Mike Barnicle has greeted Newt Gingrich's announcement of his presidential candidacy with a sneer, calling the former Speaker of the House "a delusional loser." The former Kennedy-clan retainer and Boston Globe columnist seasoned his sneer with snobbery, launching an ignorant attack on Gingrich's educational background.
Barnicle spewed his bile on today's Morning Joe.
View video after the jump.
Morning Joe opened with Newt's YouTube video of his candidacy announcement. Mika Brzezinski went around the table, soliciting the panel's thoughts, finally turning to Barnicle.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Does Newt Gingrich in any way reignite hope for the Republican party?
MIKE BARNICLE: They better hope not. He is a delusional loser, with an intellectual chip on his shoulder. It might be his biggest handicap in terms of the public. He has this habit, this way of prattling on, about all of the ideas, the "new ideas," he comes up with for our political system. And it's probably because he went to East Overshoot College or something, and he wants to prove that he's smarter than anybody from the Northeast, from Harvard. He is ridiculous. This is just ridiculous. His candidacy is a joke.
Beyond the snobbery, Barnicle's attack on Newt's educational background was simply ignorant. Gingrich has degrees from two of the South's most distinguished universities. He holds a B.A. from Emory, and an M.A. and Ph.D. [in modern European history] from Tulane. Barnicle has a B.A. from Boston University. Might Mike be the one suffering from Harvard-envy?
