Other MSNBC

**UPDATE** On Wednesday morning, Chuck Todd played the audio of Obama's speech from 1998 on his show The Daily Rundown, 4 hours before appearing on Andrea Mitchell Reports who refused to play the clip for "authenticity" reasons. 

It took less than 12 hours after it was published online at the website of leftist magazine Mother Jones for a video secretly recorded at a Mitt Romney fundraiser in May to appear all over NBC and MSNBC.  The heavily-edited video, obtained by the grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, has been a staple of MSNBC coverage the past two days.

Fast forward to Wednesday when audio of  then-State Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) speaking at Loyola University talking about his support for wealth redistribution.  MSNBC refused to play the audio on air.  On her show Wednesday, Andrea Mitchell claimed that the network's reason was:  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.]

MSNBC's on-air personalities were plainly in awe of Bill Clinton on Wednesday night. Moments after the former President finished his speech at the Democratic National Convention, they kept up the praise for almost 20 minutes. Chris Matthews gushed over the "strong offensive" Clinton gave for President Obama. Al Sharpton exclaimed, "Elvis and Bubba showed up tonight."

Ed Schultz was the most enthusiastic for the former Arkansas governor: "Affable, effective - as a Democrat, it doesn't get any better. I'm sitting here - I'm giddy...I just think President Clinton just did Barack Obama the biggest favor he could have ever done." Rachel Maddow and former McCain campaign advisor Steve Schmidt agreed that Clinton's address was "powerful," with Schmidt exclaiming that "I wish to God, as a Republican, we had someone on our side who had the ability to do that. We don't. It would be great if we did. Just an amazing performance." [audio available here; video below the jump]

Once again MSNBC desperately looked for a way to inject race into Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.  Following his convention speech, Ed Schultz felt that Governor Romney’s comments on American exceptionalism was a "line to the birthers tonight."

Schultz’s specific critique came after Mr. Romney said, "when the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an American."

Ridiculously, Schultz claimed that there was no other way to interpret Romney’s comments other than from a birther, dog whistle mentality.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.]

Following Condoleezza Rice’s inspirational convention speech, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews decided to hurl a ridiculous question about birtherism to the former Secretary of State. 

Continuing with the racist narrative on MSNBC, Mr. Matthews decided to ignore the crux of Ms. Rice’s speech and instead drag up an issue that numerous Republicans have disavowed since the beginning. 

Minutes after Paul Ryan finished his RNC speech on Wednesday, MSNBC's Chris Matthews slammed the Republican vice presidential candidate for supposedly ignoring blacks during his "very constricted, very negative, very nasty speech," and suggested that he was directing the address to racists: "It's clear that Paul Ryan was talking to people who think about rights as something...produced by Thomas Jefferson, ignoring the people for whom the rights only came in the 1960s."

Matthews added that "for some reason, they never mentioned those things, because they're talking to people - let's be honest about this - who didn't feel – the benefit, at all, from those civil rights, and I think that's very important to point out." [audio available here; video below the jump]

Obama campaign spokesperson Stepanie Cutter, appearing on MSNBC earlier this week, claimed that "over the past, you know, 27 months we've created 4.5 million private-sector jobs. That's more jobs than in the Bush recovery (or) in the Reagan recovery."

A Thursday Investor's Business Daily editorial plaintively asked: "Where are those allegedly unbiased fact-checkers when you need them?" As will be seen shortly, the answer is "AWOL."

An MSNBC host and the Chair of the Democratic National Committee walk into a bar . . . Al Sharpton, uttering one of the more absurd laugh lines of this political season, actually claimed on his MSNBC show this evening that his campaign in Florida against voter ID laws is "non-partisan."  

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz apparently hadn't gotten the memo about pretending Sharpton was non-partisan.  The Chair of the DNC, also a Dem Florida congresswoman, after delivering a super-partisan diatribe on the issue, giddily thanked Sharpton for his work--before the Reverend hastened to remind viewers that his campaign was "non-partisan."  You're killing us, Al!  View the video after the jump.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell has joined the list of his colleagues deciding to disgustingly politicize the tragic Colorado shooting.  On Tuesday night, O’Donnell felt the need to attack Wayne LaPierre of the NRA and Republican Senator Ron Johnson (Wis.) for their support of the Second Amendment.

O'Donnell started off his "Rewrite" segment claiming LaPierre was a "blood-drenched lobbyist" who is a "defender of mass murderers’ right to use hundred-round ammo clips."  O’Donnell appeared shocked that Sen. Johnson believes a mass-murderer like James Holmes would still seek to obtain high-powered weapons regardless of stricter gun-control laws.  [Video followed page break;  MP3 audio here.]

In an unintentionally hilarious variation on the some-of-my-best-friends-are line employed by people defending themselves against accusations of prejudice, Elizabeth Warren—lefty Dem candidate for Senate from Massachusetts—has claimed that various people close to her have started small businesses.

Warren let loose her laugh line on Al Sharpton's MSNBC show this evening, responding to an ad Sen. Scott Brown is running that reveals how President Obama's "you didn't build that" line was eerily similar to an earlier Warren utterance. View the video after the jump.

Quite the MSNBC two-fer tonight.  Wrapping up Hardball, Chris Matthews counseled President Obama to explain his accomplishments to the American people "as if he were talking to a two-year old."

Later, on Al Sharpton's MSNBC show, MSNBC contributor Richard Wolffe said he "might get into trouble" for saying that President George W. Bush has done a dignifed job of staying out of the limelight since leaving office.  Was Wolffe being facetious?  He seemed straight-faced. View the video after the jump.

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled ObamaCare constitutional, MSNBC has redoubled its efforts at promoting the president's signature legislative accomplishment to its audience.  On Friday’s 2 p.m. Eastern NewsNation program, guest-host Thomas Roberts brought on a cancer survivor to fawn over Obama.

Natoma Canfield, who thankfully is cancer-free, was prompted by Roberts from every angle to praise Obama and go on at length about how much credit she gives to Obama for saving her life.  Thomas then followed this up by telling his audience how Canfield is "one of the millions of Americans who have already benefitted from this law."  [Video coming soon.  MP3 audio here.]

On Sunday, we pointed out how the New York Times shamelessly plugged MSNBC "wonk prince" Chris Hayes as hot and trendy among young hipsters. The Times should wince now that  Jeff Poor at The Daily Caller dug up the actual ratings to embarrass Times writer Alex Williams for hailing the weekend ratings of Up! With Chris Hayes. It turns out the “Uppers” weren’t as numerous or trending as positively as the Times implied.

On Saturday mornings (8 to 9 am), Hayes is crushed by Fox & Friends Saturday. In the first quarter in all viewers (2-plus), it’s Fox with 1.182 million to MSNBC’s 426,000. In the second quarter to date numbers, it’s even worse: Fox with 1.261 million to MSNBC’s 350,000.

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.

As NewsBusters’s own Brent Baker pointed out, Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News Wednesday night called Mitt Romney’s pledge to reduce unemployment to 6 percent "unrealistic."  But apparently Brian didn't get the MSNBC spin memo, as three of his colleagues agreed that 6% unemployment is actually inevitable, and scolded Romney for making such a wimpy prediction.  

During his 6:00 show PoliticsNation on Wednesday May 23, Al Sharpton said that, “according to the Congressional Budget Office, we’re on our way to a 6.3% unemployment economy anyway whether Romney gets us there or not.”  [Video embedded below page break;  MP3 audio here.] 

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.

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.

It seems as though the only time Lawrence O’Donnell has something nice to say about Fox News, it comes at the expense of nearly half the country.  Following the incendiary comments Fox News’ Smith made following Obama’s public support for gay marriage, MSNBC’s O’Donnell rushed to his defense and praised him for violating FNC's central value of remaining "fair and balanced."   

O’Donnell claimed that Smith is the lone voice of reason at Fox News and his comments caused the Fox News website Fox Nation to alter a headline reading "Obama flip-flops, declares war on marriage," to "Obama flip-flops."  [Video coming soon.  MP3 audio here.]

On Saturday, left-wing radical turned MSNBC host (is that redundant?) Melissa Harris-Perry was missing only the pom-poms, as she trumpeted the plight of a Canadian beauty contestant she described as "born a male...self-identified as female...and had gender reassignment surgery at the age of 19." Harris-Perry gushed, "You go, girl!..we are all going to be watching and rooting for you."

The leftist columnist exclaimed how "May is going to be an exciting month for my feminist friends and me. For the first time, we're going to be able to watch a beauty pageant with pride." After noting how Miss Universe officials backtracked on their original decision to disqualify the now-Jenna Talackova, Harris-Perry added, "Others might want to take note of this turnaround, like the city of Anchorage, Alaska, that just rejected a ballot initiative to add sexual orientation and trans-gendered identity to a list of protected classes." [audio clips available here; video below the jump].

Apparently the problem for President Obama is that he is just cares too much about America.  That, or he's similar to Jimmy Carter, the last president who caused liberals to wonder if the presidency was "too much." In an interview with Newsweek’s Allison Samuels, MSNBC Live host Thomas Roberts sympathetically asserted, “...President Obama [was] elected to repair the economy, get us out of two wars...repair equality divides in this country and also heal a racial divide. Is it just too much to ask from one president?"

Roberts ridiculously claimed that, as the first African-American president, Obama is “damned if you do, dammed if you don't” and we expect just too much for a "historical" president. Allison Samuels appeared on Roberts’ show to promote an article discussing Obama’s impact on race relations in the country.  The Newsweek journalist insisted that as a black president, many Americans were expecting miracles from him that just weren’t realistic of him.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.]

Once again, MSNBC has continued to prop up Rev. Al Sharpton’s racist conspiracies that state legislatures led by the GOP are deliberately suppressing minority voters through new voter ID laws.

On Friday’s episode of Jansing & Co., radio host and MSNBC substitute host Michael Smerconish led a left-wing attack on the GOP.  The panelists including Pennsylvania AFL-CIO chief Richard Bloomingdale asserted that a person's signature is sufficient identification to vote in the United States. Indeed, both Smerconish and Bloomingdale insisted they have voted that way for years in Pennsylvania with no problems.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.] 

On Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC Live, Thomas Roberts continued the hysteria that fellow MSNBC host Al Sharpton created by claiming there is a concerted assault on minority voters across the country.  In an ‘interview’ with thegrio.com’s Earl Ofari Hutchinson, the two expressed fear that voting rights, particularly racial minorities like African-Americans, aren’t being protected by Congress.

Hutchinson used a National Urban League study to prop up his crazy assertions that voting rights are under attack.  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.] 

According to MSNBC's Tamron Hall on Wednesday, a Catholic priest denying Communion to a lesbian in Maryland is an example of "the very reason so many young people are turned off or are cautious about religion when you see moments like this."

The News Nation program featured a one-sided take on the story, which was given front page play by the liberal Washington Post. Hall interviewed Barbara Johnson, the woman involved and then featured Michael Smerconish to criticize the Priest for only choosing to deny Communion to the gay woman: "What about someone who’s in the church who’s utilizing contraception, someone who is supportive of the death penalty, someone who is prone toward profanity or maybe even living in sin?"

Trashing Rick Santorum as an extremist for his social conservatism and faith has become a daily, if not hourly, ritual on MSNBC. On Wednesday’s episode of NewsNation, anchor Tamron Hall took up the torch, furthering the sort of spin one would expect from a partisan Democrat about how Santorum is too far right for the general electorate:

    [H]e's great ad libbing and giving a speech that can connect, but as long as he appears on shows like "Meet The Press" and other programs and he takes on, of all people JFK, and he comes off as this for some people, even Republicans as this frightening character, the reality is, does he look like a general election candidate?  [See video below.  MP3 audio here.]

This could go down as some of the worst political advice ever.  Then again, consider the source.  Chris Hayes isn't exactly in the business of helping conservatives lead . . . or win elections.

On his MSNBC show this morning, Hayes advised conservatives to call the war that President Bush led against Iraq "criminal."  Yeah, that's the ticket. Video after the jump.

During Tuesday's edition of MSNBC's NewsNation, host Tamron Hall had to admit her audience clearly doesn’t pay attention to basic political facts.  While covering a Rick Santorum speech at a Tea Party event in Arizona Hall said the following: "I don't know if this is a joke or not but some people, many people have Tweeted asking why does he have ash on his forehead?  Asking if he's Catholic.  Yes."  [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

One would think that when a network mocks Santorum's religious beliefs and calls him extreme on a daily basis that their viewers would know that he is a devout Catholic.  Apparently that is too much to ask of the average MSNBC viewer.  

Suffer me to begin with a suggestion: if you ever have the chance to hear the Rev. William Dailey of Notre Dame law school speak, jump on it.  Dailey is a stunningly brilliant advocate, among the best I have ever encountered on any issue.

Dailey appeared on today's Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC, where he masterfully made the case against the Obama administration's order forcing Catholic institutions to provide services that violate their moral principles. Predictably, the panel resorted to an ad hominem argument against him.  Panelist Michaela Angela David implicitly, and Hayes himself explicitly, argued that celibate Catholic priests lack the moral authority to make arguments on the issues at hand.  Dailey deftly turned the tables. Video after the jump.

There are few things the liberal media like more than a Republican renegade.  David Stockman has made a career out of strutting his independence from the GOP.  So little surprise that he was an honored guest on this morning's Up With Chris Hayes on MSNBC.

That Stockman repaid his hosts by attacking Republicans was utterly predictable.  Even so, the absurdity of Stockman's particular assertion was breathtaking.  The former Reagan budget director actually claimed that the notion of American exceptionalism, a focus of Newt Gingrich's campaign, is nothing less than . . . "neo-con code" for an aggressive foreign policy.  Video after the jump.