Campaigns & Elections

Since Jan. 1, the price of gas has soared 45 cents a gallon — the highest on record for this time of year. AAA reported this past week that the national average of unleaded gasoline climbed from Feb. 28's $3.71 per gallon to March 2's $3.73 per gallon and then up again to $3.76 per gallon over the weekend — the 25th straight increase in the past month. According to The Associated Press, the…

In the minutes prior to President Obama's Tuesday press conference, Meet the Press host David Gregory could barely contain his glee as he proclaimed those in the White House, "feel pretty good about how this Republican race is going for the President's reelection prospects, and there's nothing like being the president when the other guys are off fighting." Gregory added that Obama, "can…

Jan Crawford spotlighted Karen Santorum's "frustrations with the media" on Tuesday's CBS This Morning, adding that it was "understandable. They've been mocked by some for how they grieved the loss of their infant son." Crawford also noted how Mrs. Santorum's "life...has been under a microscope. In nearly every story written about her, it's mentioned she lived with a doctor...[who] performed…

Over at the Associated Press in a report with a Tuesday morning time stamp, Christopher Rugaber produced yet another predictable lemonade-from-lemons story about how the economy is allegedly "improving faster than economists had expected. They now foresee slightly stronger growth and hiring than they did two months earlier - trends that would help President Barack Obama's re-election hopes."…

NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd gave an interview to Dylan Byers of Politico where he suggested the media's coverage of politics is often wrong: "we incorrectly cover American politics 60 percent of the time." What? What would explain this tilt? Todd insists there hasn't been liberal/ideological bias for a long time, but "we don't understand their day-to-day lives" outside the New…

Have we reached a point where a positive story about a political candidate whose views are considered unacceptable by the media elites won't get widely covered even when it's virtually dropped in their laps? One can't help but suspect that's the case with Rick Santorum. February 13, the Detroit Free Press carried a moving story by Kathleen Gray about how the parents of a Michigan girl with…

Liberal cable host Chris Matthews, who once dismissed Michele Bachmann as a "balloon head," on Monday derided the supposed sexism of "horse's ass" Rush Limbaugh. The Hardball anchor sparred with Senator Rob Portman. Speaking of Matthews' coverage of the Sandra Fluke controversy, the Republican  mocked, "...It sounds like maybe you're keeping it alive more than [Limbaugh] in the eyes of the…

Joining a daylong drumbeat of hourly segments to hype colleague Al Sharpton's latest project, MSNBC's Martin Bashir pushed on viewers of his 3 p.m. program today that Republicans are trying to suppress if not downright disenfranchise minority voters across the nation. Bashir opened up the Sharpton "interview" by rhetorically asking if “there is a deliberate attempt at voter suppression being…

In public accounting, there's a concept known as "independence," which has two aspects: independence in fact and independence in appearance. If you are auditing a company, you may in fact be the most independent person in the world, willing to follow the audit trail wherever it leads, but no matter how much you object, if you own stock in the subject company, you won't be allowed to participate…

On Monday's CBS This Morning, Charlie Rose hinted that Republicans needed to go further in decrying Rush Limbaugh's slam of radical feminist and law student Sandra Fluke. Rose asked Senator John McCain, "Are you satisfied that those Republican officials have gone far enough in condemning these statements?" McCain replied, "Oh, I'll leave that up to pundits like you, Charlie" [audio available…

Appearing on Saturday's NBC Nightly News, Meet the Press host David Gregory argued that the issue of contraception was a loser for the GOP: "I think there are a lot of Republicans who are worried that this is...a fight that the Republicans probably should not be having right now, over contraception of all things, which is pretty much a settled matter in terms of access for women..." In…

They're baaaaaaack. Barack Obama's election-year goon squad kicked into high gear this week by kicking the president's fiercest opponents in the teeth and targeting their pocketbooks. Returning to bully business as usual, the Obama campaign launched a brazen salvo against two prominent conservative critics and their legions of private citizen donors. Let's be clear (to use Obama's favorite…

Giving her two cents on the whole Limbaugh/Fluke row today, media strategist Elizabeth Blackney trashed Democrats like Debbie Wasserman Schultz, saying it's "just as cynical as Rush's appalling commentary" for Democrats to "raise money on the backs of women." Blackney, who "recently completed a 40 Day Hunger Strike in order to draw attention to the unprecedented sexual and gender based…

On Monday’s edition of ABC's The View, Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke appeared on the show on what was essentially a 5-minute monologue for her to distort the contraception debate.  The "exclusive" interview with Sandra came in response to Saturday’s apology issued by Rush Limbaugh over controversial language he used to describe the student. Fluke was given the opportunity to respond to…