Mark Finkelstein's blog

In one of the uglier MSM smears of the presidential campaign to date, MSNBC's Richard Wolffe has tried to tie Mitt Romney with one of America's most reviled men: John Edwards.

Appearing on Al Sharpton's MSNBC show this afternoon, Wolffe somehow suggested that Romney's decision to invest overseas and legally trim his federal tax bill was akin to Edwards reprehensible behavior.  According to Wolffe, there is a "moral question" hanging over Romney, just as there was regarding Edwards.  Video after the jump.

Call it damning with pink praise . . .

On today's Morning Joe, BBC's Katty Kay, anchor of the network's American edition, said that Europeans favor the re-election of President Obama because he is more supportive of "European social-democratic values."  You know, those wonderful welfare-state policies that have worked their magic so well that Europe now enjoys . . . an 11.1% unemployment rate.  View the video after the jump.

A Politico reporter has suggested that racism was behind Neil Munro's questioning of President Obama at the White House yesterday.  Saying "it's very, very difficult to place race outside of this context," the Politico's Joe Williams claimed racially-motivated direspect of PBO is part of a pattern among conservatives, citing Rep. Joe Wilson, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, and the Tea Party.

Williams made his remarks in the course of responding to a question from Michael Eric Dyson, subbing for Ed Schultz on MSNBC last night.  View the video after the jump.

Might the man who once said of himself "there's been nobody who's a bigger Obama supporter" vote for Mitt Romney?  Maybe.  On today's Morning Joe, Donny Deutsch—ad exec, man-about-the-Hamptons and quintessential wealthy NYC liberal—declared that his support for President Obama is "wavering."

Deutsch said that it was the bad jobs numbers of a couple weeks ago that "changed everything for me."  Reacting to Deutsch's surprising declaration, Willie Geist broke out a variation on LBJ's line about Walter Cronkite.  Said Geist: "if I've lost Donny Deutsch, I've lost Middle America."  View the video after the jump.

We've gone from "hope and change" to hoping blaming Bush will work.  As Joe Scarborough said: at least Mika Brzezinski's honest about it.  Asked whether she believed that President Obama's attempt to continue to blame George W. Bush for the country's economic woes will work as a campaign strategy, a seemingly dispirited Mika Brzezinski replied: "well, I'm hopin'".  Scarborough burst into laughter.

The Morning Joe panel was responding to a clip of President Obama from yesterday in which he analogized Republicans to people who had ordered an expensive restaurant meal, left just as Obama was sitting down to dinner, and then finding himself accused of running up the tab.  View the video after the jump.

If an extraterrestrial had tuned into Good Morning America today and watched ABC News's report on national security leaks, he would have come away thinking the Obama administration was valiantly, aggressively pursuing the leakers.  ET wouldn't have learned that there is good reason to suspect that the source of the leaks . . . is the Obama administration itself.

An attentive viewer might have noticed that the screen graphic referred to the White House and Congress being investigated.  But the report by ABC's Pierre Thomas never hinted that the Obama administration was itself being accused of being the source of the leaks.  To the contrary, Thomas framed the issue this way: "freedom of the press and the public's right to know is now on collision course with the government's desire to protect national security secrets."  Translation: the Obama admin is, even at the risk of impinging on other values, leading the fight to protect national security.  Gag us with a background briefing!  View the video after the jump.

Scott Walker scored an historic victory last night.  The first governor ever to fend off a recall election.  Winning in the face of a furious Big Labor effort against him.  And so, to comment on this resounding Republican victory, Morning Joe . . . assembled a lefty panel and excluded any Republicans until the second hour, when Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell was finally permitted to put in an appearance.  With Joe Scarborough off for the day, the panel consisted of Mika Brzezinski, former Dem congressman Harold Ford, Jr., former Newsweek editor Jon Meacham, Mike Allen of Politico, and just to balance things off . . . Howard Dean!

Making matters worse, though the show opened with a clip from Walker's victory speech, the panel itself didn't get around to saying word one about the Wisconsin recall until after Meacham had a chance to flack his new book that won't even be available till the Fall, and Mika bemoaned the Senate's rejection of the so-called Paycheck Fairness Act, calling Republicans "idiots."  View the video after the jump.

Et tu, Tina?  Has Maureen Dowd, by her scalding column this weekend, signaled to fellow liberals that it's OK to rap President Obama?   Dowd portrayed Obama as lazy, nihilistic, removed and self-absorbed.  Now comes Brown on today's Morning Joe, calling Obama "aloof" and not "lovable."

Daily Beast editor Brown made her comments in the context of criticizing Obama's decision to stay out of Wisconsin, not deigning to come to the aid of Tom Barrett, the Dem candidate looking to unseat Republican Governor Scott Walker in today's recall election. View the video after the jump.

Even the New York Times, in an article by Jeff Zeleny today headlined "Recall Battle in Wisconsin May Snarl Obama Camp", acknowledges that a victory by Republican Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin's recall election on Tuesday could spell trouble for President Obama's re-election effort.

But while the Times might be bending to reality, the Associated Press soldiers on in support of Obama.  With even a Dem poll pointing to a Walker victory, the Associated Press, apparently fearing the worst, proclaims in an article today that "Few November clues to be found in Wisconsin recall."  Authored by correspondent Thomas Beaumont, the AP tells readers "you'd be wrong" to see Wisconsin as a national harbinger.  More after the jump.

Fox News has come under "withering criticism" after Fox & Friends yesterday aired what's been described as a campaign-style video, created by an associate producer, contrasting President Obama's words with his job performance. A top Fox exec said the video "was not authorized at the network's senior level" that "senior executives would not have approved it and the matter was addressed with the show's producers."  The video was removed from the Fox & Friends website.

So if it's wrong for FNC to campaign against Obama, how about MSNBC launching a Get Out The Vote effort against Scott Walker in the Wisconsin recall election?  Have a look at the video clip here of an MSNBC "Lean Forward" promo for Ed Schultz's show.  After Schultz declares that the Wisconsin recall hinges on "who gets their people out," the screen flashes "Get Out The Vote!"  Schultz seeks to recruit his viewers in the effort, the graphic asking them to "share your photos" at Schultz's Facebook page.   There's no doubt who Schultz is seeking to get out the vote for--and against.  The same video is filled with images of people holding signs saying "Recall Walker" and "Walker: Your Pink Slip Is Showing."  View the video after the jump.

Effete: affected, overrefined, and ineffectual; see "Chris Hayes."  OK, I appended the name of the MSNBC host to the dictionary definition.  But if ever you wanted to see the human embodiment of the adjective in action, have a look at the video from his MSNBC show this morning of the too-refined-by-half Hayes explaining why he is "uncomfortable" in calling America's fallen military members "heroes."  

Hayes is worried that doing so is "rhetorically proximate" to justifications for more war.  Oh, the rhetorical proximity!  View the video after the jump.

If between now and Election Day unemployment numbers improve, particularly if they dip below the 8% barrier, you know President Obama, with an MSM assist, will be out there pounding his chest about the number of jobs "he created."

But when the unemployment numbers remain weak?  Well, that's not Obama's fault.  Just ask Mike Allen of Politico.  On today's Morning Joe, trying to explain Obama's early campaign stumbles, Allen declared that certain factors, including the bleak job numbers, were "beyond the control" of Obama.  View the video after the jump.

Why not just call Romney a racist and be done with it? In the most tortured twist of logic this blogger has seen so far during this campaign, Al Sharpton somehow managed to equate Mitt Romney's refusal to roll over and accept Barack Obama's attacks on Bain Capital with, yes, birtherism.

I know what you're thinking: what the . . . heck?  Don't ask me to explain how or why Sharpton came to his nonsensical suggestion.  Just sit back and watch the Reverend Al at work.  It was too much even for liberal Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank.  View the video after the jump.

Imagine that in one 2004 Republican primary, an opponent running to George Bush's left got 40% of the vote, and in another primary, more than 4-in-10 Republicans voted for "uncommitted" rather than support the incumbent president.  Now imagine the doom the MSM would have found that to portend for Bush.

