Mark Finkelstein's blog

A Mexican President praises Governor Rick Perry for offering in-state tuition to illegal immigrants in Texas.  Mitt Romney uses footage of it in a campaign ad.  Something wrong with that?  Apparently yes--in the eyes of Chuck Todd.

The host of MSNBC's "Daily Rundown" critically quizzed Romney campaign strategist Russ Schriefer over the ad today.  Video after the jump.

If Ken Burns ever decides to stop making documentaries, he could always go into comedy . . .On today's Morning Joe, Burns claimed he was non-political, despite repeatedly attempting to draw parallels between Prohibition, the subject of his current film, and themes in current conservatism, particularly immigration. At the same time, Burns ignored the modern-day prohibitionist sitting right across the table from him--Mika Brzezinski--the neo-Carrie Nation who would ban everything from cigarettes to soft drinks, transfats to fast food. Video after the jump.

If Chris Christie doesn't get into the presidential race, the would-be comics of the MSM might be even more disappointed than the Republican honchos reportedly urging the Jersey gov to run.  Yesterday, I noted how ABC's "Good Morning America" managed to work a number of fat cracks into its report on Christie.  Today it was the oleaginous Martin Bashir's turn.

Bashir never acknowledged his jokes with a wink and a nod.  But from describing Christie as "massively" popular with Republicans, to observing that when it comes to a possible run Christie hasn't "pushed away from the table,"  to suggesting that it wouldn't be that easy for Christie to "roll over" President Obama, there was no doubting the kind of bashing Bashir was up to.  Video after the jump.

Was it just coincidence that of all the ways "Good Morning America" could have reported that Republicans are urging Chris Christie to get into the presidential race, the ABC show today spoke--twice--of Christie being "heavily" urged to run?  Throw in GMA describing Christie supporters opining that the other candidates are "too small" for the job.  Oh, and the show's decision to roll extended, less-than-flattering footage of Christie walking across an airport tarmac to greet President Obama.  

Makes you wonder whether this was the opening salvo of an ABC attack on Christie's avoirdupois. Of course, such cheap shots have a history of back-firing. Just ask ex-NJ Governor Jon Corzine. Video after the jump.

It's going to be a long campaign . . . Republicans haven't come close to choosing their presidential candidate yet, but already a proud member of the MSM is calling a leading GOP contender a "killer."

On his MSNBC show this evening, Crazy Larry O'Donnell accused Rick Perry of being--for his record of enforcing the Texas law on capital punishment--the Republicans' "favorite killer, favorite state-sanctioned killer."  Video after the jump.

What a curiously incurious Morning Joe bunch!  Joe Scarborough says Solyndra "is just not a story I have focused on" and John Heilemann similarly admits to not having "drilled down" on the matter.  Meanwhile, Harold Ford, Jr. assures us that when it comes to any potential Solyndra scandal, "there's no there, there" and that no one "has done anything illicit here at all."

A blasé Joe Scarborough grudgingly introduced "this Solyndra thing," citing those pesky "conservatives on Twitter" who keep raising it.  The show deigned to devote under two minutes to the story, with nary a mention of the facts that the main driver behind Solyndra was a major Obama fundraiser, that the Bush admin blew off funding for Solyndra after concluding their products weren't competitive and that Solyndra execs are now taking the Fifth. View the video after the jump.

Sometimes, media bias is all about the headline . . . The New York Times has a decent piece this morning detailing the background that led to the approval by the Obama admin of more than a half-billion in loan guarantees to the soon-to-go-kaput Solyndra solar firm.   The article paints a picture of an Obama admin that was eager to get the money out the door and was heavily lobbied by Solyndra and its major player who was a big Obama fund-raiser.

But check out the headline: "In Rush to Assist Solyndra, U.S. Missed Warning Signs."  What do you mean, "U.S.", Gray Lady?  That "U.S" suggests that perhaps the previous Bush admin also let itself get bamboozled by Solyndra.  Except that the truth is just the opposite,  as these paras from the article demonstrate [emphasis added]:

Move over, Tom Friedman--there's another MSMer looking longingly at Communist China.  In an infamous column, Friedman wrote of his envy of the power of the Chinese despots to impose "critically important decisions."  He's been at it again lately

Now comes Sino-Commie-phile Katty Kay.  On Morning Joe today, the BBCer criticized the USA for not having a "40-year plan for medical innovation" like the Chinese do.  Joe Scarborough was on-point with his comeback. Video after the jump.

Joe Scarborough and Mike Bloomberg for president and veep? Yeah, that's the ticket—according to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who floated the idea during his Morning Joe appearance today.  

Friedman foresaw Scarborough-Bloomberg running on a platform of Simpson-Bowles on the economy, an "investment agenda" [infrastructure spending], and getting out of Afghanistan ASAP.  "I would bet any amount of money," forecast Friedman, that such a ticket would immediately have a "significant, significant" position.  Video after the jump.

A skirmish broke out on Morning Joe today as PBS host Tavis Smiley claimed President George W. Bush "lied" the USA into the war in Iraq. Joe Scarborough and--surprisingly--Jon Meacham forcefully refuted Smiley's slur.

Scarborough unwittingly provoked the incident when, commenting on yesterday's 9-11 observances, he called for a Kumbaya moment in which Americans would put aside politics and thank presidents Bush and Obama for keeping the country safe.  That set Smiley off: "the reality is that one of those guys lied to the American people"--and the fight was on. View video after the jump.

Eric Cantor: potentially responsible for the death of school kids.  That was the despicable depth to which Chris Matthews sank in his desperate attempt to stir up support for President Obama's latest stimulus scheme.

