2016 Presidential

In a scathing column for The New Republic, Alec MacGillis charged–with scarce evidence–that Governor Scott Walker’s (R-Wis.) political success is the result of racial politics in the state of Wisconsin. MacGillis’s headline is predictable left-wing race baiting: “The Unelectable Whiteness of Scott Walker”. MacGillis suggested that the Badger State governor’s political rise is the product of…

Even MSNBC journalists are unable to ignore Hillary Clinton stumbles after unveiling her new memoir Hard Choices last week. On the June 16 edition of Morning Joe, the liberal pundit Donny Deutsch described the first week of her book tour as a “disaster,” and an indication that the American public may be feeling “Hillary fatigue,” quite surprising coming from a network that inaugurated a new…

Jane Pauley, who campaigned for Barack Obama in 2008 as she declared “I want to see the cool, steady hand of Barack Obama on that Bible on Inauguration Day,” on CBS’s Sunday Morning pleaded for Hillary Clinton to try to succeed him: “If not you, who? Who is the viable woman of either party who could win a primary nomination in 2016 if not you?”

Democrats traditionally enjoy playing up their internal disorganization (often using some sort of analogy to “herding cats”) while tweaking Republicans for that party's top-down style. Now, however, as Peter Beinart pointed out in a Thursday post on the Atlantic’s website, there’s an “unprecedented crisis of authority in today’s GOP,” whereas among Dems “party hierarchies are clear and…

Ken Cuccinelli, former Attorney General and Republican Gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, poked fun at supposed “juggernaut” Hillary Clinton and offered praise to GOP congressional candidate Dave Brat. Appearing as a guest on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, June 15, Cuccinelli commended Brat and how he “Connected when he talked about issues. He’s an economics professor...he's a conservative…

CBS’s Bob Schieffer did his best to play up the supposed divide that exists within the Republican Party following the primary defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA). During an interview on Sunday, June 15 with Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, the Face the Nation host wondered “Goldwater lost the [1964] election in a historic landslide. How do you…

Liberal Los Angeles Times columnist Robin Abcarian gushed in a book review that Hillary Clinton’s new memoir was the “richly detailed and compelling chronicle” of a “policy wonk.” But in an interview for the Times video channel on Thursday, she was blunt about the attacks over her ludicrous, counter-factual “dead broke” comments to Diane Sawyer. “Is it fair?” asked  troubled interviewer Ann…

On the June 13 edition of CNN Newsroom, Carol Costello and company defended Hillary Clinton from the media’s criticism of her interview with Terry Gross of NPR. John Avlon of The Daily Beast cheered that “you got a glimpse of authenticity from Hillary Clinton” in the exchange. Costello took a different route for defending Hillary [MP3 audio here; video below]:

On Friday, CBS This Morning was the only one of the Big Three network morning shows to cover Hillary Clinton's testy Thursday exchange with NPR host Terry Gross over Clinton's shifting position on gay marriage. Neither NBC's Today nor ABC's Good Morning America bothered to mention the unflattering incident for the potential 2016 presidential candidate. [Listen to the audio or watch the video…

In a brief Thursday post on the Atlantic’s website, "reform conservative" pundit David Frum cited Eric Cantor’s primary loss to Dave Brat as further evidence that “Republican leaders” need to emerge to confront the “the destructive leadership of fanatics (and the cynics who make their living by duping fanatics)." He cited Tony Blair as a model, someone " who revived his party by standing up…

Even though Hillary Clinton has not yet announced her presidential ambitions for 2016, she is still the subject of many online postings -- some of which are flattering, while others are ... not so much. On Thursday, the former secretary of state's memoir, Hard Choices, became the first entry in MSNBC's new book club, which led many posters to call the group a Hillary Clinton “fan club”…

Comparing Hillary Clinton's book tour to an "out of town play getting ready in New Haven," MSNBC's Chris Matthews tonight dismissed the former secretary of state's tone-deaf "dead broke" line from her interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer as a "small kind of gaffe, or even a half gaffe." [MP3 audio here; video embed follows page break] "Once she said we were $12 million in the hole, I think…

Following House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s  (R-VA) primary loss to his Tea Party challenger, CNN’s Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin rushed to play up the loss as evident of how “conservative the contemporary Republican Party is.”  Appearing on CNN Tonight on Tuesday, June 10, Toobin proclaimed, “The happiest person in America tonight is Hillary Clinton. Because this is who she's going…

Diane Sawyer's surprisingly tough questions to HIllary Clinton on Benghazi and her massive speaking fees have spurred more questions, especially when she answered she was "dead broke" and it wasn't her job as Secretary of State to micromanage the safety of diplomats. But New York Times reporter Amy Chozick announced on MSNBC's Now with Alex Wagner on Tuesday that reporters like her are…