Mud-slinging a Real Headache

Michele Bachmann gives me a headache. But it's not the congresswoman herself who is to blame for the pain. It's so many of the stories about her. We're still months away from the first caucus or primary of the presidential nominating season, and already things have gotten way out of control. Accusations that Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann is heavily medicated on account of…

Open Thread: What Should Be the Focus of GOP Campaigns

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…

In Just Four Days, Networks Devote 13 Minutes to 'Campaign Controversy

Over a span of just four days, the three major networks devoted 12 minutes and 59 seconds to highlighting the "campaign controversy" of Michele Bachmann's migraines. The report first appeared online and then was quickly picked up on ABC, NBC and CBS. On Wednesday, Good Morning America's Robin Roberts warned, " But now a new story is raising questions about her health."  On NBC's Today, Kelly…

CNN.com Determined to Omit News That 66% of Americans Favor 'Cut, Cap

For the second day in a row, CNN is doing its level best to avoid noting some interesting data from its latest poll that shows some 66 percent of voters favor the Republican-sponsored "Cut, Cap and Balance" plan. The only mention of that fact on air is when guests bring it up and today the CNN.com website is casting the poll's results as evidence that while Obama is losing enthusiasm among…

Bachmann and the Pope

It seems Rep. Michele Bachmann is under increased scrutiny for her religious views, even as she climbs ever higher in the presidential polls. With tea party support, she is now No. 2 in the Republican polls even though she has been in the race for only a short time. The numero uno, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, is himself the victim of gentler bigotry for his religious views. He is a…

Heilemann: Bachmann Migraine Story 'Hit Piece' By GOP Rival—Not MSM

The story about Michele Bachmann's migraines was not the product of a "liberal media conspiracy." Instead, it was a "calculated hit piece" by one of Bachmann's rivals for the Republican presidential nomination. That's the view emphatically propounded by John Heilemann on Morning Joe today.  As evidence, the New York magazine editor and Game Change co-author noted that the story first…

Open Thread: GOP Presidential Hopefuls Break Ranks With Party on Cut

Last night, nine Republicans and five Democrats broke with their parties on the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act, which would require a balanced budget amendment if the debt ceiling were to be raised. Two of the Republicans who voted against it were presidential hopefuls: Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and Rep. Ron Paul (Texas), both of whom believe the act doesn't goes far enough. Bachmann instead…

Michele Bachmann Latest Example of How the Left Doesn't Take Women Ser

The fact that the American left is deathly afraid of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann can be interpreted in several different ways. First of all, if both ladies are as big of fools and bumblers as they claim, why are they wasting so much time and energy trying to destroy them? If they were the idiots the self-proclaimed elitists in the mainstream media would have us believe, they'd simply…

Biographer of Obama's Mother Won't Discuss Debunking of His Health Ins

For having made a shocking revelation that deeply undermined one the most repeated stories of Obama's 2008 campaign and 2009 health care debate, Janny Scott is staying extremely quiet. Scott's new book, 'A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother,' proved false Obama's claim that his mother was fighting with insurance companies from her death bed, one of Obama's favorite lines…

AP Claims Bush Tax Cuts Caused National Debt to Grow by $1.6 Trillion

In an unbylined update of the latest developments in the budget-tax-spending-debt ceiling discussions in Washington this morning, the Associated Press committed several blunders in attempting to explain what's going on and how we got to where we are. First and foremost was its list identifying "contributors" to the $8.5 trillion growth in the national debt since 2001. Here's the AP's you-can'…

Goldman Drops Fri. Evening 'Bomb,' Projecting Unemployment at 8.75% at

Per Reuters blogger James Pethokoukis, Goldman Sachs, demonstrating Democratic-friendly timing similar to that seen at the New York Times a month or so ago, published an extraordinarily gloomy economic forecast last night. Here are some of the details he quotes: "Following another week of weak economic data, we have cut our estimates for real GDP growth in the second and third quarter of…

Obama's False Family Drama: Ann Dunham Was Not Denied Health Insurance

As Clay Waters at the Media Research Center's Times Watch reported earlier today ("One of Obama's Emotional Arguments for Obama-Care Proven Wrong in NYT Staffer's New Book"), the New York Times's Kevin Sack ran a story yesterday which "reflects badly on Barack Obama and how he misled people in his campaign for Obama-care." I'll say. As reported by Sack (bolds are mine throughout this post):

Minn. Shutdown Follow-up: State Demanding MillerCoors Pull Product Ove

Last night (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted that the State of Minnesota, where the government is shut down but spokesman for the Department of Public Safety Doug Neville is somehow still working, is demanding that MillerCoors pull its products from Gopher State store shelves within days, and identified a number of questions non-inquisitive Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Eric Roper…

A Religious Test for

The Constitution is specific when it prohibits a "religious test" for "any office or public trust" -- Article VI, Paragraph III That doesn't mean that voters are prohibited from taking a person's faith (or lack thereof) into account when deciding for whom they will vote. No law could stop them.