Open Thread: How Much Trust Can Be Placed in Primary Polls

Polls of potential voters early in the primary season define front-runners in the race early on. At sixteen months out from next year's election, though, many voters have yet to invest much interest into researching candidates, which could play out into very skewed survey results. As the Weekly Standard's Jay Cost points out, support in early primary polls is not always reflected once the…
NB Staff
June 29th, 2011 10:51 AM

Liberal Media Want Independence from Exceptionalism

"It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more." -John Adams, July 3rd, 1776 Seems like a lot of fuss over a document written to form a…
Matt Philbin
June 29th, 2011 10:02 AM

Media Leave Out Economists from Stories on Debt Crisis 'Calamity

The United States is in debt up to its eyeballs - or more realistically the Statue of Liberty's eyeballs. On May 16, America hit the debt ceiling. which is slightly less than $14.3 trillion. That works out to about $46,000 for every man, woman and child in the nation. Despite those staggering numbers, the broadcast networks have relegated their coverage primarily to the politics involved,…
Julia A. Seymour
June 29th, 2011 9:49 AM

Alec Baldwin on Bachmann: 'Inarticulate and Full of [It],' Backed by

Fox Nation pointed out that Alec Baldwin bashed Michele Bachmann on Twitter on Tuesday night: Fear Bachman bc she is raising so much money. Anyone that inarticulate and full of s--- who is raising money that fast ...is beholden to some mighty thuggish interests.
Tim Graham
June 29th, 2011 8:34 AM

ABC Touts Liberal Mayors Demanding Less Defense Spending, More Money f

 On ABC’s World News on Sunday, a report by correspondent Jim Avila highlighted the complaints of left-wing mayors who expressed wishes that more defense spending would be redirected at projects in their cities. The NBC correspondent speculated about what other items could be paid for using the money used by the Pentagon in Afghanistan and Iraq, and concluded the report seeming to suggest…
Brad Wilmouth
June 29th, 2011 8:19 AM

NewsBusters Design Improvements

You may have noticed it already but in case you haven't, push reload on your browser. We've implemented some long requested changes to NewsBusters tonight including the much-requested "wide screen" format that expands the left side of the page to fit your browser window width. Also included in the fixes:
Matthew Sheffield
June 29th, 2011 8:12 AM

Matthews: Bush Caused Recession, But Let's Not Quibble Over Which Part

Chris Matthews Tuesday once again showed that his tenuous grasp of reality is getting dangerously weak. During the final segment of "Hardball," the host unequivocally blamed the 2007 financial crisis and resulting recession on George W. Bush just moments before he said, "Okay, Obama hasn't been able to get us out of it yet, but...there’s no sense blaming one Party or the other" (video follows…
Noel Sheppard
June 29th, 2011 1:37 AM

Bozell Column: Jon Stewart vs. Fox Facts

The Republican presidential contest is picking up steam. Obama is consistently polling under 50 percent. This one's a toss-up, and in the thick of it is the Fox News Channel. It's not just their role in hosting and vetting the candidates. It's their role as the chief villain in the eyes of liberal Democrats struggling to push their version of the "truth" about Obama.  Jon Stewart rhetorically…
Brent Bozell
June 28th, 2011 10:58 PM

Case Shiller Home Price 'Boost' Disappears After Seasonal Adjustment

While the vast majority of those in the establishment press doggedly insist on reporting seasonally adjusted numbers in most economic spheres, there is an odd exception: Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Indices. Not that it's completely the press's fault. S&P emphasizes the raw numbers over the seasonally adjusted ones, and for a pretty good reason: The raw numbers represent…
Tom Blumer
June 28th, 2011 9:49 PM

Keith Ellison: Misrepresenting the Pledge of Allegiance

Over the course of the last few months, Rep. Keith Ellison, one of two Muslim members of Congress, has been cherry-picking the Pledge of Allegiance in an attempt to portray prominent Republicans as bigoted islamophobes.  Earlier this year, Ellison responded to the Peter King hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims by saying that conservatives believe in liberty, but are against the…
Rusty Weiss
June 28th, 2011 7:57 PM

Bloomberg Predictably Drops 'Unexpectedly' From Consumer Confidence Re

It looks like someone in the establishment business press might be getting a little touchy about the razzing they continually receive for delivering "unexpectedly" bad economic news. As captured by Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit and corroborated in this Google News description, Bloomberg's 10:16 a.m. report on consumer sentiment told readers that "Consumer confidence unexpectedly fell in June…
Tom Blumer
June 28th, 2011 7:06 PM

Chris Matthews Dubs Himself the 'Great Communicator' for Getting Hunts

This may not be the endorsement Jon Huntsman wants. MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Tuesday touted the Republcian presidential candidate's apparent acquiescence to a demand he made in an advertisement for Hardball. The journalist was so pleased, he dubbed himself, "the great communicator." Matthews praised the moderate Republican for answering "the call I made during that promotional ad I was very…
Scott Whitlock
June 28th, 2011 6:00 PM

What Was Chris Wallace Driving At

I was disappointed that Chris Wallace asked Michele Bachmann whether she is a flake, but Wallace's behavior is hardly the most important issue involved. What he was trying to get at is another matter. It is no secret that a good number of people regard Bachmann as a loose cannon who is given to gaffes and hyperbole. And it's not just Bachmann.
David Limbaugh
June 28th, 2011 6:00 PM

CNN Presses Michele Bachmann: Did You Intend to Make False Statements

On Tuesday's American Morning, co-host Kiran Chetry reported that  Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is "prone to misstatements" and posed this question to her: "Did you mean to make false statements intentionally or were you just misspeaking?" "PolitiFact.com, which is a Pulitzer Price winning fact-checking web site examined 26 statements that you made and they found only one to be fully true…
Matt Hadro
June 28th, 2011 5:50 PM