On Tuesday night, the Obama administration announced it was delaying the implementation of a key provision of the president’s signature health care law – a so-called “employer mandate,” which requires businesses with more than 50 full-time employees to provide health insurance.

The move to delay implementation until 2015 was criticized by Republican lawmakers, who claim the measure is proof positive that the implementation of the Affordable Care Act will be costly and disastrous. Of course, to a liberal journalist like Carl Bernstein the consequences of the delay are irrelevant, because “it’s a very smart move” that “takes this issue off the table in an election year.” [Video after the jump, via MSNBC.com.]

According to James Carville, all Democrats want to do is “get behind” Hillary Clinton for the 2016 elections. It’s definitely easier for them to do so when the media is throwing their full weight behind the former secretary of state.

The liberal panelists on Tuesday’s Morning Joe hyped the “very, very, very big news” that Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) is endorsing former Secretary Clinton for the 2016 presidential race – three and a half years before the election. McCaskill announced she was supporting Clinton Tuesday morning through the Ready for Hillary Super PAC.

My alternate headline for this item: “NBC’s Today Show on Benghazi: ‘There Are So Many Issues the Country Faces. This Is One of Them.’” That dismissive attitude came from ABC News veteran Mark Halperin, now MSNBC’s senior political analyst who also toils for Time magazine, putting the burden on Republican to make an issue of Obama administration dishonesty on Benghazi. 

Failing to see any role for the news media after months of malfeasance, Halperin put the burden on a political party: “I think the events of this week mean Republicans now have a chance to make the case to the American people. There are so many issues the country faces. This is one of them.”

Oh irony, oh hypocrisy!  Joe Scarborough opened today's Morning Joe by singing the praises of NBC's Pete Williams for not jumping onto the story that other news outlets were reporting yesterday that an arrest had been made in the Boston Marathon bombing.  Scarborough condemned journalists "far more interested in getting it first than getting it right."

But mere minutes later, Scarborough rushed to accuse former Republican congressman Chris Cox of "lying" in his role as NRA spokesman, and said he was ashamed of him. If Scarborough had taken a moment to research the matter and get it right, he would have realized he had the wrong Chris Cox.  The NRA spokesman is not the former congressman. Scarborough grudgingly admitted his mistake about an hour later in the show.  View the video after the jump.

From Joe Scarborough to John Heilemann, Katty Kay to Mark Halperin to Willie Geist, it was unanimous on today's Morning Joe.  Whatever the substance, whatever the policy, Republicans would be making a massive political mistake by opposing the possible nomination of Susan Rice as Secretary of State.

Summed up Scarborough the MJ zeitgeist: "do a bunch of old white guys want to make their first big battle, post-election, a battle going up against a younger woman of color?" View the video after the jump. H/t reader cobokat.