But when a candidate running to the right of Barack Obama garners 40% of the vote in the Arkansas Dem primary, and "uncommitted" amasses an astounding 42% in Kentucky . . . crickets.  On Morning Joe today, Politico's Patrick Gavin proclaimed that PBO's embarrassing performance "doesn't matter."  View the video after the jump.

Yet another Obamaoid has joined the Ann Romney-bashing brigade.  Hilary Rosen, with her "never worked a day in her life" line, was infamously first.  As documented at NewsBusters, the president of NOW subsequently derided Ann Romney as lacking in "life experience" and "imagination".  Then, feminist author Michelle Goldberg attacked Ann as "insufferable," her writing as "creepy," and even compared her to Hitler and Stalin.

Latest to join the all-women lineup of Ann bashers: Betsey Stevenson.  A former top economist in the Obama administration, appearing on Chris Hayes's MSNBC this morning, Stevenson accused Ann, along with Mitt, of "really having no empathy for people."  View the video after the jump.

Snark on, Michelle!  On the MSNBC show "Up With Chris Hayes" this morning, feminist author Michelle Goldberg attacked Ann Romney as "insufferable" and derided a phrase in Ann's op-ed on the subject of motherhood as "creepy."

Goldberg's "insufferable" shot drew approving laughter from the all-feminist panel.  And surely the attacks on the Romneys for their traditional family values will play well with a certain segment of the electorate. The problem for President Obama: that segment is one that is already almost entirely in his camp.  But these sort of mean-spirited attacks are likely to alienate the very voters in the middle that PBO needs to persuade.  Video after the jump.

If this is how Dan Rather at peace looks like, wonder what he's like when angry and embittered . . .

On Morning Joe today, Rather emphatically alleged that he was "at peace" over the Memogate fiasco that led to the end of his career. But he couldn't help himself from suggesting that his reputation had been destroyed by anonymous partisans employing "lies."  View the video after the jump.

A brief but telling episode from As The MSM Mask Slips . . .

On her MSNBC show this afternoon, chatting with chum and fellow Obama fan Tom Daschle about the anniversary of the killing of OBL, Andrea Mitchell said: "What do you think of the Republican criticism that we are politicizing it, that the White House, I should say, is politicizing it"?  View the video after the jump.

Classic MSM jujitsu. Chuck Todd has attempted to turn the issue of President Obama's unseemly spiking of the football on the anniversary of the killing of Osama Bin Laden, into an attack on Republicans for reacting to Obama's politicization of the event.

On his MSNBC show The Daily Rundown, Todd began his discussion of the matter this morning by asking the Washington Post's Dan Balz whether he was surprised by how "aggressive" the Romney campaign has been on the matter.  A bit later Todd suggested to Clarence Page that Republicans were "overreacting" to Obama's boasts.  Right.  Romney should run a passive campaign, like, say John McCain did! Good-loser Republicans: yeah, that's the MSM ticket!  Video after the jump.

If you haven't seen the hilariously effective ad by Karl Rove's American Crossroads group that portrays Barack Obama as a celebrity president with a failed economic record, check it out in the video clip.

Mika Brzezinksi was clearly peeved at how well the ad was playing even with her liberal-dominated panel.  After Obama fan Donny Deutsch, and no-conservative-he John Heilemann praised the ad, a Mika at wit's end sought to recruit HuffPo's Sam Stein to help her out.  "Can you debunk some of the things in the ad?", she entreated.  Stumbled Stein: "ah-h-h-h-h, sure, I guess."  After offering a paltry defense that Joe Scarborough demolished, Stein was reduced to saying that Mika had invited him to try to debunk the ad, and that "I'm trying my best!"  View the amusing video after the break.

There could be only one good reason to have Dem Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer on Morning Joe: to grill him on his ugly anti-Mormon swipe at Mitt Romney.   Schweitzer recently said that Romney would have trouble attracting women voters because "his family came from a polygamy commune in Mexico."

