor of pretty much any measure that takes money from the rich. And they specifically support, by wide margins, repealing the Bush tax cuts for the rich

2. George W. Bush's policies remain highly unpopular, but the Democrats' problem is that Americans don't believe that Republicans would continue those policies:

Chait proposes Democrats should come out against extending the tx cuts and force Republicans to defend a Bush policy and giving the rich a tax cut during a recession. I will add that Republicans can't claim to be deficit hawks ans keep the Bush tax cuts.



The Pew Economic Policy Group projected extending the tax cuts to 2020 would make public debt 71 percent of GDP. Yike!

Robert Gibbs Ducks Public Option Question

Chuck Todd asked Press Sec. Robert Gibbs about the failure to pass the public option in the Senate Finance Committee. Helen Thomas asked Gibbs was asked why isn't Obama "fighting" for the public option. Gibbs would only say that the President supports choice and competition. Gibbs would not promise the President demanding a public option.

Q Health care — yesterday the Senate Finance Committee voted down two different versions of the public option, and I don’t believe we’ve heard from the White House officially on how — is this — is the President disappointed that the Senate — that no public option has made it through Senate Finance Committee, since this is something that he’s –

MR. GIBBS: I would say — I would reiterate what the President said in front of the joint session of Congress — it’s a proposal he favors in getting choice and competition. We’re working with all in Congress to figure out how best to provide that choice and competition. You’ve got one bill right now that doesn’t include a public option; you have four bills that do. This is part of the legislative process in reconciling all these ideas.

Q So why doesn’t he fight for it?

MR. GIBBS: We’re fighting for choice and competition and –

Q But not the public option.

MR. GIBBS: — and trying to get — go ahead.

Q Max Baucus said his reason for voting against it is that he could count votes — sort of implying — I guess he was trying to imply that he’s supportive of the idea, but because it didn’t have the votes he didn’t want to vote for it in committee. Does the President share that sort of same mind-set as Senator Baucus, that you can be — you’re not going to get everything you want, so — he supports it, but if the votes aren’t there, the votes aren’t there?

MR. GIBBS: Again, the most important thing — and you’ve heard the President say this — the most important thing is choice in competition; that in the individual and small business insurance market, if you have a geographic region that’s dominated by only one entity, you tend not to have — you certainly don’t have choice and it tends not to breed competition. We will work with Congress to find the best option for how to do that.

Q But you’re not going to sign a bill that doesn’t have something that in your mind — take your state of Alabama example — if Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama has still got 90 percent of the market, then you’re not signing that bill?

MR. GIBBS: The President I think has made it extremely clear that without choice and competition you won’t have health reform. We will ensure that whatever is passed in health reform meets that obligation.

Quote of the Day

"Because [Chris] had a really good friend of his say to him, 'What are you going to do when you get there?' and he couldn't answer the question and he realized that, and that's why he didn't run," says Todd. "It was a childhood dream to be a senator, but he didn't know what he was going to do if he got there."

Chuck Todd, on why Chris Matthews did not run for Arlen Specter's Senate seat.

Leon Panetta To Head CIA

I don't see Leon Panetta being nominated as CIA Director. Obama could have picked someon like Bob Kerrey, the former Goveror and Senator of Nebraska. I read Panetta's name and literally laughed. MSNBC pundit Chuck Todd believed Diane Feinstein made it clear she would not back Panetta's nomination.

“I was not informed about the selection of Leon Panetta to be the CIA director. I know nothing about this, other than what I’ve read,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein , D-Calif., who will chair the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the 111th Congress, in a written statement. “My position has consistently been that I believe the agency is best-served by having an intelligence professional in charge at this time.”

The Obama people selected Panetta without running it by the Chairwoman of the Intelligence Committee. Are these people batshit insane? Panetta has admirable qualities. His resume isn't going to convince the Senate he should be the next CIA Director.

Update: Ben Smith reports the inside mood of the CIA is against Panetta becoming director. It doesn't take a magic 8 ball to see the Panetta nomination was a bad idea.

Quote of the Day 2

"There may not be a worst state party in the country."

Chuck Todd, on the Florida Democratic Party screwing up the 2008 Democratic primary.

Update: Kenneth Quinnell informed me that Chuck Todd retracted his statement.

Quality Journalism

The real reason why John McCain will not select Charlie Crist as his Vice-President is that the media would have a field day over gay rumors. The panel of Morning Joe can't keep, but make jokes about the Crist rumors.


Andrea Mitchell: "Charlie Crist got married."

Joe Scarborough: "I thought he was engaged"

Chuck Todd: "After Friday, the engagement might be off if he's not the running mate."

Awkward. Nervous laughter erupted.

Mitchell: "You are so cold. That was so mean."

Todd: "It was a question."

Mitchell: "It was horrible."

Scarborough: "It was a helluva question."

How do you fill a news cycle when the John Edwards story is dying? I feel the pain of cable news talking heads.