Tomorrow marks one year to the day when Larry Hogan soundly defeated Martin O'Malley protege Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown in the Maryland gubernatorial contest. Yet with O'Malley in the hot seat on the November 3 edition of Hardball, host Chris Matthews failed to ask him how this embarrassing defeat -- and Gov. Hogan's healthy job-approval ratings to this day -- might be a signal to his fellow Democrats that he's a solid pick for leading their party forward.
2014 Governors
By P.J. Gladnick | October 9, 2015 | 11:32 AM EDT
What happens if you are a candidate for governor and you lose badly? Not just a mere bad loss but one of historically bad proportions following an absolutely horrible campaign marked by the cowardice of shying from previously well known positions. Well, if you are a liberal it could mean you can score a TV show based on the aftermath of your loss. Such is the case with Wendy Davis. The "Abortion Barbie" of Texas who mostly avoided that for which she was best known is the inspiration of a "dramedy" show based on life after going down to complete defeat after refusing to stand up for what she really believed during her gubernatorial campaign. Deadline Hollywood describes the NBC show based on the cowardly campaigner:
By Tim Graham | June 16, 2015 | 11:48 AM EDT
At a time when the conventional liberal-media wisdom insists that social conservatism is a loser for the Republican Party, it’s worth remembering that on abortion, the electoral momentum has been on the pro-life side.
Sunday’s Washington Post put feminist Cosmopolitan writer Jill Filipovic on the front of the Outlook section under the headline "Reclaiming Abortion: A new generation of activists wants you to know there's nothing wrong with ending an unwanted pregnancy." But she told a tale of Democrats being totally frank in loving abortion....and losing, badly.
By Mark Finkelstein | April 30, 2015 | 9:13 AM EDT
How did Howard Dean go from vivid voice of the New Left to political hack defending Hillary Clinton at all costs? Joe Scarborough called Dean on it today, telling Howard he had become the "New England version of James Carville."
Dean, on today's Morning Joe, dismissed the latest Washington Post story suggesting possible financial improprieties at the Clinton Foundation as "a breathless piece of hot air" and, incredibly, Dean said he'd advise Hillary not to address the rising tide of questions.
By Seton Motley | April 16, 2015 | 9:25 AM EDT
It was the best of coverage - it was the worst of coverage.
By Tom Blumer | February 14, 2015 | 10:31 AM EST
Democrat John Kitzhaber announced his resignation as Governor of Oregon shortly after 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday (noon Pacific Time).
By 3 a.m. Eastern time Saturday morning, as seen here, less than 12 hours after the announcement, the Associated Press's "Big Story" page, the collection of current stories the wire service considers especially important, had no stories on Kitzhaber. But there were items on Jackie Chan's son leaving prison, the cricket World Cup, and the Australian Ladies Masters golf tournament.
By Tom Blumer | February 14, 2015 | 2:05 AM EST
Late Friday afternoon, roughly two hours ("shortly after noon" Pacific Time) after the press release announcing Oregon Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber's resignation effective next Wednesday, Philip Bump at the Washington Post's "The Fix" blog tried to explain away the national press's nearly complete failure to cover Kitzhaber's mounting ethical and now potentially criminal problems for nearly four months. This is the same bunch which obsessed over Republican Governor Chris Christie's "Bridgegate" non-scandal for months on end.
Bump specifically linked to and quoted — and, predictably mischaracterized — yours truly's related Thursday afternoon post at NewsBusters. The short answer to Bump's whining is simply that Kitzhaber's problems were self-evidently very serious from the get-go in October, and grew by degrees with virtually each passing week, while Bridgegate, which was beaten like a drum for months on end, never progressed beyond the status of a pathetically weak hatchet job.
By Tom Blumer | February 12, 2015 | 7:29 PM EST
In a sign that the walls are truly beginning to close in around him, the Associated Press's national site and the New York Times, both of which have largely ignored the growing ethical scandals surrounding Oregon Democratic Governor John Kitzhaber and his fiancee Cylvia Hayes for months, have gotten busy during the past 24 hours.
The very belated national attention cannot possibly be helpful to his survival prospects. It should have come months ago, but apparently ensuring that a Democrat would remain in charge of the Beaver State was too important a matter for the national press to consider spreading the results of the outstanding investigative journalism done by Nigel Jaquiss at Willamette Week beyond the state's borders.
By Curtis Houck | January 20, 2015 | 8:29 PM EST
While previewing President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night, NBC Nightly News had on Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, who told viewers that the President will set out to “do a little victory lap about the state of the economy” and opined how Obama “got the post-election honeymoon, not the Republicans” thanks to his moves on illegal immigration and Cuba.
Following the move of fellow networks ABC and CBS, Todd touted the positive numbers for Obama in the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll after having largely ignored the negative ones in the lead up to the 2014 midterm elections.
By Jeffrey Meyer | January 12, 2015 | 11:32 AM EST
On Sunday, CBS News Sunday Morning reporter John Blackstone sat down with Governor Jerry Brown (D-Calif.) for an exclusive interview aimed at promoting the long-time liberal’s political career. The nearly 9 minute interview featured Blackstone heaping praise on the California Democrat while offering no critique of his liberal record in office. Instead, the CBS reporter spun Brown’s tenure as “solid” and “ahead of their time” and suggested that he bring his liberal governing style to Washington to "learn about how political problems have been solved here in California."
By Curtis Houck | January 5, 2015 | 8:55 PM EST
While there were six governors sworn into office on Monday, it was liberal Democrat Jerry Brown taking the oath of office for a record fourth term in California that caught the fawning eye of NBC Nightly News and anchor Brian Williams who, in turn, spent a news brief gushing over how his first stint in office was during the Ford administration and that he had improved the state’s finances.
Following a brief on news that the owner of the St. Louis Rams plans to build a stadium outside Los Angeles, Williams pivoted to the Golden State at-large and Brown’s fourth inauguration: “Then there's Jerry Brown, today at age 76 he was sworn today to a record fourth term. He first came into office when Jerry Ford was President his first time around. No one has led the most populous state in the Union longer than Jerry Brown, who's finally been able to turn around California's troubled finances.”
By Tom Blumer | December 31, 2014 | 4:09 PM EST
Chris Megerian at the Los Angeles Times, in a report first published online on Tuesday, had a difficult time trying to downplay the fact that Democrat and leftist mega-donors outspent their Republican and conservative couterparts by an overwhelming margin during the past election cycle.
But Megerian made the best of it, giving readers the impression that David Koch, of the supposedly evil Koch brothers, was the fourth-largest such donor. Times editors did their part to keep the news as quiet as possible by publishing the obviously national story in the California secion of its Wednesday print edition.