On this afternoon's Hardball, Matthews suggested that by refusing to spend hundreds of billions on PBO's latest list of supposedly shovel-ready projects, Virginia Republican Rep. Cantor is endangering the lives of kids riding school buses across ostensibly rickety bridges in his district.  The Hardball host helpfully ran a scroll of all such bridges in Cantor's district. Video after the jump.

Is there no double-standard depths to which the liberal media won't sink when it comes to provocative political speech? No—judging by the pitiful performance of two MSMers on today's Morning Joe in defending James "Take 'Em Out" Hoffa.  

Newsweek editor Tina Brown brayed that we must not "sanitize" political speech or take the "juice" out of it--all the while condemning Michele Bachmann and Glenn Beck for some of their remarks.  And the preposterous Mike Barnicle somehow defended Hoffa on the basis of the "context" of his remarks. Say what?  Hoffa was introducing the President of the United States!  And don't miss Barnicle logic-defyingly defending the double-standard when it comes to Sarah Palin on the basis that everyone knows the MSM will attack her. Video after the jump.

Looks like Joe Scarborough aims to single-handedly winnow the Republican presidential field.  A few weeks ago, the Morning Joe host dismissed Michele Bachmann as "a joke."  Today—not for the first time, as NB's Scott Whitlock documented—Scarborough proclaimed that there is "no way" Rick Perry could beat Barack Obama.

Scarborough, imagining an anti-Perry ad, surmised that Perry's statements on Social Security, the selection of US Senators and secession would come back to haunt him. View video after the jump.

Check out Labor Secretary Hilda Solis [she of the solicitude for the rights of illegal immigrants at the expense of American workers] on the CBS Early Show this morning.  She ticks off a list of industries in which the government will make "investments" because "we know" they will be growing in future years.  Kinda like the Obama admin "knew" solar energy was the wave of the future when it "invested" about a half-billion in taxpayer dollars in Solyndra, a company that backed by a major Obama fundraiser.

Participating in pure partisan politics, Solis claimed the unemployment rate in Rick Perry's Texas would be "much higher" were it not for the spending of stimulus money there.  Right.  That vaunted stimulus that for only $800 billion managed to keep the national unemployment to only 8%.  Oh, wait, three years later it's 9.1%.  Never mind.  View video after the jump.

Remember "What's The Matter With Kansas?"  That was liberal native Kansan Thomas Frank's extended kvetch over the refusal of average Jayhawkers to engage in class warfare by supporting soak-the-rich policies.

The same mindset was on display on Morning Joe today. The Huffington Post's Sam Stein asserted that the failure of many less-than-rich Americans to support tax increases on the rich amounts to voting "against their own self interest." View video after the jump . . . including the amusing moment when Stein sulks about getting interrrupted by Scarborough.

Pat Buchanan regularly serves as Morning Joe's lone conservative in the show's self-described 10:1 ratio sea of lib to conservative guests.  But Buchanan this morning demonstrated that he is anything but a Republican partisan.  

Sounding more like Barney Frank after a bad night's sleep, Buchanan blasted President George W. Bush, claiming 43 "broke the Republican party and frankly he broke the United States as a superpower."  View the video after the jump.

I know many people who would be prompted to flee at the prospect of an Obama speech.  But were words from the World's Greatest Orator really responsible for Maryland residents threatened by Hurricane Irene to follow evacuation orders?  Yes, according to Dem Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley.

Clearly in abject Obama suck-up mode, O'Malley also spoke of the "new professionalism" at FEMA and even claimed that the economy was improving.  Video after the jump.

Want to watch an MSM version of Stand By Your Man?   Check out the video here after the jump.  Tamron Hall, theoretically an MSNBC show "host" and not a pundit, gets visibly upset with Michael Singh, a former foreign policy adviser to President George W. Bush.  Singh's sin?  Apparently being insufficiently enthusiastic in his praise of President Obama's handling of the Libyan situation.

The irony is that Singh is anything but an isolationist.  Singh supported the Libyan intervention and hardly came across as a hard partisan.  But apparently anything short of fully prostrated praise for the prez is enough to bring down the Wrath Of Hall.

Want incisive news analysis and perspicacious probing of the people and events of the day? Then Mike Barnicle is your man—not.

On today's Morning Joe, reacting to Jon Huntsman's criticism of Republicans who reputedly reject science, the former Boston Globe columnist inanely asked former RNC Chairman Michael Steele: "what percentage of Republican delegates who go to the convention do you figure are total nutcases?" Video after the jump.

Even more appalling than the mindless screed "The Kids Are Not All Right" itself is the fact that the New York Times chose to feature it on its Op-Ed page today.  Author Joel Bakan's simplistic, socialistic message: today's children are under assault from capitalism, or as  Bakan frames it, "for-profit corporations." In Bakan's view, the ills afflicting today's kids--from fascination with social media, to obesity, prescription drug use and chemical exposure--are to be laid at the feet of those e-e-e-v-i-l for-profits.

Bakan yearns for the good old days of 1959, when children were supposedly protected by--ready?--the United Nations. Excerpts after the jump.

All joking aside about "if Obama has lost [fill in the blank], he has lost America", there was a stunning display today of a formerly ardent supporter condemning in the most fundamental terms President Obama's failure of leadership.


On Morning Joe, leftist Columbia Prof. Jeffrey Sachs absolutely scalded the president.  Declared Sachs: the stimulus failed.  Three years in, Obama has no plan,  and is providing "no leadership." Ouch. View video after the jump.

Yo, Rev Al: thanks to Al Gore, we've got the internets.  We can look things up.  So when, on your MSNBC show this evening, you ripped Republican Paul Ryan for holding a $15-a-head fundraiser, of course we're going to check out how much President Obama pulled in per head at a recent do.  Turns out it was . . . $38,500!  So what's your point?

View video after the jump.