Philip Rucker

Washington Post Calls Fiorina Anti-Abortion Champion, but Won’t Drop Video Dodge
By Erin Aitcheson | September 30, 2015 | 2:47 PM EDT

Just when you think the liberal media is about to give a fair nod to a conservative, they follow it up with any “negative” ammunition they can find. But let’s face it, complimenting a conservative is a very small space on their wheel of tolerance

According to the Washington Post, Fiorina has been dubbed the champion of anti-abortion movement. Unfortunately, the well-deserved praise is offered with a big rock of salt. Despite the fitting title, the left still refuse to give up their “gold mine” with the statements Fiorina made at the last CNN Presidential Debates.

WashPost Reveals Hillary's Big Speaking Fees at Colleges Come with Diva Demands
By Tim Graham | November 28, 2014 | 11:37 AM EST

The Washington Post deserves credit for filing a Freedom of Information Act request to get details on Hillary Clinton’s very expensive lectures, but it’s fascinating when and where they decide to report on the results: tucked into the middle page A-2 on Thanksgiving Day.

It’s under a story titled “462,000 choose health plans as enrollment begins.” Talk about trying to hide your light under a bushel. The headline was “An inside look at a Clinton speech: E-mails show detailed requests for $300,000 talk at UCLA."

WashPost Gushes Over Clintons in Campaign-Style Piece Promoting Kentucky Democrat’s Senate Run
By Jeffrey Meyer | February 24, 2014 | 2:24 PM EST

The Washington Post’s Philip Rucker must love his new position as the unofficial spokesman for Bill and Hillary Clinton. In a 30-paragraph front-page piece in Monday’s Post, Rucker declared Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes a “Young Senate Candidate, A Campaign With Star Power.”

Rucker goes on to offer a glowing profile of Ms. Grimes, who is challenging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-K.Y) this November and insists that “Clinton’s popularity in Ky. Is a boon for Grimes.” The campaign article began describing how during President Clinton’s first inauguration “a 14-year-old girl from Kentucky presented the new president with a bouquet of red roses at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.” Rucker describes Clinton as an “uncle figure whom Grimes counts as a friend, mentor and advisor.”

WashPost Cheers Hillary's Huge Lead in Dem Primary Poll; 'Benghazi' Omitted, Christie's Bridge Woes Hyped
By Ken Shepherd | January 30, 2014 | 1:30 PM EST

Philip Rucker and Scott Clement sure are "Ready for Hillary." The Washington Post scribes dutifully pounded out a January 30 front-pager that furthers the Hillary-is-inevitable meme discernible throughout the liberal media. "Clinton holds big Democratic lead" thunders the print headline, with a subhead noting she enjoys "strong support in all demographics" while the "GOP field shows no clear front-runner." 

Nowhere in their 25-paragraph story was the term "Benghazi" used -- indeed, it was also not referenced in the Post/ABC poll, while Bridgegate was -- although clearly it is the former secretary of state's blackest mark on her record. By contrast, potential GOP opponent Chris Christie was depicted as critically if not mortally wounded by the bridge-lane-closure scandal, while opponents to his right were dismissed as unlikely to beat Hillary (emphasis mine):

WashPost Gleefully Pushes Scandal as Christie's 2016 Doom: 'Bridge Scandal Engulfing Christie'
By Tim Graham | January 9, 2014 | 9:25 AM EST

Could you imagine The Washington Post leaping all over a Jeremiah Wright scandal for Obama in 2005, before he even announced for president? Neither would anyone else imagine such a political crib-strangling. But the Post is aping the rest of the liberal national media on Thursday morning by leaping all over Gov. Chris Christie. “Bridge scandal engulfing Christie,” was the breathless headline. “INCIDENT THREATENS N.J. GOVERNOR’S IMAGE.”

The Post also trashed Christie on the op-ed page (by liberal Jonathan Capehart) and on the front page of the Style section, which began “Chris Christie. [Shakes head.] What a disappointment. He purports to play in big leagues.” The partisan Post is on fire today.

Obama Disses Michael Jordan: 'Nobody...Is a Bigger Icon Than Magic Johnson'
By Tim Graham | November 28, 2013 | 5:12 PM EST

Washington Post reporter Philip Rucker sympathetically noted that a "battered" President Obama "grew introspective" on his West Coast fundraising tour for Democrats. At NBA legend Magic Johnson's house, Obama said he talked with David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, who's traveling with the president. Obama said Remnick, who was a sports reporter earlier in his career, asked him, “So, what about Magic? What does this mean to you?”

