A few hysterical pieces of analysis from the Bloomberg election night coverage.
I love the brilliant analysis that whoever gets the better turnout will win. You think?
John Sununu on Bloomberg calls Mitch McConnell a policy wonk. I'm surprised Sununu's nose didn't grow longer than Pinocchio.
Mark Halperin is really turning on the charisma right now. Chuck Todd watch out.
Mark Halperin smiles when he calls President Barack Obama a dick on-the-air. We learn that the so-called neutral pundit Halperin really is a conservative. This comes as a surprise to no one with more than two brain cells. Apparently, Halperin didn't want to lose his bogus voice of centrist reason in the Beltway. Halperin quickly apologized.
“Joking aside, this is not a pro-forma apology, this is an absolute apology, heartfelt to the president…. I shouldn’t have said it. I apologize to the president and to the viewers who heard me say that.”
Notice how Halperin looks like he just swallowed a lump of shit. I find the apology more offensive than the "dick" comment. Halperin didn't just blurt out that he thought the President was a dick. Halperin told Scarborough to use the seven second delay. Halperin's words more premeditated. What is offensive is Halperin is too spineless to stand by his own views. That is true cowardliness.
Obama has all the cable news channels on behind his desk. Obama actually takes people like Halperin seriously. Most Americans don't watch cable news, know or care who Halperin is. Americans do care about the price of gas and unemployment. Working people are in for a long, hard road if Obama's top priority is pleasing people that think the President is a dick.
This is an interesting choice. Julianne Moore will play Sarah Palin in the film version of "Game Change." The book was Mark Halperin's and John Heilemann's gossipy reporting of the 2008 presidential election. HBO will air the film version. No word on if the book will be a miniseries a feature length film.
I actually thought about getting together with the Ropers to compile a list of the worst political columnists. I did a poll on a prior blog and Ann Coulter was the winner. Salon beat me and made the Hack Thirty list.
The Top Ten
Richard Cohen
Mark Halperin
Thomas Friedman
David Broder
Marty Peretz
Marc Thiessen
Jonah Goldberg
Maureen Dowd
Laura Ingraham
Peggy Noonan
Alex Pareene gives a summery to the lowlights to all of the thirty columnists
Joy-Ann Reid noticed something I didn't pick on in my post of Joe Sacrborough accusing John Boehner of spending more time in bars then working. Politico reporter Jim Vandehei ducked Scarborough's repeated questioning of if Boehner is a hard worker. Mark Halperin confirmed Scarborough's accusation that many Washington Republicans feels Boehner is lazy.
Politico then ran an attack article on Scarborough for his questioning of Vandehei. Politico reporter Jake Sherman ran a quote from Boehner's spokesman Michael Steel that Boehner only goes to Washington bars for fundraisers. Sherman didn't list the candidates Boehner fundraised for in Washington bars.Sherman ran no quotes from Republicans on or off-the-record about Boehner's work ethic. This was an opportunity for Sherman to find out if Scarborough is telling the truth. The only quote Sherman sought out was from Boehner's spokeman.
Sherman's last paragraph slaps down Scarborough for attacking Boehner.
Scarborough and Boehner served in the House together from 1995 to 2001. Scarborough owes at least some of his success to Boehner. The Ohio Republican played a key role in authoring the Contract With America, the 1994 GOP road map that helped bring Scarborough and a Republican majority to Washington.
How dare Scarborough diss Boehner's work ethic. Doesn't Scarborough realize he owes Boehner? Actually, Grover Norquist is responsible for the Contract With America. President Clinton failing to pass health care reform and the political climate in the country had more to do with Scarborough getting elected than Boehner.
To Politico, the story isn't that the House Minority Leader maybe lazy or has a drinking problem. Politico feels they must protect a powerful member of Congress. The same thing has happened with the media reaction to Michael Hastings' article on Gen. Stanley McChrystal. CBS News News foreign correspondent Lara Logan tells Howard Kurtz that the establishment media has a responsibility not to print anything embarrassing of people in power. I am serious.
KURTZ: When you are out with the troops and you're living together and sleeping together, is there an unspoken agreement --
LOGAN: Absolutely.
KURTZ: -- that you're not going to embarrass them by reporting insults and banter?
LOGAN: Yes.
KURTZ: Tell me about that.
LOGAN: Yes, absolutely. There is an element of trust.
And what I find is the most telling thing about what Michael Hastings said in your interview is that he talked about his manner as pretending to build an illusion of trust and, you know, he's laid out there what his game is. That is exactly the kind of damaging type of attitude that makes it difficult for reporters who are genuine about what they do, who don't -- I don't go around in my personal life pretending to be one thing and then being something else. I mean, I find it egregious that anyone would do that in their professional life.
And, I mean, I take that to the point of, even when I plan to interview someone about something difficult, and they want to know the areas of the interview, I might not say, well, we're going to spend the whole interview on this, but I will list that. I will list that controversial issue.
The banter between members of McChrystal's team showed their dysfunction, rowdy drunken behavior and their belief the mission in Afghanistan is failing. Logan believes the American people do not need to know McChrystal and members of President Obama's national security team are war against each other. This is why people do not know why the Afghanistan war is a mess. Logan fails to understand that her responsibility is to her viewers and not the military establishment. The media hero worship of McChrystal is so embarrassing. A classic example is Geraldo Rivera comparing McChrystal to Lou Gehrig. Really? Did McChrystal geraldo ever bat .379 in a season?
RIVERA: This reporter from "Rolling Stone", he was a rat in an eagle's nest. What he did was to become part of the background, part of the scenery, knowing full well, given his political ideology--
O'REILLY: All right, let's walk through.
RIVERA: --and everything else, his altitude, he knew what he wanted to do.
O'REILLY: Okay, I'm not disputing, look--
RIVERA: And I disagree with Chris Wallace. This was not a 280- hitter. General Stanley McCrystal is no 280-hitter. If General Petraeus is Babe Ruth, and I agree with that analogy, Stanley McCrystal is Lou Gehrig.
The Young Turrk has the clips of Logan and Rivera for defending McCrystal.
"We say in the book about Karl Rove, who I respect and enjoy . . . I enjoy his company . . . Maybe he did the things he's accused of, but to have this guy's image portrayed and defined by things that are accusations that are unproven, we say in the book is really outrageous."
