Time's Mark Halperin: It's 'McCarthyism' to Blame Mitt Romney for Non-Existent Jeremiah Wright Ad

By Josh St. Louis | May 18, 2012 | 14:18

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When the New York Times reported that a pro-Mitt Romney super PAC was toying with a proposal to attack President Obama by highlighting his connections to his former pastor, the controversial far-left Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the liberal media went predictably apoplectic, calling the proposed ad campaign “incendiary and racially-tinged,” ignoring of course the incendiary things Wright thundered from the pulpit for years.

That's why Time magazine's Mark Halperin's defense of Romney and his Super PAC on the May 18 Morning Joe program is striking by contrast. [Audio here. Video below the jump.]

Halperin questioned the news judgment of placing the story on the front page of the Times, noting that this was ad that was not going to be done, hence not as big of a story. Predictably, liberal ad executive Donny Deutsch rushed to disagree, saying that he was interested in the story “as a reader, not as a Democrat.” As a Democrat, Deutsch has been very generous to the Democratic party, giving thousands to candidates such as John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, and Chuck Schumer according to OpenSecrets.org. Deutsch also tossed in a predictable talking point against the left-wing bogeyman of the past few years, the Citizen's United ruling, calling the Court's opinion in that case, “the most frightening decision of my lifetime as far as a shot at democracy.”

Co-host Willie Geist asked, “Does Mitt Romney owe it to the media, does he owe it to voters to explain a story of a group to which he is not attached?” Halperin jumped in, accusing the media of McCarthyism, saying:

The media tends to take associations of Republican candidates and make, tie them around the neck of the Republican and say Mitt Romney has to account for every Republican out there...Its McCarthyism to say Mitt Romney is responsible for everybody out there who he has a direct or indirect contact to.

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The full transcript is below.

MSNBC
Morning Joe
May 18 2012
8:10 AM EDT

MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Okay. Yesterday was on the front page of the New York Times, a proposal to attack President Obama linking him to controversial comments made by his former pastor. Now, that back fired before it ever got off the ground. The New York Times reported that a Republican leaning super pac was considering launching a $10 million ad campaign to target the president's ties to the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Remember him? Whose racially tinged comments became an issue in the campaign four years ago. It was a 54-page proposal that the Times was covering called "The defeat of Barack Hussein Obama.” According to strategists, the ads would, quote, do exactly what John McCain would not let us do, in going after the president's relationship with Reverend Wright. The proposal read in part, quote, the world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big attention-arresting way. Now, the Times report says the plan was just one of several commissioned being considered, meaning he asked for ideas to consider by billionaire Joe Rickets who founded TD Ameritrade. And it continues to report saying the proposal was presented last week in Chicago to associates and family members of Mr. Ricketts. The 54-page proposal was professionally bound and illustrated with colored photographs indicating, this is the Times Editorial insight here, indicating it’s far beyond a mere discussion. The strategists have already contacted Larry Elder, a black conservative radio host in Los Angeles about serving as a spokesman and the plan calls for a group of black business leaders to endorse the effort. The strategists have also registered a domain name character matters. Now by yesterday afternoon ricketts said he rejected the idea, adding it was only a suggestion for one possible direction to take. And the president of the super pac says Mr. Ricketts was not the funder of the plan and that he has, quote, focused entirely on questions of fiscal policy, not attacks that seek to divide us socially or culturally. Mitt Romney also distanced himself from the story speaking to reporters at a news conference in Florida.

[CLIP]

MITT ROMNEY: I read the article on the aircraft. As I read the article I want to make it very clear I repudiate that–that effort. I think it's the wrong course for a PAC or a campaign. I hope that our campaigns can respectively be about the future and about issues and about a vision for America. I've been disappointed in the President's campaign to date which has focused on character assassination.

BRZEZINKSI: Okay. So we're going to take a closer look at all of this. Impact of the story in itself. Mark Halperin, I'm just curious because you know the reporters, you know the Times, do you think this is a fair story?

MARK HALPERIN: Well, there are a lot of elements to this.

BRZEZINSKI: There is, I know.

HALPERIN: I think the biggest thing about this is there is extraordinary anger and frustration on the right from a lot of people who feel the president wasn't scrutinized enough in 2008. And so there's a lot -- and there is a lot of money out there and a lot of rich people, conservatives trying to figure out how can I have an impact in this race beyond doing what everybody else is already doing?

MIKA: Right.