Obama seemed to completely dismiss Michael Jordan and his "hometown" Chicago Bulls by saying there's "nobody" who is a "bigger icon" than Magic:

WashPost Reports Obama Blames a GOP 'Invested in Failure' for Obamacare; Skips Any Republican Rebuttal
By Tim Graham | November 20, 2013 | 10:18 AM EST

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that President Obama “sought to redirect some of the political blame for the botched rollout of the federal health insurance exchange to Republicans, characterizing GOP lawmakers as rooting for the law’s failure.” But Post reporters Philip Rucker and Sandhya Somashekhar never found a Republican to rebut. Everyone quoted in the story was a member of Team Obama.

“One of the problems we’ve had is one side of Capitol Hill is invested in failure,” Obama said at the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council meeting in Washington. Obama echoed Rush Limbaugh, who said during the Iraq War in the Bush years that Sen. Harry Reid and other Democrats were “invested in defeat.” Obama could blame a “toxic” political atmosphere, and somehow that didn’t include anything he said or any of his lies about Obamacare:

WashPost's Phil Rucker Promotes Utah Moderates Seeking to 'Extinguish Tea Party Firebrand' Mike Lee
By Tim Graham | October 23, 2013 | 8:43 AM EDT

Fresh from his gooey front-pager on how "everyone seems to be honoring" Hillary Clinton on the way to 2016, Washington Post reporter Philip Rucker is now seeing dark clouds for the re-election of Tea Party Sen. Mike Lee. "In Utah GOP,  some seek to shut down tea party hero" is the Page One headline.

"Lee's approval ratings in Utah have cratered," Rucker wrote, citing a less-reliable online poll, and talking up a primary challenge from more "pragmatic" Republicans....in 2016.  Lined up to denounce Lee as an "ideological wack-job," the Post-friendly Jon Huntsman:

WashPost: Rodeo Reveals 'Deep, Personal Hatred' for Obama, 'Often Tinted in Racial Terms'
By Tim Graham | August 16, 2013 | 7:56 AM EDT

The Washington Post picked up the Missouri State Fair rodeo brouhaha on the front page Friday under the headline “Rodeo act put racial divisions on display.”

Post reporter Philip Rucker painted by the leftist numbers, finding the same man NBC used to trash the audience as a “Klan rally” and highlighting Obama critics who sound racist. Rucker began with Virgil Henke, 65, “a livestock farmer who explained his distaste for Obama with several falsehoods.”

WashPost Champions Hillary Anew As Women's Advocate -- Ignores the Horny Elephant in the Room
By Tim Graham | August 12, 2013 | 8:36 AM EDT

There’s such a thing as playing dumb, and then there’s just playing like you’re in a political coma. On Monday’s front page of The Washington Post, political reporter Philip Rucker implied that Hillary Clinton is not going to make her 2008 mistake again of downplaying her gender in a presidential run. She’ll make 2016 “a natural continuation of her lifelong focus on advocating for women.”

The headline was "Clinton's theme, pre-2016: Women breaking barriers." Nowhere in this story could Rucker find a place to underline why the feminist angle was tricky in her last presidential campaign and might be tricky now: the horny elephant in the room, Hillary’s husband, and his record of adultery, sexual harassment, and even rape accusations. This is the one time his name surfaces in the story:

NBC's Todd: Clinton Miniseries 'A Total Nightmare' For Us
By Matt Vespa | August 8, 2013 | 11:37 AM EDT

It's not just conservatives who think it's a horrible idea for NBC to run a Hillary Clinton miniseries before the 2016 election. Network anchor Chuck Todd worries about the perception of bias, even as he insists that there's a tall wall of separation between his network's news  and entertainment divisions.

Reported the Washington Post's Aaron Blake in an August 8 Post Politics entry:

UPDATED: WashPost Pushes Faulty Anti-Gun Study, Fails to Print Blog Item Critical of It
By Matt Vespa | August 6, 2013 | 3:00 PM EDT

Well, the Washington Post is back to their usual tricks in distorting the facts about guns and background checks.  On page A2 of today's print edition, staff writer Philip Rucker gave readers a story, which read pretty much like a press release for a left-wing pro-gun control group, calling itself Third Way.  Rucker harped on the misleading “gun show loophole” and how, according to Third Way, criminals are taking to the Internet to arm themselves for murder and mayhem.

That's far from the truth, as Rucker's colleague Brad Plumer noted in an August 5 Wonkblog post which cut against Rucker's Wild West narrative on online gun sales. Of course, Plumer's item didn't make it into print while Rucker's did, on page A2.