Morning Joe: R-E-S-P-E-C-T Hillary

September 23rd, 2008 10:02 AM
Hillary Clinton, Queen of Soul? Barack Obama, All-American teenaged girl?  That's precisely the analogy that Joe Scarborough made this morning in trying to explain why many Hillary supporters haven't swung to Obama.  Hillary was a guest on today's Morning Joe, and the interview offered a number of other interesting tidbits:Hillary dodged the question of whether Bill was telling the truth when he…

Shovel Your Ratings, Keith

September 18th, 2008 7:59 AM
"Shovel your ratings" appears to be Morning Joe's subliminal message to Keith Olbermann today.  With the latest ratings showing Rachel Maddow's new MSNBC show beating Olbermann's Countdown, the MJ panel went out of its way to congratulate Maddow on her success, repeatedly mentioning what a "good person" she is and how nice it is to see such people do well.  The crew was riffing off the Drudge…

Happy When America's Hurting, Gloomy When It Wins

September 17th, 2008 9:14 AM
Of course we all know that it's absolutely wrong and mean-spirited to suggest that anyone on the left could conceivably be unpatriotic [though an exception might be made for unrepentant terrorist friends of Barack Obama who accept from Vietnamese communists rings made from downed US planes.]  So while we won't be using the u-word here, two recent MSNBC shows offer a remarkable contrast. Let's…

McCain Calls Mika Out: 'I Know You're a Supporter of Senator Obama

September 16th, 2008 9:11 AM
It might not do John McCain any good politically.  But once in a while, it's refreshing to hear an MSMer called out on political bias.  It happened this morning when John McCain told Mika Brzezinski "I know you're a supporter of Senator Obama."  Mika resorted to her favorite defense to the bias charge, mentioning that she has a brother who works on the McCain campaign and asking the Arizona…

Mitchell: Obama 'Clearly' Wasn't Talking About Palin

September 11th, 2008 9:10 AM
Make it a trio of mindreaders at NBC/MSNBC.  As noted here, yesterday Howard Fineman and David Shuster went Carnac on us, emphatically declaring that Barack Obama didn't have Sarah Palin in mind with his lipstick line.  On this morning's Today, Andrea Mitchell joined her network stablemates [no pun intended!] in delving into Barack's brain and assuring us he meant no harm.ANDREA MITCHELL: Barack…

Hell's Snowballs on Steroids: Mika Knocks 'Liberal Elite' Palin Critic

September 8th, 2008 10:05 AM
Thanks to Sarah Palin, the culture war has become a civil war—on the left. Mika Brzezinski bravely opened a new front in the conflict during today's "Morning Joe," repeatedly going after two female MSMers for suggesting Palin is taking the working-mom thing too far.  And, mirabile dictu, Mika even admitted to sensing MSM unfairness to Republicans."This is an argument Joe and I have about fairness…

Andrea: 'Amazing'; Brokaw 'Magnificent'; Mika: 'She Represents Life I

September 4th, 2008 12:03 PM
What does it say about Sarah Palin that some of my favorite targets, um, subjects raved about her this morning?  Andrea Mitchell and Mika Brzezinski could hardly have been more complimentary, Tom Brokaw and Jay Carney chipping in with positive comments.ANDREA MITCHELL: Here was a novice on the national scene, with the lowest of expectations. People said sure, she'll be able to perform. But it was…

Paging Stuart To Heal Scarborough-Olbermann Spat

September 3rd, 2008 7:15 AM
Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann began to poignantly patch things up two nights ago.  But there's clearly still mucho trabajo to be done to heal the rift between Joe Scarborough and the temperamental Countdown host.  Readers will recall that during the Dem convention, Olbermann was caught [accidentally on purpose?] on an open mic suggesting Scarborough "get a shovel" for his failure to toe a…

NewsBusters Shares a Laugh with 'Morning' Joe and Mika

September 2nd, 2008 5:41 PM
ST. PAUL, Minn.-- The NewsBusters team caught up with "Morning Joe's" Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Tuesday, and had a nice discussion about how she got the nickname "Bubbles."For those that have forgotten, last September, Mika mentioned, "I never had a writing section [on my SATs], just bubbles."This led NB's Mark Finkelstein to nickname her "Bubbles." As a result, when we bumped into…

'You Are a Pathetic Human Being, and You Should Be Ashamed of Yourself

September 2nd, 2008 7:30 AM
No, not Chris Matthews to Keith Olbermann.  That media odd couple have already begun to kiss and make up. Instead, it was Joe Scarborough who authored the line this morning, directing it at Obama spokesman Mark Bubriski.  The cause of Joe's ire was this email statement Bubriski released to the Miami Herald [emphasis added]:Palin was a supporter of Pat Buchanan, a right-winger or as many Jews call…

Noonan Knocks MSNBC's 'Fatuous Suck-upping

August 29th, 2008 10:25 AM
Peggy Noonan made a serious point about MSNBC's slanted coverage, and I suppose seriousness compels me to mention it first.  But please do yourself a favor and stay tuned for the description of Peggy's un-PC laugh line that could be the best guilty pleasure of the campaign season. Joe Scarborough opened today's Morning Joe with an ode to the wonderfulness that was Obama last night.  He was…

Biden is 'Full Employment for Fact-Checkers

August 27th, 2008 1:19 PM
Pay close attention to Joe Biden's words tonight. During an appearance on this morning's "Morning Joe" Bill Adair, Washington bureau chief for the St. Petersburg Times and editor of politifact.com, implied that Barack Obama's running mate is not always truthful. Adair told hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski that "from a fact-checker's standpoint, we should be grateful to Joe Biden" because…

Scoring Hillary's Speech: From Single to Olbermann's 'Grand Slam

August 27th, 2008 7:26 AM
Keith Olbermann has forgotten the figure-skating judge's cardinal rule: be sparing in the marks you award early contestants, to leave room for the favorites who perform at the end.  After his gushing appraisals of Michelle Obama's and Hillary's convention speeches, how can Olbermann possibly top it in his praise of Biden's and Obama's to come?Mixing metaphors here, let's compare the baseball…

Scarborough's Scoff: So Glad MSNBC Down the Middle

August 26th, 2008 9:00 AM
Tensions are running high at MSNBC, at least surrounding veteran host Joe Scarborough who seems to be increasingly discontented at his network's decision to market itself as the cable net of choice for Bush haters. That hasn't sat well with the likes of the far left Keith Olbermann who has played a large role in getting MSNBC to pursue this strategyThe Democratic convention seems to have only…