HALPERIN: In this case it was a marriage between someone with a lot of money and a group of consultants who wanted to make some money and had an idea about how to do it. How to both make money and they thought try to affect the outcome of the race. I think the biggest effect of this is it's going to be much harder for anybody now to come forward with ideas to try to bring down the president based on character. And it takes a day away from Mitt Romney to talk about the economy. He's got a new tv ad out today that deals with the economy–

BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.

HALPERIN: That's where they want the race. And so you saw the president's supporters jump all over this. I think I have great respect for the The New York Times, great respect for the reporters who wrote this story. I don't think it should have gotten the play that it did given the facts, given this was something that was going to be done and now won't be done for sure.

BRZEZINSKI: Ideas are ideas. I want to hear why you disagree. It was a proposal that was being sent to Joe Ricketts, it was not something Joe Ricketts had blessed.

HALPERIN: Right, although the Times, today in the followup story says when they asked on Wednesday the day before the story ran, is this something that's dead or alive in effect they were given the impression this is still something that's alive. And that's, for them, I think, a big part of their justification, that this was not just something the consultants floated out there but something still being considered according to The Times reporting.

DONNY DEUTSCH: It is definitely a story. Look, I would have been one of those guys. That proposal is called a deck in my business where you go in and you present your new business idea which theoretically it was. Fred Davis was someone invited to present that deck. Now, once again, that doesn't mean Ricketts is attached to it, but that is a very interesting behind-the-scenes story at how strategies and ad campaigns --

BRZEZINSKI: But wouldn't you want to present an interesting behind the scenes story about a Democratic Super PAC well? Some of their incendiary ideas? Many of the ideas are bad.

DEUTSCH: Oh come on, who’s to say–by the way. Ys the New York Times left leaning? I think that's fair to say.

BRZEZINSKI: Okay.

DEUTSCH: Having said that though, there was nothing in the story that was not true. I found it fascinating both as somebody in the media and as a voter. And I think it also shows that in reality that is a path to your point that a lot of strategists and people would like to take so that was real story.

HALPERIN: A real story but with a real state of the New York Times above the fold, front page?

DEUTSCH : By the way, as a reader not as a Democrat, I picked up that paper yesterday. And I couldn't not go to it. They have to sell newspapers also kids. Let's not kid ourselves, you know. It is not the same as TIME magazine with the Four-year-old breast feeding his mother.

HALPERIN: Three.

DEUTSCH: Three, whatever.

BRZEZINSKI: I think a day away from being 4 in my opinion. Steve Rattner?

STEVE RATTNER: Well, I think we all agree it was definitely a story.

DEUTSCH: No, you're saying it didn't belong there.

RATTNER: No, he is saying it's a story. He’s just disagreeing about the placement of the story.

DEUTSCH: I'm sorry.

RATTNER: So let's talk about the placement of the story. I think you could have gone either way. The fact that it was exclusive always gives a story more import in terms of the eyes of the editors and where they place it, having worked there for nine years, you're a journalist and you know how that works and where they place it.

HALPERIN: No question.

RATTNER: I think it was a legitimate proposal being considered, it could well have belonged on the front page above fold, below the fold. We can argue about that. But I don't think it was widely overplayed. I think it was in the zone of reasonableness.

WILLIE GEIST: This also raised questions, Mark, about the world of super pacs and how they're related to the candidate himself. This immediately was hung around the neck of Mitt Romney.

BRZEZINSKI: Exactly.

GEIST: David Axelrod and Bill Burton were tweeting before we were even awake, most of us, at four o’clock in the morning sending out tweets about how will Mitt Romney respond to this? Does Mitt Romney owe it to the media, does he owe it to voters, to explain a story of a group to which he is not attached?

HALPERIN: I think again, I want to be careful about all of this because there is a lot of complexity here. The media tends to take associations of Republican candidates and make–tie them around the neck of the Republican and say Mitt Romney has to account for every Republican out there, every conservative, every idea. I think there is less of that is done on the left. And I think in general it shouldn't be done. Its McCarthyism to say Mitt Romney is responsible for everybody out there who he has a direct or indirect contact to. That is what the Obama people did. They're raising money off it. They're wasting a day of campaign dialogue on it because it is effective for them.

BRZEZINSKI: Is this a story though about the super pac and Joe Ricketts or about strategists Fred Davis and different tactics they would take?

HALPERIN: To project forward about the implications, again, i think it makes it harder for super pacs on the right to do certain things. That is probably a good thing. But it also gives you an idea. There will be a lot of rich people ready to write multimillion dollar checks that are going to want to say to their consultants I want something different. I don't want to be the 15th guy running ads saying the Obama economy is a failure.

BRZEZINSKI: Right.

HALPERIN: There is going to be a lot of stuff.

DEUTSCH: I also think that its a demonstration of the only fight we have against the Supreme Court decision that allows these ads. And this is an over zealous media to put the truth out there to kind of start to get behind the scenes because that as I've said many times in the show is the most frightening decision of my lifetime as far as a shot at democracy, so.

BRZEZINSKI: All right.

Josh St. Louis's blog
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Comments

So....

Submitted by bigdaddy on Fri, 05/18/2012 - 2:43pm.

....They want to slam Mittens for something he's already denounced and hasn't even been seen yet? Hmmmm, this could be really good when they start slamming Romney for stuff they think he might do and end up putting out the Obama trash on their own. The trash that they should have put out four years ago.

Which is why someone needs to air tape of Wright's comments

Submitted by dscott on Fri, 05/18/2012 - 9:12pm.

The purpose of the Left reacting to something that doesn't yet exist is because they fear it exceedingly. This is a common tactic the left takes when it has no defense against the obvious, which is why whatever the left tries to get you not to do, YOU SHOULD DO IT!

FINISH THE VIDEO AND PUT IT ON YOUTUBE. LET THE LEFT SCREAM. The louder they scream, the more the moderates take notice. The left will undo themselves.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, starving the poor one gallon of ethanol at a time. Fill your tank with E85 and cull a village.

The Republican PAC's should run any ad they choose

Submitted by ohio granny on Fri, 05/18/2012 - 5:23pm.

The republican PAC's should run any ad they choose with or without Romney's approval. McCain refused to even allow the use of Obama' middle name and exactly where did that get him? He lost of courst !!!!!

The democrats always lie and use the lowest of the low to attack republicans and then the republicans cave and say sorry we were so mean. What a crock. The republicans should treat the democrats exactly the same way the democrats treat republicans. Mean and dirty.

Obama likes to talk about fairness and equal treatment. Well let's show him fair and equal and let the chips fall where they may. Then watch the democrats cry and whine.

courst?

Submitted by ladeflippinda on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 3:04pm.

That's not a word. Not close on the keyboard.

Your whole argument went out the window.

Ladflippinda Republicans added to the debt too.

Ohhhh! A spelling Troll!

Submitted by Denny Crane on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 3:28pm.

There are only 2 words on a keyboard. So how can "courst" be not close on the keyboard? And if you're complaining that the letters aren't close then you are wrong. The "t" and the "e" are only 2 keys apart.

Be on the lookout for random acts of journalism from the MSM~h/t Rush

We Are The 53%

Denny Crane*

Submitted by cajun2 on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 3:49pm.

Let's have some fun with a lib troll. First, a mis spelled word throws an argument out the window.. No concern for substance, facts or debate, just the spelling. How interesting.

Look at the trolls user name...then look at the bottom of the comment and see the sign name....rofl

Definitely a lib troll

I am shocked Halperin made

Submitted by felizagain on Fri, 05/18/2012 - 6:32pm.

I am shocked Halperin made mention of the fact -the ad does not exist. It's merely what the left says this one very legal group is proposing to possibly, maybe do.

Gee, Halperin makes a point of some fairness and common sense.

Moreover, so what if the ad comes out? Rev. Wright is fair game. 20 years in his church is fair game.

I do get why Romney would stay away from any direct connection (as he is doing).
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
LDS. Deseret Stores. Missions. Special Mormon underwear. No caffeine. Big families. LDS.
He will be smacked up & down by every source.....for his faith. I may have questions about this too.
I have no doubt he would still be a better President than the one we have now.

I know PBS will run (and update and expand) their series 'The Mormons' endlessly between about Memorial
Day and Election Day. I expect Book of Mormon, the play, to be offered up online for free......

Wright should talk.
HIs words today are relevant.
But, yes, his words and sermons of yesterday are very relevant too.

Just to pose an alternate explanation:

Submitted by hbnolikeee on Fri, 05/18/2012 - 11:30pm.

How about Halperin knows that Mitt could aim at the rev. and so does not want to push him?

hbnolikeee

The hypocritical Left

Submitted by DrRJP on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 2:22pm.

The entire 2008 Campaign involved left-wing attack groups who went after McCain. The reason why the Left and Democrats hated the Citizens United decision was because the Right now had a way to counter the hundreds of money-laundered political groups who were campaigning for Obama behind a facade of nonpartisanship.

