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Imagine waking from a years-long coma this past Wednesday evening, with a television in the room tuned to MSNBC. You slowly open your eyes and see ... President Rachel Maddow speaking from the Oval Office.Whereupon you lapse back into a coma.Actually, it was "Fake President" Maddow, as she called herself, delivering a mock speech on the BP spill she wished Obama had given the night before.Among…

Someone—please!!—buy the man another stock phrase . . . Teasing his upcoming interview with Joe Sestak on last evening's Hardball, Chris Matthews admitted that Democrats are worried that Dem PA senatorial candidate Joe Sestak isn't "ready for prime time."When Sestak later appeared, he demonstrated just why Dems are distraught.  The leaden, formulaic Sestak used the trite "at the end of the day"…

When it comes to the performance of the U.S.-headquartered Detroit automakers once known as the Big Three, the real news in the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 Initial Quality Study (IQS) is not what the Associated Press's Stephen Manning wrote in his Thursday coverage ("US cars top foreign brands on quality survey") of Power's pronouncement. While barely true and in a sense historic, it's not…

Saturday demonstrated a staggering disparity in how media view those involved in the Gulf Coast oil spill cleanup.While news outlets heaped scorn upon beleaguered BP CEO Tony Hayward for attending a yacht race in England Saturday, there was no such anger shown towards President Obama and Vice President Biden for going golfing.In fact, as this Reuters piece illustrated, despite what our Commander-…

With all the conservative columnists out there, if you were looking for an author to represent the right-wing view in a new Crossfire-like program, would you choose Kathleen Parker who lately has largely presented herself as a Republican In Name Only? According to the New York Post, that's exactly what CNN is considering.Not only that, but her liberal opponent is rumored to be -- wait for it! --…

Anyone wishing to sum up the point of the Chris Matthews MSNBC special "Rise of the New Right" should just consider the closing commentary: Throughout our history, we have disagreed passionately over the role of the federal government and of our country`s role in the world, but we are generally a pragmatic people, not given to ideological extremes. What`s scary today is the language being thrown…

The most-recent cover of "Outside" magazine features a picture of famed cyclist Lance Armstrong wearing a t-shirt with the phrase "38. BFD." Photoshopped on it.Although the magazine did note on the cover the shirt wasn't Armstrong's -- albeit in print so small most likely won't see it! -- the seven-time Tour de France winner is not pleased, and voiced his objection to his Twitter followers…

The Washington Post’s Colbert I. King is a regular TV commentator, a Pulitzer prize winner and the deputy editor of the paper’s influential editorial page. But the column he churned out for this morning’s paper is one of the laziest ad hominem attacks on conservatives I’ve ever seen.Dressed up as a Father’s Day column, King argues that Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh should not…

“Who was Bob Hope?” To anyone over 35 that seems like such a strange question. Bob Hope, everyone knows, was one of the greatest American entertainers of the 20th century, and whose greatest public service was his decades-long commitment to U.S. troops all over the world for many decades, which earned him the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among other honors…

The top headline on MSNBC.com on Saturday morning declared "The granddaddy of all gushers? Not this spill." They touted a New York Times story: President Obama called the leak in the Gulf of Mexico "the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced." But scholars are debating that description.It's a good idea for reporters to question politicians' bluster about history. But it certainly…

 "Far-Right" Angle on G.O.P. Senate Candidate From Nevada"But on the other hand some of these women are, like in Nevada, against Harry Reid, Sharron Angle has, she's a Tea Party candidate who's given Democrats renewed hope of saving Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, from what was looking to be near certain defeat, because she is so extreme....The Democrats generally at first blush on…