Donnie Deutsch

Who Got to Donny Deutsch? Suddenly Upbeat About Hillary
By Mark Finkelstein | August 21, 2015 | 7:52 AM EDT

Who got to Donny Deutsch? Seriously. Exactly one week ago, as we reported here, Deutsch was painting a very bleak picture for Hillary Clinton, saying that "Americans are just tired of Hillary," they have "fallen out of like with her," and that people he knows who would automatically be Hillary backers are saying "wow, there's got to be somebody else here."

But there was Deutsch on Morning Joe today, singing a much sunnier tune. Deutsch claimed that the email scandal won't really hurt Hillary and that her supporters are not deserting her: "I don't think it has a profound effect on her candidacy . . . at the end of the day, if you're a Hillary person, you're a Hillary person; people are staying in their lanes."  So tell us, readers, what happened to Donny over the course of the last seven days?

Donny Doesn't Want to Sound Elitist, But 'Astounding How Ignorant People Are'
By Mark Finkelstein | May 21, 2015 | 9:10 AM EDT

What would Donny Deutsch say if he did want to sound elitist?  Because for not wanting to sound elitist, Donny Deutsch came off an awful lot like the denizen of Manhattan and the Hamptons that he is.

On today's Morning Joe, reacting to comments from a focus group of Iowa Republicans who were less concerned about Jeb Bush's policy positions and more concerned about his last name, Deutsch declaimed "I don't mean to sound elitist but it's astounding how ignorant people are."

Donny Deutsch: People Want to 'Turn Page' on Hillary, See Rubio as the 'Future'
By Mark Finkelstein | April 24, 2015 | 8:43 AM EDT

There's an understandable tendency not to take Donny Deutsch too seriously. He can come across not as a credible political analyst but as a guy more interested in his abs and biceps and the next lady at the next Hamptons cocktail party.  But let's give Donny his due: as an ad man, he at times offers interesting insights on politics seen in terms of brands and marketing. He also serves as a credible bellwether for a certain segment of the East Coast Dem donor class.

And so it was noteworthy that on today's Morning Joe, Deutsch declared that the string of scandals surrounding Hillary "really, really puts a dent in her candidacy and I really believe people are going to want to turn the page on Hillary Clinton." In contrast, Deutsch depicted Rubio as the candidate that people strongly associate with the future, making his candidacy "easy to manage. All he's got to say is 'future, future, future, future.'"

Mika Mocks Rubio: 'That's a Little Boy' Compared to Hillary
By Mark Finkelstein | April 14, 2015 | 9:21 AM EDT

Can you imagine if in 2008 a prominent conservative media member had said that Barack Obama looked like a "little boy" compared to John McCain?  The echoes of liberal outrage would still be resounding today.

But there was Mika Brzezinski on today's Morning Joe saying of Marco Rubio "that's a little boy." Mika made the invidious comparison to Hillary's service as senator, First Lady and Secretary of State.  Scoffed Joe Scarborough: "hearing this from two people [Mika and Donny Deutsch] that worshipped Barack Obama in 2008 is laughable."

Donny Deutsch Disses Rep. Diaz-Balart: Statement on Cuba Deal 'Inane'
By Mark Finkelstein | December 18, 2014 | 8:52 AM EST

It's good that we live in a country where citizens feel free to criticize elected officials to their face.  Just wondering, though: when was the last time that freedom was exercised on MSNBC to tell a Dem official that something he said was "inane?"

On today's Morning Joe, Donny Deutsch angrily asked Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Miami "why do you say an inane thing like that?" Deutsch's diss came in the context of a heated exchange in which Diaz-Balart told Donny that his notion that the Cuba deal was "liberating" for the Cuban people was "naive" and that Deutsch was living "in la-la land."  Deutsch later retaliated, calling Diaz-Balart naive.

Judge Rules MSNBC's Donny Deutsch Denied His Real-Estate Broker a Cool Million
By P.J. Gladnick | October 30, 2014 | 11:28 AM EDT

A New York judge has ruled that frequent MSNBC Morning Joe guest, Donny Deutsch, scammed over a million dollars in commission from his real estate broker in the sale of a $30 million home in the Hamptons. For those who don't remember, Deutsch was the one who stated on Morning Joe that the Occupy Wall Street movement needs a Kent State moment to "articulate this clash."
 

