2012 Presidential

As NewsBusters reported, MSNBC's Chris Matthews went on quite a Republican-hating rant Monday linking murder and violence in Afghanistan to GOP "zealots at home." Such conservative bashing continued till the end of "Hardball" when the host finished with a two minute segment excoriating the Republican Party as one where "you can't say you believe in science, you can't say you believe in…

A news article written by a reporter at AFP and reproduced at such news sites as Google, Yahoo, NPR, the Dallas Morning News, and others, might qualify as an example of what happens when one allows opinion to seep into reporting.  Despite a mission statement involving claims that AFP coverage is balanced, accurate, and includes the other side of the story, this piece makes no secret of where…

Michael Powell’s New York Times story on the latest job figures made the lead slot in Saturday’s Times, with a headline portraying a revitalized Obama and a defensive G.O.P. “U.S. Posts A Gain Of 216,000 Jobs, A Lift For Obama -- Private Sector On Rise -- As Jobless Rate Falls to 8.8%, White House Warns G.O.P.” One might not think an 8.8% unemployment rate would be cause for swagger and…

At the top of Monday's Today on NBC, co-host Matt Lauer touted "breaking news" of President Obama announcing his re-election bid: "...the expected announcement comes with a prediction, he could become the first candidate ever to raise a billion dollars." Lauer then added: "Will Republican hopefuls sitting on the sidelines be compelled to dive in as well?" While fill-in co-host Ann Curry…

Via William Jacobson, at his influential  LegalInsurrection blog. Let's call it a case of unintentional honesty, or as Bill Jacobson described it, a classic "Freudian slip." In its article reporting President Obama's announcement of his 2012 re-election campaign, the Los Angeles Times gave the URL address for the official Obama campaign website as: http://latimes.com.   Too true! View…

Does the earlyness of the announcement suggest some uneasiness on the part of the Obama camp, wonders Jim Geraghty? In any case, the official Barack Obama reelection bid was announced in conjunction with a hefty video, which you can see below the jump, Monday morning. One notable takeaway: Obama does not speak once in the video, and only rarely appears in person. Beyond that, it's pretty much…

Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) previewed the GOP's 2012 budget proposal on "Fox News Sunday" today. For those that missed it, here's the complete 15-minute interview with Chris Wallace (video follows with transcript):

Politico's Roger Simon said Sunday Barack Obama is the greatest orator of modern times. Chatting with Howard Kurtz on CNN's "Reliable Sources," Simon also said journalists are just now looking beyond the President's speaking skills and analyzing what he's actually saying (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The liberal media are on a full-court press to make the entire GOP presidential candidate field look hapless and unelectable. Doing his part Friday was New York magazine's John Heilemann who on "The Chris Matthews Show" said the Obama campaign thinks their guy has "more talent in his little finger than any of these Republicans" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Admiral and former Democrat Congressman Joe Sestak (D-Penn.) has been an outspoken critic of President Obama's attack on Libya since the operation began almost two weeks ago. For some reason on MSNBC's "Ed Show" Thursday, Sestak radically changed his view (video follows with transcript and commentary):

A tree falling in a forest with no one there does make a sound but it's a little hard to hold a presidential debate for Republicans when none of them have officially declared their intention to run.

In case you were worried about the future of the United States, your problems have been solved. On Tuesday evening, while filling in for Joy Behar on HLN, comedienne Roseanne Barr announced that she's running for president (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell on Tuesday cherry-picked an "O'Reilly Factor" segment to drum up a feud between Fox News's top prime time host and the former Alaska governor. Five sentences about Sarah Palin pulled from a six and a half minute segment ridiculing President Obama for not scheduling Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates as guests on last weekend's "Fox News Sunday" led "The Last Word"…

While President Obama has been withdrawn from press scrutiny over his handling of Libya, he's managed to sit down to no less than six local TV interviews this month, with a view to a friendly format focused on issues of concern to his liberal base in swing states. Washington Post's Peter Wallsten has the story on today's print edition front page (emphases mine):