Campaigns & Elections

Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman appeared on Monday's Hardball to smear the Republican Party as "xenophobic" and "nativist." Fineman lamented that Mitt Romney doesn't have the courage to take on the base, a group he mocked as being "afraid of the world." Fineman is now the editorial director for the liberal Huffington Post, an outlet in sync with his own left-wing views. Matthews and…

Over the past few weeks, President Obama and his campaign team have launched a furious attack on Mitt Romney's record as head of Bain Capital, a highly successful venture capital firm. There is clear evidence that the attacks have had some impact. Forty-one percent of voters now see Romney's record in the private sector primarily as a reason to vote for him, but an equal number see that…

On Monday's CBS This Morning, Norah O'Donnell glossed over President Barack Obama's record of supporting gun control when she claimed that "Mitt Romney, in some ways, has been more for gun control than Barack Obama...He signed, as governor...a law, to ban assault weapons, and he only just recently joined the NRA." O'Donnell also played up that the President has apparently "disappointed gun…

Despite the incessant focus on electoral politics that any presidential election year brings, it's important to step back occasionally and realize that campaigns and elections are actually only the tip of the iceberg of the political environment. This insight is important because electoral wins and losses are less about the personal qualities of the candidates and more about how well they are…

If the idea of tax increases is so darned popular, why do journalists "creatively" avoid using the term? Here's an example from a lengthy Saturday report on Democrat Bob Kerrey's U.S. Senate comeback effort in Nebraska by Karen Tumulty at the Washington Post, wherein she describes the 1993 Clinton tax hikes as a "deficit-reduction plan" (bolds are mine):

In September 2010, the Associated Press prepared an advance report on the expected surge in the Census Bureau's official poverty rate, which rose from 13.2% to a 15-year high of 14.3%. Their stated preoccupation was not with the associated pain, but with "the unfortunate timing for Obama and his party just seven weeks before important elections when Congress is at stake." Well, this year's…

Of course President Obama is the "perfect American" to tingle-prone Chris Matthews, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News's Sean Hannity, because liberal media personalities like Matthews refuse to report on Obama adminstration failures and scandals. "He makes the point that you and I have been making for months about this campaign," the Media Research Center founder noted on the…

Brian Ross is not the only blameworthy party in the irresponsible smear of a 52 year-old Tea Party activist as the possible perpetrator of the Aurora, Colorado theater massacre early Friday. Everyone on the set of ABC's Good Morning America could have said "wait, this is premature and irresponsible" -- and didn't. GMA co-host and former Bill Clinton advisor George Stephanopoulos's response to…

In an interview with Mitt Romney's five sons aired on Thursday's NBC Rock Center, campaign correspondent Peter Alexander took a jab at the family's wealth: "Their life of privilege, plus a reported $100 million trust fund, continues to draw harsh scrutiny....The criticism is that a family like yours, the Romneys, can't really understand what the average American family is dealing with right now…

Soon after releasing a new advertisement that combined footage of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney “dancing around the issues” with that of his wife, Ann, riding a dancing show horse, the Democratic National Committee offered “an apology of sorts.” The minute-long spot mingles images of Ann Romney riding her horse, which she does as therapy for multiple sclerosis, with footage of her…

If Mitt Romney hadn’t brought up President Obama's "you didn't build that" crack about business owners, the mainstream media wouldn’t have reported on it, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News Channel's Neil Cavuto on his Your World program today. "This was a bombshell story. Now look at the coverage.  You cannot-- this is a classic example of the two-sided nature of this campaign…

Four days after President Obama insulted job creators by asserting "If you've got a business, you didn't build that; somebody else made that happen," CNN finally reported the controversial remarks, and only once the Romney campaign featured them in a campaign attack. In contrast, when Romney surrogate John Sununu said on Tuesday morning that he wished "this President would learn how to be an…

President Barack Obama's now-infamous "you didn't build that" line about entrepreneurs is an "astonishing" example of how the president reveals his true antipathy against the free enterprise system when he's speaking off-the-cuff sans teleprompter, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox Business Network anchor Stuart Varney on the July 19 edition of Varney & Co. "This is a man who…

Before taking the oath of office, Barack Obama vowed to fundamentally transform the United States. He has certainly done so. For example, Obama has: