Tim Pawlenty

In just a matter of days, presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney will announce his choice for his 2012 running mate. No matter who Romney picks, however, the liberal media's line of attack is already clear. The Media Research Center reviewed news coverage of several potential picks, and found many have already been caricatured as too far right or outside the mainstream.

Bill Maher on Friday made another in a long line of disgusting remarks about Mitt Romney and Republicans being racist.

In the concluding segment of HBO's Real Time, the host encouraged Romney to choose Trayvon Martin's assailant George Zimmerman as his vice presidential candidate to "personify [his] campaign theme of 'I Think The Black Guy’s Up To No Good'" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Editor's Note: What follows is NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell's thoughts on who won, who lost, and who should just pack it all in following last night's Republican presidential debate in Ames, Iowa.

Gingrich: The winner. Wasn't even close. Showed why Obama would pee in his pants having to debate this man.

Santorum: Also a winner. Showed most passion, and took on and beat up other candidates. But was it enough to keep him alive?

For a field of Republican presidential hopefuls spread so thin, it seems that the clearest strategy to gain support would be to orchestrate the best campaign against President Obama, especially against his failed economic policies. Instead of focusing all their attention on the president's failures, though, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Rep. Michele Bachmann, both of Minnesota, are also spending time campaigning on the shortcomings of each other.

Do you think the candidates should instead limit their campaigns to the current problems America is facing? Or do you think the climb to the top is most successful with a combination of campaign tactics? Let us know what you think in the comments.

  On Wednesday’s The Ed Show, MSNBC host Ed Schultz came to Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann’s defense against what he called a "right-wing hit job" from the Daily Caller in the form of an article alleging that the Minnesota Congresswoman suffers from severe migraines. But one may question whether Schultz waded into taking a side in the controversy as an excuse for bolstering his case that the Republican Party is anti-woman, or just to attack the GOP establishment and other Republicans whom Schultz may perceive as being more able to defeat President Obama as he lambasted presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty and FNC contributor Karl Rove.

But whatever his motives, Schultz had words that sounded more gracious than one typically expects to hear him speak of a Republican. As he neared the end of the segment, Schultz addressed Bachmann directly:

Chris Matthews as usual had four guests on the weekly syndicated program bearing his name.

When he asked them which of the current Republican candidates could end up being a great president, nobody chose to identify a single one (video follows with transcript and commentary):

In an interview with Tim Pawlenty on Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, host David Gregory cited New York Times columnist David Brooks slamming Republican opposition to tax increases in debt ceiling negotiations as "fanaticism" and proclaimed: "There is this purity test which is no tax increases, no revenue increases at all."

Pawlenty responded by pointing out Brooks's liberal leanings: "Well, with all due respect to, to David Brooks, this is not the time for Rockefeller Republicanism." Gregory continued to push for the GOP to accept tax hikes as part of a deal: "Is that good governing for Republicans who control the House to say, 'Sorry, no tax increases period,' even when they're looking at getting potentially $4 trillion in spending cuts?"

David Gregory decided to have a very fair and balanced roundtable discussion at the conclusion of Sunday's "Meet the Press" exclusively with the perilously liberal Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson and the equally left-leaning Chuck Todd of NBC News.

With the subject being Newsweek's new cover story about former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, Todd mysteriously made the case for how slim her chances of winning the GOP presidential nomination were by claiming, "Rush Limbaugh is an incredibly influential figure in the Republican Party, and he could never win the Republican nomination" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Conservative publisher Andrew Breitbart was on Saturday's "Fox & Friends" to discuss the double standard concerning how President Obama's gaffes are reported compared to the miscues of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann.

In Breitbart's view, "Life for [Palin and Bachmann] is a permanent game of Jeopardy where the George Stephanopouloses of the world, he of the Clinton war room, are there to try to make them look stupid on YouTube" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

America's liberal media are having a field day claiming that an Obama impersonator at a Republican event was pulled off the stage Saturday for telling racial and gay jokes.

Here's how the Washington Post reported it (video of entire presentation also follows with commentary):

In a segment today with Republican strategist Cheri Jacobus, MSNBC's Martin Bashir did his level best to trash the 2012 GOP presidential field, mocking Tim Pawlenty as a "coward," Mitt Romney as an "insensitive" rich guy, and Michele Bachmann as gaffe-prone.

What's more, when Jacobus sought to turn her appearance into an opportunity to remind viewers of Obama's ownership of the economy and on his recent "shovel-ready" jobs joke, Bashir bristled at her attempt to further her talking points on his Obama-boosting program:

Most of the questions raised during CNN's Republican Primary Debate Monday ranged from neutral to frivolous, although moderator John King slipped an obnoxious one in toward the end. King asked former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty which nomination for vice president during the 2008 campaign was better, Biden or Palin?

"Governor Pawlenty to you. Look back on 2008 and the process. President Obama made a pick. Senator McCain made a pick. Who made the best choice?" The question echoed liberal MSNBC host Chris Matthews from back in 2007, when he asked the Republican field "would it be good for America to have Bill Clinton back living in the White House?"

[Video below the break.]

It takes a former CNN "correspondent" to make Tim Pawlenty sound scary . . .

