Conservatives & Republicans

Appearing on PBS's Charlie Rose Tuesday night following President Obama's State of the Union address, Bloomberg View columnist Al Hunt praised it as "one of the best speeches of his presidency" and "remarkably effective," before admitting: "I don't think he's going to get much done....This is not a cycle where you get much done. He may get a little stuff on trade and infrastructure."

Wednesday's CNN Newsroom aired an ESPN-style highlight reel of "some of the moments that got us talking" from President Obama's State of the Union address. The mash-up featured dramatic music and bold graphics, and zeroed in on the Democrat's "burn" of congressional Republicans during his speech. Bizarrely, the program also repeatedly played clips of the President winking and Vice President Biden…

The Daily Kos founder and publisher argues that the recent jump in Obama’s approval rating shows that Obama should have governed as a staunch liberal “from Day One, instead of wasting years of his life trying to make nice with an intractable and hostile Republican Party…Republicans are on a holy war to destroy everything that is good and noble about government. They have no interest in peace.”

In a softball interview with Joe Biden on Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer fretted over there being "more tension than normal" during Tuesday's State of the Union address with Republicans in control of Congress and slammed GOP reaction to a line in the speech: "...the President was talking about having arguments that are worthy of the body and the country, and then he said, 'I've run my…

During NBC’s coverage of President Obama’s seventh State of the Union speech, anchor Brian Williams remarked how there’s been “change in tone and tenor and ambiance” inside the House chamber from over the past few years and chose to link it to Republican Congressman Joe Wilson (S.C.) telling the President “you lie” during a 2009 speech before a joint session of Congress. After saying how “some…

At the conclusion of President Barack Obama’s 2015 State of the Union speech, CBS News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer offered plenty of praise for the President’s address by proclaiming it as “the best speech he’s made in awhile” with “soaring rhetoric” and being “uplifting at the end.” In the moments right after the speech, Schieffer declared that the…

While previewing President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night, NBC Nightly News had on Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd, who told viewers that the President will set out to “do a little victory lap about the state of the economy” and opined how Obama “got the post-election honeymoon, not the Republicans” thanks to his moves on illegal immigration and Cuba. Following the move…

Esquire blogger Pierce alleges that right-wingers have turned the civil-rights movement “into a weapon against issues on which Dr. King surely would have come down on the progressive side,” and declares that the movement “no longer can be used as history's truncheon against the legitimate social, cultural, and political aspirations of the people who are its truest heirs.”

Arsalan Iftikhar made a bigoted attack on Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal on Monday's Now with Alex Wagner on MSNBC. Iftikhar asserted that the minority Republican politician was trying to make himself more white by hyping "no-go zones" in Europe: "He might be trying to scrub some of the brown off of his skin as he runs to the right – you know, in a Republican presidential exploratory bid."

On Tuesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer actually grilled White House chief of staff Denis McDonough on President Obama's tax hike proposal: "During the President's last press conference of 2014, he was asked how he might be able to work with the new incoming Republican-controlled Congress and he said, quote, 'The tax area is one area where we can get things done.' And now he's proposing a…

Ahead of President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, the networks offered previews of his speech during their Monday evening newscasts with ABC and NBC working particularly hard to paint a rosy picture for Obama with rising poll numbers and having “redefined” the “model of how to sell the State of the Union.”

New York magazine’s Jonathan Chait says reform conservatives such as Peter Wehner are “trying to coax the Republican Party back toward sanity” but argues that Wehner undervalues the “apocalyptic strain” in right-wing rhetoric.

If we can't have a wholly unified Republican Party, can the GOP at least agree on some major issues that are essential to the Republican brand and, more importantly, help to get this country back on the right track? If we can't come together on some of the basic issues that have always defined us, how do we effectively oppose President Obama's ongoing destructive agenda? How do we sell ourselves…

At the top of NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, moderator Chuck Todd wondered if a Republican rising star could overcome a major obstacle that has occurred "year after year" for the GOP: "Can Iowa's Joni Ernst avoid becoming the latest victim of the curse of the State of the Union response?"