Campaigns & Elections

The apology wasn't good enough. Journalists on Monday's Good Morning America chided the Republican presidential candidates for "equivocating" and not strongly condemning Rush Limbaugh's comments about Sandra Fluke. Analyst Matt Dowd appeared to deride Mitt Romney for "missing a huge opportunity" to slam Limbaugh. John Berman focused on the fact that the conservative radio host called his own…

According to Rachel Maddow, Republicans skip her MSNBC show because she is so insistent on being "unimpeachable in the facts." In a brief interview for the March 2 Entertainment Weekly, the liberal anchor huffed about her personal integrity. Maddow insisted she'd "love" to host a Republican presidential debate, but cautioned, "[On my show] our responsibility is to be unimpeachable in the…

Washington Post religion columnist Lisa Miller has one child, and she seems quite smug about it. She thanks God “I live in a time and place where I can get up every morning and go to work, and with the money I earn help feed and educate my child.” But in her Saturday column, the slams the Republican candidates for their “smug fecundity,” that they turned their women into retrograde doormats who…

In an interview on NBC's Rock Center on Wednesday, Russian opposition leader Alexi Navalny demonstrated how pervasive media distortion of Sarah Palin and American conservatism has become: "Conservative groups, some of which support me, are far more liberal than their counterparts in the USA. Rallies in support of Sarah Palin have much more nationalistic slogans than in Russia."

On Thursday's All Things Considered, Julie Rovner, NPR's resident ObamaCare flack, claimed that the U.S. Senate rejecting an amendment protecting religious liberty was "closer than the 63 percent majority that supports the contraceptive coverage requirement" from the federal government, according to the poll from the liberal Kaiser Family Foundation. The organization is an oft-used source for…

After airing a clip of a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee ad featuring female Democratic candidates for key U.S. Senate races this November, MSNBC's Alex Wagner effusively praised the campaign ad as an excellent response to the "Republican assault on women's health." The ad "really isolates the guys in Congress who are voting for this" and the women that stand as bulwarks against this…

Nearly every national political campaign emphasizes the importance of connecting with the middle class. So how come in the 2012 presidential race, none of the candidates are able to make that connection? A hint may be found in the results of a Rasmussen Reports survey showing that just 27 percent of voters nationwide believe government management of the economy actually helps the economy.…

"The American Conservative Union just came out" with their latest congressional scorecard and what do you know, retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) has "the lowest lifetime conservative record [48.59, just left of center] of any Republican. In Diane Sawyer's book, that makes her the principled voice of reason," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity on last night's "Media Mash"…

On Thursday's CBS This Morning, anchor Charlie Rose spotlighted the apparent "the disappearance of political moderates" in Congress in the context of Republican Senator Olympia Snowe's retirement. Correspondent Nancy Cordes gushingly asked Snowe, "Was it just getting too lonely to be a moderate Republican in the Senate?" CBS also listed several "moderate" senators who are actually liberals.…

MSNBC's Martin Bashir has long been keen on hammering home a message that the GOP in general and candidates like Rick Santorum in particular are anti-woman. So it should come as no surprise that the afternoon host is flabbergasted Republican women in Ohio favor Romney by a double-digit margin. "We have some shocking numbers from a University of Cincinnati poll. Santorum carrying women voters…

Even when I agree with Rick Santorum, listening to him argue the point almost makes me change my mind. I also wonder why he's running for president, rather than governor, when the issues closest to his heart are family-oriented matters about which the federal government can, and should, do very little. It's strange that Santorum doesn't seem to understand the crucial state-federal divide…

Touting the newly-elected mayor of Ithaca, New York, 24-year old Democrat Svante Myrick, on Wednesday's NBC Rock Center, host Brian Williams drew parallels to Barack Obama: "He grew up a bi-racial kid with an unusual name. He went into politics. If that story sounds familiar, then you must meet the young man they must now call 'Mr. Mayor.'" [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump…

It wouldn't take more than a nanosecond for the establishment press and TV talking heads to rip into any white political candidate -- Democrat or Republican -- who carved out a web site devoted to "Whites for Candidate X." About a week ago, President Obama, with his powers of incumbency in tow, decided to revive something he created back in 2007: "African-Americans for Obama." And, as seen in…

In a recent article on Politico.com,  Jonathan Allen laughably labeled two out of three soon-to-be retired Democratic senators -- Joseph Lieberman(I-Conn.)* and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) -- alongside Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe (Maine).   Allen did correctly label the retiring Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) as a moderate, a tag that makes more sense given his voting record. [h/t e-mail tipster James…