It's kind of fun to watch former MSM "reporters" turn into totally-out, liberal partisans once they leave their "reporting" gigs.  Take Bob Franken. For years a big-time national correspondent for CNN, the network let him go in 2007.  Franken is now free to let his liberal freak flag fly. 

Witness Bob on MSNBC this evening.  Commenting on Tim Pawlenty's tax-cut proposal, Franken fulminated that the former Minnesota governor is planning nothing less than to lead [cue spooky music] an "oligarchy."   Franken also took a scatalogical shot at "trickle-down" economics.

View video after the jump.

Mild-mannered Minnesotan Tim Pawlenty may have his own Rev. Wright, Salon.com's Justin Elliott sensationally alerted readers of the War Room blog Thursday morning.

The reason, Elliott argues: the former Minnesota governor's preacher believes in manmade global warming and wants a liberal immigration reform policy enacted into law:

Gallup released a new poll this morning asking who GOP primary voters support sans Huckabee, Trump, and Daniels. And it turns out...the race for the GOP nomination is still very undecided, with almost everyone gaining a little more support. Check out some of the poll's findings below the break and give us your thoughts in the comments.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews opened his "Hardball" program Monday by once again bashing the possible Republican presidential candidates.

With Indiana governor Mitch Daniels dropping out Saturday, Matthews focused his attention on Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and Jon Huntsman telling guests John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, "I don’t want an interview with any of these guys" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

All three morning shows on Monday bombarded Tim Pawlenty with a variety of liberal complaints and demands. ABC and NBC singled out an Obama-supporting "Republican" who slammed the presidential candidate's fiscal management of Minnesota. CBS repeatedly lobbied Pawlenty to raise taxes.

Good Morning America's George Stephanopoulos identified ex-Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson as "one of your Republican predecessors." He quoted Carlson as saying, "I don't think any governor has left behind a worse financial mess than Pawlenty has." Stephanopoulos made no mention of the fact that Carlson endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 or that he was officially expelled from the Minnesota GOP in December of 2010.

On NBC's Today, Matt Lauer highlighted the same statement and described Carlson simply as "a former Republican Governor of the State of Minnesota." He challenged, "This is a Republican saying that. How do you respond?"

Experience tells us that the Republican presidential candidate the media prefer is the one they believe is most easily defeated.

On this weekend's "Chris Matthews Show," seven of the twelve regulars said Mitch Daniels "has the best shot to overcome his obvious flaw" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

During Thursday night's Republican presidential debate in South Carolina, Fox News contributor Juan Williams moved away from the pressing issues of national security and the economy to ask former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty: "Do you equate the teaching of creationism with the teaching of evolution, as the basis for what should be taught in our nation's schools?"

Perhaps Williams had caught the end of Thursday's Hardball on MSNBC only hours earlier, when, as NewsBusters Scott Whitlock reported, host Chris Matthews listed some of the questions he would like to ask the Republican presidential hopefuls, including: "Question to Mr. Candidate, do you believe in evolution? Are you a fundamentalist who believes in the Bible as written? Has man been around millions of years or, say, just about 6000?"

Interviewing presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty on Friday, George Stephanopoulos lectured the Republican that Barack Obama can say I've "kept my promises" for the war on terror. The Good Morning America anchor ignored examples such as the failure to close Guantanamo Bay.

Stephanopoulos added, "Our troops are coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan. And a weakened al Qaeda has not succeeded on a major attack on our homeland. When President Obama makes the case that America is safer on his watch, how will you respond?"

(That comment would also skip the Fort Hood shooting in 2009.) The morning show anchor began by touting White House talking points: "So, I wonder what you say in a debate with President Obama when he comes out and says when it comes to protecting America, I've kept my promises."

For weeks MSNBC's Chris Matthews has been complaining about the lack of declared GOP presidential candidates.

On Tuesday's "Hardball," former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele exposed Matthews' hypocrisy concerning this matter marvelously demonstrating that once any of the possible candidates formally enters the race, the avowed liberal commentator is just going to trash him or her (video follows with transcript and commentary):

I'm regularly amazed by the economic ignorance of today's television commentators.

Consider MSNBC's Chris Matthews who on Monday's "Hardball" actually said, "Nobody thinks this country can drill its way out of high gas prices" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

CBS's Jan Crawford spotlighted the Tea Party movement on Monday's Early Show, but also played up how it might present a "challenge" for potential Republican presidential candidates due its apparent unpopularity: "Recent polls show 47% of Americans have an unfavorable view of the movement. So candidates looking for Tea Party votes have to be careful not to alienate moderates."

Midway through her report, after noting the would-be GOP presidential candidates, such as Tim Pawlenty and Donald Trump, who showed up at some of the weekend rallies, the correspondent turned to possible downside that these politicians might face in appealing to the Tea Party, playing up a result from a recent CNN/Opinion Dynamics poll:

As NewsBusters reported, MSNBC's Chris Matthews went on quite a Republican-hating rant Monday linking murder and violence in Afghanistan to GOP "zealots at home."

Such conservative bashing continued till the end of "Hardball" when the host finished with a two minute segment excoriating the Republican Party as one where "you can't say you believe in science, you can't say you believe in evolution or in climate change or in gay rights, or even in separation of church and state" concluding "Maybe this is God's will, that Obama not have a reasonable opponent out there" (video follows with transcript and commentary):