Campaigns & Elections

In an interview with former Vice President Dan Quayle on Thursday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer pushed Quayle to admit that Mitt Romney was wrong to oppose Obama's auto bailout: "[He] said, 'You know what? Let Chrysler fail.'...There would have been thousands of jobs lost. Did he get it wrong? Did President Obama get it right by bailing out the auto industry?"   Quayle endorsed Romney on…

It seems President Obama's speeches on class warfare, big government, and comments on American laziness haven't worked in his favor. According to ABC News, the number of registered Democrats in battleground states for next year's election has dropped by nearly one million. Some of his supporters contend that Obama will still win the independent vote, where many of those Democrats have gone.…

Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman on Wednesday trashed Newt Gingrich as a mad bomber, smearing, "...Newt's main appeal and his main skill is as a guy who knows exactly where to put the explosive device to blow up the bridge." Fineman was appearing on Chris Matthews' Hardball. Matthews has previously decried so-called incendiary rhetoric on the right, but the host just chuckled at Fineman…

On Tuesday's NBC Nightly News, chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd promoted the President's speech in Osawatomie, Kansas calling for an extension of payroll tax cuts as "the Obama version of prairie populism" and touted how the commander in chief, "cast himself and the Democratic Party as the protectors of a middle class under Republican assault." Throughout the report, Todd…

The Big Three network morning shows on Wednesday highlighted the upcoming sentencing of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, but only CBS's Early Show identified the disgraced politician as a Democrat and devoted a full segment to him. ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today omitted his party ID, and just gave news briefs on the convict's possible sentence. CBS correspondent Cynthia…

Following the recent threats from Nancy Pelosi and the heavy brush with which the media are painting Newt Gingrich as unethical, the Media Research Center is now calling on the networks to seize the moment and report the truth from nearly 13 years ago. It has been 4,689 days since the IRS formally cleared Newt Gingrich of any violation of tax law.  It’s been 4,689 days since ABC, CBS, and NBC…

The same networks that jumped on every flub by Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann have, so far, ignored video of President Obama confusing Kansas with Texas. Only Fox News and CNN played the clip.  Special Report's Bret Baier, however did cover the President's speech about taxes, calling the moment "inauspicious." He then showed Obama, in Osawatomie, Kansas, asserting: "Well, it is great to be…

Washington Post "On Faith" editor and religious agnostic Sally Quinn took time yesterday morning to hack out a blog post offending people of faith entitled, "What will God whisper in Herman Cain's ear next?":

Barack Obama's political tone has become progressively more partisan since his "no red states, no blue states just the United States" warm 'n fuzziness at the 2004 Dem convention.   But President Obama's rhetoric is still not harsh enough to suit Mike Barnicle. On Morning Joe today, the former Boston Globe columnist demanded to know of Obama press sec Jay Carney just when the president was…

Updated : More analysis and full transcript added. In an interview with Obama campaign advisor Robert Gibbs on Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Ann Curry teed up the President's former press secretary with this softball: "In 2008, the President campaigned on this idea of hope and change....Can you give us one example of what the President has done that has inspired hope or created change in…

Apparently unconcerned about being hypocritical or lacking intellectual honesty, in the same program today MSNBC's Martin Bashir celebrated the over-the-top partisan smarminess of former Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) and blasted GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney for his decidedly tame quip about President Obama's economic (mis)management. The mid-afternoon host proudly featured the ex-…

In a glowing review of The Roots' new album "undun," Washington Post music critic Chris Richards lamented it was "too bad" that the band's choice of Fishbone's "Lyin' A** B*tch" to introduce Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann on the November 21 Late Night with Jimmy Fallon will likely be "the one song" that the band will "be remembered for" most in 2011. "The band considered…

In his Politico column and on Morning Joe today, Joe Scarborough made the case for Newt Gingrich from the Republican primary voter's perspective, pointing to Gingrich's record of winning back the congressional majority, achieving balanced budgets and passing welfare reform. Scarborough then proceeded to trash Gingrich, saying that: 1. he'd never vote for him; 2. Gingrich would be a "danger…

According to Chris Matthews on Monday, the Republican presidential candidates are engaging in a "reign of terror" and "don't like democratic government." In a possible (though confusing) allusion to the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the Hardball anchor smeared, "These are guys who tear down statues. They don't put them up."  [See video below. See MP3 audio here.] Matthews has a history of…