Campaigns & Elections

Sunday's MediaBuzz on Fox News Channel critiqued the media's attention on the National Enquirer's cover story about multiple alleged affairs involving Senator Ted Cruz. Howard Kurtz noted that "the dilemma for the press here is whether to run with these unproven allegations." The Daily Caller's Gayle Trotter asserted that the press "shouldn't run with it, because the story itself shows that the…

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski had a jolly old time mocking Ted Cruz on today's Morning Joe. After playing a clip of Cruz refusing to say whether he'd support Trump given The Donald's attack on his wife, Joe imagined Cruz rehearsing his words before a mirror. Scarborough went on to approvingly cite David Axelrod, who had said that Cruz seems "staged" even when defending the honor of his…

For the past month, the conventional wisdom about the U.S. economy has been that consumer spending and "(not really) robust" job growth will continue to prop up the economy, even as weaknesses in manufacturing, trade and other areas continue to present problems. President Obama bragged in early March that the economy is "pretty darned good now." Today, the first of those two pillars got pulled.…

Despite the fact that there’s a complete lack of solid sourcing in the sleazy National Enquirer allegations against Ted Cruz, all three networks on Monday morning reported on the story again, offering an additional three minutes and 44 seconds. This is on top of 11 minutes and 43 seconds devoted to the sketchy claims from Friday through Sunday. In total, the ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening…

Conservatives have objected in droves to a remark President Obama made this past week during his visit to Argentina. Addressing a gathering of young adults, Obama said, “In the past there’s been a sharp division…between capitalist and communist or socialist…but I think for your generation, you should be practical and just choose from what works.” The right’s hostile response, contended The…

Hillary Clinton’s Twitter account The Briefing 2016 is still milking the Comedy Central episode of Broad City that promoted her as a twinkly, winking political rock star. “What was it like to be on set with @HillaryClinton? Broad City's director tells all.” Molly Eichel at Philly.com promoted Philadelphia native and director Todd Biermann, who explain how he and Amy Poehler loved every minute of…

The media quite routinely circulate Donald Trump tweets that they find offensive or at least controversial, even by now they suspect nothing outrageous ever dents the Trump magic among his followers. But what about the followers, the Trumpkins? How ugly can they be on social-media forums like Twitter? We know the media plucked offensive signs out at Tea Party rallies, so how is this different?

When was the last time a badly trailing presidential candidate in either major party won relatively late-in-the-game contests by lopsided victory margins of greater than 70-30, as Bernie Sanders did in Washington today, and greater than 80-20, as Sanders did in Alaska? I'm virtually certain that the answer to that question, regardless of what happens in Hawaii's Democratic primary much later…

Actress Sally Field likes Hillary Clinton. She really, really likes her. Talking to Time magazine for the March 21 issue, she gushed, “I think it’s miraculous that she is female, and it’s almost secondary to the fact that she’s way qualified, would be a brilliant President.” 

No one can in good faith dispute that Planned Parenthood sold baby body parts. It has been carefully documented. And there's that video of a Planned Parenthood official fantasizing about buying a Lamborghini with the proceeds. The capper is that PP President Cecile Richards announced not long ago that PP would no longer take money for body parts. As Michelle Malkin marvelously put it in her …

According to Dylan Matthews, Donald Trump attracts a highly diverse group of foes. Some of them (mostly Democrats and independents) find racism appalling, but others (notably some prominent Republicans) are fine with it as long as it’s packaged in a certain way. In a Wednesday article, Matthews remarked that even though GOPers such as Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney have sharply criticized Trump, they’…

What could make the perfect pro-Hillary Clinton interview? Would it include bashing the GOP as immature and intolerant? How about downplaying her email scandal? Bringing up how sexist her critics are? All of the above happened on Thursday night’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Even when Clinton was not being interviewed, the whole show Thursday seemed to be devoted to portraying Clinton as the only “adult…

Far-left host Keith Olbermann appeared on The View, Friday, to warn that while the threat of a nuclear ISIS is “theoretical,” the danger of Donald Trump becoming President is a “distinct” possibility. Olbermann wondered aloud, “Somebody said the other day...'What would happen if ISIS got nukes?.... So, I said, ‘what would happen if Donald Trump got nukes?’"

Former Reagan administration official Bruce Bartlett joined the opening panel on MSNBC’s All In Thursday night and put forth the notion that Republicans in Washington and particularly Congress are responsible for the rise of Donald Trump by creating an “authoritarian, fascistic attitude that we're going to get stuff done.”