An interesting—encouraging?—comment and admission from Mark Halperin on today's Morning Joe. The MSNBC political analyst said that "almost every national political reporter knows Paul Ryan, likes Paul Ryan, more than they do Mitt Romney. And that gives Romney a little bit of an edge that he was missing, which is pro-Obama in the press corps."
Halperin's comment came immediately after Joe Scarborough had dared Dems to demonize Ryan, saying it would only help Republicans. Halperin's statement was a bit condensed. But parsing it, he seems to be admitting that the national press corps is pro-Obama, but that they know and like Ryan, and that will be a plus for the GOP ticket as the inevitable Dem demonization of Ryan unfolds. View the video after the jump.
Note: when push comes to shove, it's fair to assume that even those Ryan-liking MSMers will do their best to drag President Obama over the finish line. Then again, it was said that the MSM didn't like Al Gore much, and that it came back to hurt him during his 2000 run against George W. Bush.
Joe Scarborough primed Halperin's comment as images rolled of a smiling, affable Paul Ryan.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Look at the guy. Look at the guy. Look at him. They're going to try to demonize him. And look at the guy. Good luck demonizing a guy that comes from a district that voted for Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, if I'm not mistaken Al Gore. He is from the biggest swing district in Wisconsin, and the guy is beloved. Yes, Democrats, yes, progressives: please say that this guy eats babies. You will only be hurting yourselves, and helping the Republican party.
SCARBOROUGH: He comes from the most swing district.
MARK HALPERIN: He does. I'll tell you another constituency he has: almost every national political reporter knows Paul Ryan, likes Paul Ryan, more than they do Mitt Romney. And that gives Romney a little bit of an edge that he was missing, which is pro-Obama in the press corps.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah, a connection there.