Dem Deutsch Makes Case for Romney: 'We Kind of Made a Mistake Four Years Ago'
By Mark Finkelstein | October 15, 2014 | 8:19 AM EDT

It was one thing for Joe Scarborough to make the case for Mitt Romney, arguing that these frightening times demand the kind of competence Romney offers.  

But on today's Morning Joe, it was stunning to hear a New York Dem like Donny Deutsch say something very similar. According to the ad man: "There is a psychological reason to go to Mitt Romney, and that is: wow!  We kind of made a mistake four years ago. We get to do a do-over. He was right about Syria, he was right about a lot of things."

'Mad Man' Sam Stein's Hilarious Response To Calamitous CBO/Obamacare Report
By Mark Finkelstein | February 5, 2014 | 8:15 AM EST

Give Sam Stein credit for being an honest liberal.  Confronted with the CBO's findings about the disastrous job-killing effects of Obamacare, Stein didn't try to spin the unspinnable.

On today's Morning Joe, Donnie Deutsch invited Stein to play a game of Mad Men.  Deutsch first sketched out a 30-second ad making the case against Obamacare--that contrary to what President Obama had said, you can't choose your provider and the program costs the country two million jobs.  Deutsch then invited Stein to give the 30-second ad in response.  Said Stein, much to the amusement of the panel: "The 30-second response is something like: 'Please change the subject to something else.'  What do you want me to say?" View the video after the jump.

Lin-Sanity: Morning Joe Runs 28 Clips of Knicks Player
By Mark Finkelstein | February 15, 2012 | 11:17 AM EST

The MSM loves Jeremy Lin for now.  But how long before he gets the Tebow treatment? Check out the video of the opening of today's Morning Joe.  In just over two minutes, the show ran clips of Knicks player Jeremy Lin hitting a three-point buzzer beater last night . . . no fewer than 10 times.

But Morning Joe was far from finished.  I counted a total of 28 Lin clips during the course of the show. Donnie Deutsch opined that "this is one of the few things where the 1% and the 99% can agree."  Mike Barnicle later expressed a similar sentiment.  Clearly the Lin story is moving America.  But query how long he will remain a uniting figure should the MSM, as in the case of similarly-inspirational Tim Tebow, start mocking his devout Christianity? Video after the jump.

More than 100,000 Jobs Lost, Likely Much Worse Says Gallup
By Julia A. Seymour | October 8, 2010 | 11:12 AM EDT

The final government unemployment report before the midterm election was released Oct. 8 showing a loss of 95,000 jobs in September, and an additional 15,000 losses in July and August and an unemployment rate still at 9.6 percent.

But Gallup warned on Oct. 7 that the BLS report was "likely to understate" the job losses in September. By its calculations the unemployment rate is actually much higher at 10.1 percent.

Dennis Jacobe, Gallup's chief economist, found that there was a sharp increase in job losses in the latter half of September that were "unlikely to be picked up in the government's unemployment report."

"Gallup's modeling of the unemployment rate is consistent with Tuesday's ADP report of a decline of 39,000 private-sector jobs, and indicates that the government's national unemployment rate in September will be in the 9.6% to 9.8% range," Jacobe wrote.

MSNBC Goes to Bat Against 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'
By Colleen Raezler | August 5, 2009 | 5:49 PM EDT
MSNBC logoIt's been a long time since MSNBC could pretend to be anything but a shill for liberal politicians, policies and causes. Any remaining doubts about that can be dispelled by surveying the network's recent coverage of the controversy over gays in the military.

Cable news' self-described "place for politics" covered the U.S. military's "don't ask, don't tell" administrative policy six different times between July 27 and July 29. Opponents of the current policy were able to state their case unchallenged, while network anchors made it clear that they were themselves in favor of allowing openly homosexual men and women to serve in the armed forces. Not one defender of the current policy appeared in any of the conversations about "don't ask, don't tell."

Conversations about the policy, which bans openly gay men and women from serving in the military, were keyed around the actions of Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Penn., and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. Murphy, the first Iraq war veteran to serve in Congress, kicked-off a seven city tour sponsored by the gay rights' activist group Human Rights Campaign to increase public support for his bill that seeks to allow homosexuals to serve in the armed forces. Gillibrand announced that the Senate Armed Services committee agreed to hold a hearing on the policy in the fall, the first since 1993, when former President Bill Clinton instituted the policy as a compromise.