CBS: Despite Unpopularity, Obama Still 'Raking in Millions' for Dems

While teasing an upcoming report on President Obama campaigning for Democrats on Tuesday's CBS Early Show, fill-in co-host Chris Wragge touted: "...plunging poll numbers haven't stopped the President from raking in millions at fund raisers across the country." Later, White House correspondent Chip Reid observed: "You know, the President's approval rating is only 44%, but he is still quite popular…
Kyle Drennen
August 17th, 2010 12:26 PM

Absurd Media Meme: Ground Zero Mosque Is Fine Because There Are Strip

There is a new media meme rearing its ugly head in the many discussions of the Ground Zero Mosque. A number of journalists seem to be suggesting that if critics oppose the construction of the Mosque, they should also be incensed by the presence of strip clubs, bars, and an off-track betting location in the area."Just How 'Hallowed' is the Ground Near Ground Zero?" asks Time Magazine's Madison…
Lachlan Markay
August 17th, 2010 12:16 PM

Ex-Dem Aide Stephanopoulos and Ex-Dem Congressman Discuss Impact NY Mo

Rather than focus on the rightness of building a mosque near Ground Zero, or investigating the potential funding of the construction, Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday spent an entire interview with Harold Ford Jr. focusing on how it could damage the Democratic Party. Stephanopoulos began the segment by asserting, "They really hope this goes away at the White House." Talking…
Scott Whitlock
August 17th, 2010 11:46 AM

Newsweek: Stay on Pro-Gay Marriage Ruling Will Hurt GOP Hopes for Big

How dense and forgetful does Newsweek think socially conservative voters are? Apparently so much so that the magazine's Ben Adler predicts yesterday's stay on Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling permitting same-sex marriages in California will blunt the hopes Republicans have of social conservatives coming out in force on Election Day to help push the GOP to victory in the midterms on Election Day. In…
Ken Shepherd
August 17th, 2010 11:31 AM

Ground Zero Mosque Organizers to Israeli Newspaper: 'Go Back to Publis

How's this for "creating dialogue"?Yesterday, organizers of the Ground Zero mosque project took to Twitter to slam Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, after the paper incorrectly reported that plans for the controversial Islamic prayer center were being abandoned.But some say the mosque's organizers went too far by mocking Ha'aretz with references to Jewish culture. "On a side note, if Haaretz likes…
Alana Goodman
August 17th, 2010 11:21 AM

Matt Lauer on Today Show: Does Mosque Have To Move Just Because of

NBC's Matt Lauer, invited on former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and Freedom Works' Matt Kibbe to discuss the Ground Zero mosque controversy and claimed that since the group behind the mosque existed in Manhattan before the World Trade Center attack, questioned: "So because of 9/11, do they have to move further away? Do they have to go elsewhere?" Armey, who was on with Kibbe to promote their…
Geoffrey Dickens
August 17th, 2010 11:17 AM

MLK Sculptor also Painted Glenn Beck in Manure

A lot of liberals think Glenn Beck is full of, well, manure, but one artist Michael Murphy has taken it further than most. He did a picture of Beck using manure instead of paint. And now, anti-Beck demonstrators have hired Murphy to create a sculpture ... honoring Martin Luther King Jr.The Washington Post reported Aug. 17 that Murphy will unveil "The People's Memorial to King" in Washington, D.C…
Nathan Burchfiel
August 17th, 2010 11:06 AM

Rachel Maddow to Receive Award for Her 'Civility' and 'Tolerance

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow is actually about to win an award for her "civility" and "tolerance.""The Walter Cronkite Faith & Freedom Award, established by Interfaith Alliance in 1998, recognizes individuals who courageously promote democratic values, defend religious freedom and reinvigorate informed civic participation," reads a statement released by the organization Monday. "The award recognizes…
Noel Sheppard
August 17th, 2010 10:28 AM

Open Thread: 'Will Barack Obama Be a One-term President

NB Staff
August 17th, 2010 10:04 AM

Eleanor Clift: Obama Justice Department Let Tom DeLay 'Off the Hook' i

The Justice Department has dropped its case against former House Majority Leader, Tom Delay, and Newsweek's Eleanor Clift is in mourning. She just can't accept the fact that there was no substance to the charges against DeLay and ascribes the dropping of the case to the Obama Justice Department trying to score points with Republicans in the interest of bipartisanship. Clift also manages to smear…
P.J. Gladnick
August 17th, 2010 9:03 AM

LA Times To Hollywood: Please Ignore the Box Office Success of ‘The

Last week, film writer extraordinaire Christian Toto fell under the delusion that yours truly was interesting enough to interview, and if you're under the same delusion you can read the two-parter here and here. Among other things, Toto asked me about the clout critics wield and the most common mistakes they make. Here's a combination of my answers:Critics aren't dumb, they know the public doesn'…
John Nolte
August 17th, 2010 9:01 AM

Conservative Commentator James J. Kilpatrick Dies at

James J. Kilpatrick, best known as the conservative-curmudgeon commentator on "60 Minutes" in its "Point-Counterpoint" segment in the 1970s, has died at the age of 89. Washingtonians also remember his years as a panelist on the local weekly political talk show "Agronsky & Company." His column "A Conservative View" was syndicated in hundreds of newspapers.The Washington Post obituary on…
Tim Graham
August 17th, 2010 7:46 AM

Olbermann Hints Moral Equivalence Between U.S. & Islamic Empire, Block

On Monday’s Countdown show, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann delivered a "Special Comment" in which he invoked Nazi Germany and suggested that blocking construction of a mosque near Ground Zero could be the first of a "thousand steps" toward another holocaust. He also hinted at a moral equivalence between the Islamic Empire’s conquests and America’s expansion into the lands of Native Americans as he…
Brad Wilmouth
August 17th, 2010 7:26 AM

Norah: Mosque Opponents Acting Like 9-11 Terrorists

Harry Reid may have deserted Pres. Obama over the Ground Zero mosque, but PBO can count on at least one stalwart defender: Norah O'Donnell.  On today's Morning Joe, the MSNBC "correspondent" declared that the prez is deserving of praise for his position.  Then, dancing a quantum leap further, O'Donnell accused mosque opponents of acting "like the people who attacked America and killed 3,000…
Mark Finkelstein
August 17th, 2010 7:23 AM