ACORN is a tax-paid organization (since rebranded) who took in government money and "paid for services rendered" by companies under its not-for-profit umbrella.This allowed Obama, Obama for America (his campaign), and his lapdog mainstream media to lie about Obama's association with these groups and companies.

Unlike the Super-PACS, if it did not have the "My name is Barack Obama and I approved this ad" underneath it, this was a sure sign that Obama not only knew about it, but gave his blessings to it.

The media began spiking stories about Rev. Wright beginning in 2007 and they conspired inside JOURNOLIST - the listserv (mailing list) of 400+ leftwing journalists, academics, bloggers, activists, and network news reporters who coordinated and strategized their assaults on McCain/Palin while doing the same to kill all stories about Obama's associations with Rev. Wright and Bill Ayers - especially Bill Ayers.

Obama and his enablers on the Left did all they could to immediately disassociate Rev. Wright from Obama as Obama "evolved" from, "not thinking his church is all that controversial" to "I never heard Rev. Wright make those remarks before" to "I could no more disown him than an old uncle," to throwing him under the bus faster than a hockey puck.

But, Wright came out the other side to reveal now what we knew -
"we" being conservatives who can think and reason independently - that Obama had joined Wright's church to hide that he is really a Muslim.

Edward Klein in his recent biography of Mr. Obama, “The Amateur,” interviewed Mr. Wright about the president’s past. On tape and on the record, Mr. Wright claims that in 2008, the Obama campaign offered $150,000 to buy his silence. If true, that would land Obama in jail.

Actually, it would land anyone else but Obama in jail.

I say, anyone else" because it seems like Obama has been able to side step being charged with a boatload of crimes ranging from usurpation and treason to passport fraud, identity fraud, forgery, theft, bribery, extortion, racketeering, election fraud, perjury, and obstruction of justice. A number of investigators gathering intel on these offenses have also turned up dead, so I would not rule out adding violent crime to the list.

Wright said that Obama had an “Islamic background” and never abandoned his Muslim roots. In other words, Mr. Wright confirmed what I and many other conservatives have argued for years: that Obama is a secret, secular Muslim who became a Christian to hide his "Muslim faith" - a slip that came out in an interview with George Stephanopolis who promtply corrected him.

Obama joined a Church on the Southside of Chicago for political reasons not theological ones - although his choice of a black liberation theology church run by a former black Muslim with a Masters Degree in Islamic Studies touched a number of chords.

Black liberation theology links social activism with class struggle and even violent revolution aimed at replacing the “capitalist oppressors of the poor” with a socialist utopia that will finally enfranchise the poor Black Man. Black liberation theology is Marxism in Christian clothing based on race rather than class solidarity.

Noe that the MSM is actively probing into Romney's Mormon faith, they have opened the door to an in-depth study of black liberation theology, far more racist than Mormonism - especially when it calls for the killing of Whites and any Gods who do not support it.

The founder of black liberation theology is James Cone.

“What we need,” says Cone, “is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of Black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.” Observing that America was founded for white people, Cone calls for “the destruction of whiteness, which is the source of human misery in the world.” He advocates the use of Marxism as a tool of social analysis to help Christians to see "how things really are."

Another prominent exponent of black liberation theology is the Ivy League professor Cornel West, who calls for "a serious dialogue between Black theologians and Marxist thinkers" -- a dialogue that centers on the possibility of "mutually arrived-at political action."

So, Obama is the perfect disciple for black liberation theology as well as for Islam, being born black and Muslim, having Islam and Marxism in his childhood development, his education, his religious studies, his ideological studies, his political aspirations, his political and theological associations, his political activities, and in positions of political power.

There were four major stumbling blocks to the Presidency:

1. Being a Muslim, born and raised, with lifelong ties to the Muslim Brotherhood
2. Being an advocate of Marxism and black liberation theology
3. Being committed to replacing Israel with a Muslim state and America with a Marxist state.
4. Being a foreign-born, non US citizen at birth who is ineligible to be President.

Obama's House of Cards are starting to topple.

Alias Barack Obama: the imposter in the White House http://abo.dr-rjp.com

proof

Submitted by ladeflippinda on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 3:06pm.

1. No proof he was raised a Muslim, became a Christian instead.

2. Allowed under the First Amendment.

3. Words, no proof.

4. Still no proof, just speculation, innuendo.

Ladflippinda Republicans added to the debt too.

ladeflippinda, ---

Submitted by matthewdean on Sat, 05/19/2012 - 6:19pm.

a synonym for innuendo; which in turn is an Italian synonym for suppository.

Indeed.

"The credibility of the story is undermined by the selection of sources." - (h/t Jer)

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