So naturally I waited for Mika Brzezinksi, Mark Halperin, Cokie Roberts--anyone!--to raise the question of Schweitzer's slur.  And waited.  It never came.  Instead, Schweitzer was allowed to to chortle his way through several minutes of faux bonhomie and third-rate tourism promotion, as he gave away some trinkets, touted a new flight from Newark to Bozeman, and managed to work in a boast about his budget surpluses.  This was sheer journalistic malpractice on Morning Joe's part.  View the video after the jump.

Come November, there's no way Mika Brzezinski will be pulling the lever for Mitt Romney.  But the MSNBC co-host had some sincere praise for the Republican standard-bearer this morning.

Expressing frustration with Rudy Giuliani--the latest in a string of Republicans to have offered only a  tepid endorsement of Romney--Brzezinski said that when she meets with Mitt and Ann, she comes away "excited," because they're "good people" and a "good family."  "What's wrong with these people? It's just ridiculous," a palpably peeved Mika said of Giuliani and others who have emitted only muted praise of Mitt.  Video after the jump.

Rally round the Rosen! On his MSNBC show this morning Chuck Todd used variations on the phrase "manufactured controversy" no fewer than eight times in dismissing the controversy around Rosen's "Ann Romney never worked a day in her life" remarks.

By the end of a subsequent segment, Todd had former Obama and Clinton adviser [and Dee Dee sister] Betsy Myers taking up the "manufactured" meme.  View the video after the jump.

Va-va-va-VandeHei! NewsBusters has frequently documented Politico's Dem-friendly tilt.  But there was a pronounced flying pig moment for Politico this morning as its executive editor Jim VandeHei: ripped the Obama campaign as "insanely political;" described the Buffett Rule as "total gimmickry;" and opined that President Obama has given up on promoting any big ideas in favor of targeting various demographic groups.

Vandehei made his suprisingly candid comments on today's Morning Joe in the context of a Dana Milbank column in which the Washington Post, never accused of being a conservative, also denounced the Buffett Rule as gimmickry.  View the video after the jump.

So much for civility.  With Ed Schultz goading her on, a Dem state senator from Ohio referred to Republican elected officials as "occupiers" and urged women among other things to use their "passion" to "take out" the "right-wing occupiers."

Nina Turner, the state senator in question, used language that would have caused an MSM outrage had a Republican used it to call for people to "take out" Dem "occupiers."  View the video after the jump.

The odious Martin Bashir is at it again.  On his MSNBC show today, Bashir suggested that conservatives, racists that they are, were happy to have slaves help build the White House, but can't accept a black president living there.

Bashir's slanderous suggestion came at the conclusion of a segment on President Obama's ill-considered attack on the Supreme Court earlier this week.  View the video after the jump.

Is it the role of a "correspondent," as opposed to a pundit, to advocate on a controversial subject? Apparently Andrea Mitchell thinks it's just fine.

On today's Morning Joe, Mitchell, NBC's chief foreign affairs correspondent, twice spoke in defense of Planned Parenthood. Mitchell went so far as to claim that Planned Parenthood "really is" a noble organization. Mitchell claimed to distinguish PP's role in providing abortions from the screening services it offers women, and criticized the decision of the Texas state government to prohibit Planned Parenthood from receiving federal screening funds. But funds being fungible, Mitchell was effectively advocating for all of Planned Parenthood, including its role as the nation's largest abortion provider.  View the video after the jump.

Unemployment stubbornly over 8%.  His landmark piece of legislation in dire peril of being dumped by the Supreme Court.  The "flexibility" moment with Putin's pawn. Does that sound like an invincible incumbent to you?

It does to Joe Scarborough, and according to him, to every other member of the Republican establishment.  On Morning Joe today, Scarborough said that while they won't admit it on TV, "no one" in the GOP establishment believes Mitt Romney will beat Barack Obama in the general election. View the video after the jump.

Larry O'Donnell makes a living attacking Mormonism. We noted years ago how he lambasted the LDS church as "demented" and "ridiculous."  The MSNBC host was at it again tonight.

On this evening's Last Word, O'Donnell dismissed Mormonism as a religion "invented" by its founder, Joseph Smith, for purposes of excusing his infidelity.  O'Donnell sneeringly added that Mitt Romney "says his believes" in his religion. View the video after the jump.