Campaigns & Elections

After having started off with a number of surprisingly solid questions in Thursday’s PBS NewsHour Democratic Debate, co-moderator Gwen Ifill wondered to socialist Senator Bernie Sanders if he’s concerned that he “will be the instrument of thwarting history” if he defeats Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary as part of her second campaign to be the first female president.

In the Thursday evening newscasts ahead of the PBS Democratic Presidential Debate, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC largely focused on spinning the Congressional Black Caucus PAC’s endorsement of Hillary Clinton as “a major endorsement” and sign of “new momentum” following socialist Senator Bernie Sanders winning New Hampshire. 

Last October, after about six months of dawdling, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio finally came out with an endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president. Yet on tonight's Hardball, anchor Chris Matthews made it sound like the mayor probably wishes he had his old campaign-manager job back and was Hillary's "Mickey in the corner" at every debate.

Carol Costello spotlighted a young leftist's disdain for Hillary Clinton on Thursday's CNN Newsroom: "I talked to one young feminist — young woman — who said Hillary Clinton is just an old, white, rich person. Why should I listen to her? And that sounds really harsh, but young people are gravitating around Bernie Sanders because they like his idealistic message."

Any would-be Republican presidential candidate who had--hanging around his neck--all the scandals and investigations that surround Hillary Clinton, would likely not have the chutzpah to throw his hat into the ring. He'd know that the MSM would create such a toxic environment that his candidacy would never have a chance of getting off the ground.  And so it is somewhere between amusing and…

Unlike the apparently civil Democrats, the Republican primary in South Carolina is a historically “nasty” affair “going back to Richard Nixon.” That’s according to MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell on Thursday. Talking to Washington Post reporter Chris Cillizza, she lectured, “South Carolina Republican primary is so different from the Democratic primary.” 

Politico On Media writer Peter Sterne got his hands on a February 11 memo by Gawker Media executive editor John Cook sent to staff urging them to be sure to disclose in their articles if they've given money to the politician(s) they're reporting on.

Both CBS This Morning and NBC’s Today on Thursday devoted lengthy segments to fretting over Hillary Clinton’s failure to gain support among young female voters. Hosts on the two network morning shows wrung their hands while discussing how Clinton was “trounced” in New Hampshire by Bernie Sanders due to her “surprising struggle” to win over women.

As Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential effort has weakened, many on the left in fairly prominent places have begun releasing years of pent-up frustrations about her, her husband, and their record. At long last, the long knives are beginning to come out. Many of these missives are unhinged, but one which isn't, and deserves a closer look, comes from Camille Paglia at Salon.com. Given that Paglia'…

Offering a window into just how journalists view their power, on MSNBC on Thursday NBC News correspondent Gabe Gutierrez suggested that reporters may “punish” Marco Rubio for not admitting, quickly enough, to a bad debate performance: “But the question is will reporters punish him? Not just for that terrible debate performance on Saturday, but for the follow up, the next day, trying to own that…

On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough forcefully sought to refute the notion that Chris Christie's takedown of Marco Rubio in the last GOP debate was an unprovoked attack. Scarborough painted a very different picture, one in which by dint of his town hall work, Christie had been steadily climbing in the New Hampshire polls--until Rubio unleashed a wave of negative advertising on Christie that…

As part of his post-New Hampshire analysis on Thursday’s Nightly Show, Comedy Central personality Larry Wilmore used a clip of Senator Marco Rubio telling supporters he failed them in Saturday’s ABC debate to also argue it could be used as an admission that he had erectile dysfunction. 

On Wednesday night, ABC’s World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News failed to note the role that Hillary Clinton’s near-unanimous disapproval among Granite State Democratic primary voters concerning her honesty and trustworthiness played in her massive loss to socialist Senator Bernie Sanders. Instead, the pair (plus NBC Nightly News) largely pointed to Clinton’s losses among young voters and…

In an extensive interview for Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Scott Pelley took a stroll with socialist Senator Bernie Sanders around his childhood neighborhood in Brooklyn but not before a surprisingly tough sit-down that hit Sanders from the right on tax increases, the minimum wage, and how his ideas would be guaranteed to be “dead on arrival” in Congress.