Conservatives & Republicans

Historian Rick Perlstein, the author of three books (so far) on American movement conservatism from the mid-‘50s through the mid-‘70s, believes, in essence, that conservatives are tribalists whose central task is to promote hatred against other tribes. According to Perlstein, two recent news stories serve to illuminate that process, which, he suggests, involves an almost scientific-sounding…

Andrea Mitchell wondered if Chattanooga terrorist Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez's "small-town Tennessee" upbringing had anything to do with his slaughtering of four Marines. Mitchell interviewed a high school classmate of Abdulazeez on the Friday edition of her MSNBC program and asked, "Were guns a big part of activity – social or other activity?...Did he hunt? Did he shoot? I mean, was that just…

On Friday's New Day, CNN's Alisyn Camerota set up Michael Douglas to sing the praises of the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran. Camerota asked, "This week was the historic deal with Iran that...reportedly, will cut down on nuclear proliferation. Are you convinced by this deal?" Douglas replied by going after the critics of the deal: "I think it's just so presumptuous of everybody to…

On Friday’s NBC Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie touted Donald Trump leading in recent polls as a problem for the 2016 Republican field: “He is having a bigger impact than a lot of people expected and that is leading to a growing war of words between the real estate mogul and his political rivals.”

As usual, much of the press has responded to scandalous behavior by leftist sacred cows by making the story about Republicans criticizing the actions instead of the scandal itself. On the one hand, are we really supposed to believe that only pro-lifers are horrified by the evidence that Planned Parenthood, aka Planned Parthood, sells the body parts of aborted preborn babies? Gosh, I hope not. So…

The New York Times reported last weekend that one line of attack American Crossroads and other Republican-leaning groups are likely to use against Hillary Clinton is that she’s far too wealthy to relate to average Americans. Regarding such criticism, Steve Benen says, in effect: Bring it on. Benen, a producer for MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show and the primary writer for the TRMS blog, argued in…

Nicholas Confessore and Maggie Haberman at the New York Times studiously avoided talking about Hillary Clinton's campaign spending in their front-page print edition story Thursday ("Hillary Clinton Lags in Engaging Grass-Roots Donors"). Mrs. Clinton hauled in $48.7 million, but she spent a stunning $18.7 million. As seen in a table accompanying the Times story, that's more than triple that of…

The major broadcast networks continued their defense on Wednesday night of the Iranian nuclear arms agreement and specifically President Obama’s press conference from hours before, ruling that the President was “on offense” in providing “a spirited defense” of the “history-making deal.” While all three network anchors interviewed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it was CBS Evening News…

Following a censorship on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning of video showing Planned Parenthood senior director of medical services Dr. Deborah Nucatola discussing the selling of body parts from aborted babies, ABC and CBS ended their blackouts on Wednesday night with coverage on their evening newscasts, but made sure to hype the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) as “anti-abortion activists.” …

Journalists and lefitsts (but I repeat myself) are hopping mad. They're not mad at President Obama for failing to make freeing American hostages held by Iran an issue in negotiations with that nation. Instead, they're furious at Major Garrett of CBS News for daring to ask Dear Leader a question about it, even though in the process Garrett got a clearly irritated Obama to make news by admitting,…

The Miracle on Ice and Hoosiers aside, the underdog usually loses, and Penn State's Sophia McClennen speculates that it’s happened again: Jon Stewart is leaving The Daily Show because he’s “exhausted” and "dejected" from battling Roger Ailes and the Fox News juggernaut. “Could Stewart really be giving up his show due to Fox News fatigue?” wondered McClennen in a Wednesday article for Salon. “It’s…

Wednesday's Fox and Friends spotlighted how two members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors treated a Fox News Channel journalist with contempt, after he tried asking them about their sanctuary city policy. Host Steve Doocy later zeroed in on how anchor Chris Cuomo at competitor network CNN asserted that the term "sanctuary city" was a "misnomer" on Monday's New Day. Doocy mocked CNN as "…

CNN's Chris Cuomo tried to shame Rick Santorum on Tuesday's New Day over his opposition to same-sex marriage. Cuomo indicated that Santorum wasn't in line with Pope Francis on LGBT issues: "Your Pope says tolerance is the message of Catholicism, when asked about gay marriage and LGBT existence within humanity. He says, 'Who am I to judge?' That doesn't work for you. You say you want an amendment…

Since Scott Walker is both a “threat to reproductive rights” and a deceitful doofus, he would be an unusually dangerous Republican presidential nominee, argued lefty pundit Marcotte in a Monday blog post for Slate. If the race pits Walker against Hillary Clinton, the Wisconsin governor “could give her a real run for her money,” wrote Marcotte, “because Walker does a much better job than most of…