Campaigns & Elections

Much of the left is obsessed with the religious right’s supposed obsession with sex. Exhibit number whatever was Marcotte’s Tuesday piece in Salon about Ted Cruz’s win in Iowa’s Republican caucuses. Marcotte alleged that Cruz’s supporters in the Hawkeye State featured “a veritable rogue’s gallery of every creepy straight guy who claims he loves Jesus but has his eyes fixed firmly on the crotches…

Tuesday’s CBS Evening News offered three segments recapping the results of Monday’s Iowa caucuses and in covering the Democratic side, touted Hillary Clinton as having “made history” despite the near-tie with socialist Senator Bernie Sanders plus how she’s already past 15 percent of her way to the nomination based on the superdelegates she’s already amassed.

In a thoroughly softball interview geared at presenting Hillary Clinton as a sensible centrist progressive who holds the Democrats' only hope of presidential victory this year, Hardball host Chris Matthews fawned over Clinton by essentially apologizing for not appreciating at the time the former senator's 2008 New Hampshire primary comeback subsequent to her stunning Iowa caucus loss.

After FNC’s Outnumbered offered near unanimous condemnation of National Review’s anti-Donald Trump issue and editor-in-chief Rich Lowry a few weeks ago, Lowry responded as a guest host on Tuesday’s show and not surprisingly was bombarded with criticism and accused of being “elitist,” “really, really rude,” and part of “the establishment” for having “insulted” voters by opposing Trump.

Bernie Sanders is out of touch with the experience of many small-town Americans, CNBC anchor Kelly Evans hinted on the February 2 Closing Bell program. The local Walmart in her small town growing up was a "godsend," according to Evans, who was raised in Lexington, Va.

A totally clueless Brian Williams on Monday night warned MSNBC viewers to not fall for false information as Iowa caucus results rolled in. The man who became known for spinning vast numbers of falsehoods while anchor at NBC News ominously began, “There's going to be some data floating around, especially the internet tonight.”

"As far as single payer, it works in Canada, it works incredibly well in Scotland." "I would press for universal health care. ... I would put forward a comprehensive health care program and fund it with an increase in corporate taxes." "We must have universal healthcare." – Donald Trump

On Tuesday, all three network morning shows fretted over Hillary Clinton barely defeating Bernie Sanders in the Iowa caucus. NBC’s Today was the most melodramatic, with co-host Matt Lauer declaring: “Hillary Clinton gets to come out of Iowa and say, technically, ‘I'm the winner,’ but this had to be a near-death experience for the once-presumptive nominee.”

Predictably, CNN on Monday night featured the cry of sexism in reaction to Hillary Clinton’s virtual tie with an elderly socialist senator. After long-time CNN veteran David Gergen called Clinton “angry” in her speech, the cable channel went to former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter to complain, “Let us not slip into some gender bias here. A man raises his voice, he's enthusiastic.” 

CNN's Wolf Blitzer shamed Democratic Party leaders early on Tuesday morning, after correspondent Jeff Zeleny reported that "the Iowa Democratic Party...failed to adequately staff 90 precincts across the state." Blitzer first replied, "That's pretty shocking," and wondered if there was "higher turnout than they anticipated." The anchor later labeled the situation "pretty embarrassing." He…

In the November 2000 presidential election, the Big 3 TV networks prematurely declared Democrat Al Gore the winner before the polls in those portions of the Sunshine State in the Central Time Zone had even closed. According to one post-election study, the networks' arguably politically motivated calls cost Republican George W. Bush 10,000 votes, led to the most bitter post-election battle over…

Coming out of retirement on Tuesday’s CBS This Morning to comment on the state of the 2016 presidential race after the Iowa caucus, former Face the Nation moderator Bob Schieffer decided it was appropriate to compare the Republican winner to murderous Mexican drug lord El Chapo.

The late-night news magazine Nightline on ABC devoted its show Monday night to the Iowa caucuses. ABC News political analyst and former Bush administration official Matthew Dowd denounced caucus winner Ted Cruz’s chances for winning the nomination since he still “doesn’t have a clear path” to the top. Dowd was set up by host Dan Harris pointing out to him that “we've seen in the past conservative…

BBC anchor Katty Kay on Monday turned Ted Cruz’s surprise Iowa win into a negative and told Charlie Rose viewers that the Republican was unlikable and someone who needed more scrutiny from the media. Kay snidely remarked, “It's interesting for Ted Cruz, right? The good news coming out of Iowa is that he gets a whole load of media attention. The bad news coming out of Iowa is that he gets a whole…