Campaigns & Elections

While anchor Brian Williams described Newsweek's controversial cover photo of Michelle Bachmann as "clearly a misfire" on Monday's NBC Nightly News, on Tuesday's Today, correspondent Andrea Mitchell saw an opportunity to portray Bachmann as "extreme." Meanwhile, CBS completely ignored the story and ABC only provided a news brief on the topic. On Tuesday's Today, while Mitchell described the…

To Michael Tomasky, Barack Obama's problem is not lack of leadership or a rigid fixation to liberal ideology. No, it's just that the president is too darn decent a guy, a veritable Mr. Smith who's gone to Washington, but perhaps in this case without the Capraesque happy ending:

This was going to be a column insisting that Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida run for president of the United States. Now. Even though he has ruled out the possibility; even though he is but a baby senator. (Neither of these considerations has invariably stopped people in the past.) But no: That's not this column. Not because I don't think it might be an excellent idea, but because I take a man at…

Good Morning America's David Kerley on Saturday offered up a one-sided, biased take on a prayer event led by Texas Governor Rick Perry over the weekend. The ABC graphic for the segment chided, "Prayer Controversy: Is Rick Perry Going Too Far?" The piece featured four clips from those hostile from the event and none in support. Yet, Kerley still attempted to speak for the faithful: "Even some…

In an otherwise typically dismal column about President Barack Obama which is one part pity party and another part an attempt at building him a he-man reputation (not kidding), New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd describes an upcoming movie featuring the exploits of Navy SEAL Team 6 in the operation which killed Osama Bin Laden on May 1. Dowd celebrates the fact that the movie's currently…

The predictable MSM reaction to Standard & Poor's downgrading of the US government's credit rating? Kill the messenger, of course.  Yesterday, we noted how Jeff Glor at CBS' Early Show parroted the Obama line about the downgrade being "political." Today it was ABC's turn.  Good Morning America had on Mellody Hobson, a regular ABC "financial contributor" and former host of her own ABC…

While the liberal media scoffed at George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism" in 1999 and 2000 as gimmicky and insufficient compared to traditional big government social welfare spending binges, they're starting to miss it now. Just ask Time's Amy Sullivan:

If Barack Obama has lost Andrea Mitchell, has he lost the MSM? Surveying the economy on her MSNBC show his afternoon, Mitchell gloomily observed: "it just seems as though everyone is feeling a lack of hope." The White House needn't fear too much.  Mitchell might have wandered somewhat off script. But Andrea has surely not abandoned the ranks of the Obama-loving media.  She fretted that…

It seems that every time I see something possibly redeeming put forth by the Associated Press, they figure out a way to ruin it. Take Larry Margasak's report this afternoon on John Boehner's attempts at persuading House Republican members to support his various attempts at debt-ceiling legislation during the few two weeks. (I've made my general unhappiness with the ultimate result pretty…

MSNBC's Chris Matthews took his hateful attacks on conservatives to a new level, Wednesday, smearing the Tea Party as "southern" "secessionists" who want to "kill" Obama. The Hardball host quickly amended, "politically."  After guest Howard Fineman suggested Republicans have opposed the President from the start, the Hardball anchor retorted, "What? 'We hate you, want to kill you–' …

CBS's Norah O'Donnell played the role of a clairvoyant on Tuesday's Early Show as she hinted that President Obama's reelection is assured in 2012. Anchor Erica Hill asked O'Donnell how the White House viewed the debt ceiling bill. She replied, "I think they feel like this was... not necessarily a victory for the President. He did get an extension of this debt ceiling through 2012 and through…

President Barack Obama’s job approval ratings hit all-time lows last week among self-described Independents, moderates and conservative Democrats, according to the Gallup poll. At the same time, Obama’s job approval ratings increased among self-described liberals and liberal Democrats, according to Gallup.

Republicans and Democrats both seem to have come up short of a debt deal they really like. Many Republicans wanted more cuts, while many Democrats wanted more taxes on the rich. Both sides technically got something good out of the deal, but neither side is satisfied. One person that might have emerged as a winner, though, is President Obama, who supported a deal that will push any fiscal…

In a front-page “news analysis” piece this morning, Times national political correspondent Jeff Zeleny pronounced that “After a Protracted Fight, Both Sides Emerge Bruised.” Yet Zeleny’s analysis was chock full of the typical liberal bias slant that puffs up President Obama, slams the Tea Party as “intractable” and ignores the partisanship of liberal Senate members, particularly Harry Reid (…