Journalists Would "Recoil in Horror" at Palin Presidency; Hoping Weiner Hangs on Like "Beloved" Bill Clinton
Journalists Would "Recoil in Horror" at Palin Presidency
"You guys talk about her [Sarah Palin] a lot, we write about her a lot, yet if you talk to any single reporter at any media organization that we're aware of, I don't think that anyone thinks she can be President or should be President."
— The Politico's executive editor Jim VandeHei, a former Washington Post political reporter, on MSNBC's Morning Joe, June 14. [Audio/video (0:31): Windows Media | MP3 audio]
"If the 2012 election were held in the newsrooms of America and pitted Sarah Palin against Barack Obama, I doubt Palin would get 10 percent of the vote. However tempting the newsworthy havoc of a Palin presidency, I'm pretty sure most journalists would recoil in horror from the idea."
— New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller in a column for the paper's June 19 Sunday Magazine.
Anticipating a "Tough Day," "Minefield" and "Storm" for Palin...
Co-host Matt Lauer: "Plus, what could be a tough day for potential presidential candidate Sarah Palin. We're live in Alaska, where thousands of her e-mails as governor there will be released today...."
Co-host Ann Curry: "Sarah Palin says that she's still thinking about making a run for President, but she's about to face a new political minefield today...."
Reporter Michael Isikoff: "Fresh off her bus tour that attracted a crush of media attention, Sarah Palin may now be facing a storm of a different kind: the release of thousands of e-mails from Palin to more than 50 top aides and officials in Alaska...."
— NBC's Today, June 10.
...Only to Be Disappointed: "Not a Lot of Bombshells"
Reporter Michael Isikoff: "The e-mails have lots of redactions, and so far, there are no bombshells...."
NBC's David Gregory: "As Mike and his team are finding, not a lot of bombshells here....Might we have learned this during her run for the vice presidency when she was on the McCain ticket? Probably so."
— Hours later on the June 10 NBC Nightly News.
ABC's Big Scoop: E-Mails Expose Palin as Cookie Hypocrite
"While these days Palin is criticizing parts of Michelle Obama's national battle against obesity, even bringing cookies to a high school...she once emailed an aide asking for 'Low-carb foods, just don't want the kids to have too much sugar, white carb stuff.'"
— Correspondent John Berman on ABC's World News, June 11.
Basking in Michelle Obama's Greatness
"Taking the patented Michelle power to a new part of the world. Wherever she travels, she travels with a signature message: hope, health, and laughter for the young. Maybe it's hop scotching with kids in India, or closing a greeting in Spanish. Pouring a pint of Guinness in Ireland, or just showing up at those state dinners. And in every hemisphere, reminding students that dreams are not so different."
— Anchor Diane Sawyer talking about Michelle Obama's South Africa trip, June 20 World News. [Audio/video (0:39): Windows Media | MP3 audio]
Another Miracle from the Media's Messiah
"Is President Obama a baby whisperer? The leader of the free world worked his magic on this munchkin a few days ago at the White House. Now, watch as the First Lady tries to quiet down the fussy little friend....She then hands the bawling baby to the big man and, presto, the tot is simply transfixed."
— 'Lifestyle anchor' Lara Spencer on ABC's Good Morning America, June 22. [Audio/video (0:48): Windows Media | MP3 audio]
Mourning Loss of a "Hero to the Progressive Left"
Correspondent Luke Russert: "We can now report Anthony Weiner has stepped down, and this is really a sad ending, a lot would say, to what was once a bright, promising political career...."
NBC political director Chuck Todd: "He'd become sort of a hero to the more progressive left, who were always upset that Democrats don't stand up for themselves. So here was the guy that had all this potential to become a huge political figure...."
— NBC's Today, June 17.
Hoping Weiner Hangs on Like "Beloved" Bill Clinton
"You thought that Anthony Weiner should resign, and that seems to be what a great many people are saying. So I don't think so. I think what he has done is unfathomable. I think the pictures are disgusting....The ethics committee can investigate him and chastise, but not necessarily throw him out. And we had a President named Bill Clinton who went through a great deal of trouble, weathered the storm and is now not only respected, but he's beloved by many people with a very good marriage. So, I think Anthony Weiner should hang in there. He was a good Congressman, and maybe he can weather this all and be effective."
— Barbara Walters to her co-hosts on ABC's The View, June 9.
Weiner's Antics Offend Culturally "Backward" Christians
"If he [Anthony Weiner] stays, they [Democrats] never get the leadership back. They never get the Speakership back, because the people in the rural areas of this country who are Christian conservative culturally — you can say backward if you want — but they don't like this kind of stuff at all."
— Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball, June 9.
The Constitution Doesn't Limit Federal Power, Does It?
"The framers were not gods and were not infallible. Yes, they gave us, and the world, a blueprint for the protection of democratic freedoms — freedom of speech, assembly, religion — but they also gave us the idea that a black person was three-fifths of a human being, that women were not allowed to vote and that South Dakota should have the same number of Senators as California, which is kind of crazy....If the Constitution was intended to limit the federal government, it sure doesn't say so."
— Time managing editor Richard Stengel in the magazine's July 4 edition, which featured a picture of the U.S. Constitution going through a shredder with the headline, "Does It Still Matter?"
"You feel very strongly that government should be limited to what it is allowed to do in the Constitution. Now, the fact is, when we have to change things in society, government has had to provide incentives to capital to move into certain areas. Think about energy, think about the environment. Do you really believe that the federal government should offer no incentives, should undertake no planning with anything that doesn't have to do with powers granted to them in the Constitution?"
— CNN American Morning co-anchor Ali Velshi to GOP candidate Michele Bachmann, June 14. [Audio/video (0:35): Windows Media | MP3 audio]
"Are We Being Too Aggressive About Tackling Deficits?"
Moderator David Gregory: "Doris, we, we showed the pictures from Greece. We can show them again — demonstrations in the streets as a result of draconian cuts being made by the government there. The same question I asked to Senator Graham, are we being too aggressive about tackling deficits at a point when the economy still needs so much help?"
NBC historian Doris Kearns Goodwin: "Absolutely...."
— NBC's Meet the Press, June 19.
And Jesus Said, "Let Them Pound Sand"
"The House began debating a spending bill today that cuts $833 million from the WIC nutrition program, which provides healthy food to low-income women and their children....Now what was it that Jesus said? 'Give me your poor and needy, and I'll go tell them to pound sand.' That's at least the Republican vision of Jesus."
— Anchor Cenk Uygur during the 6pm ET hour of MSNBC News Live, June 14.
Admiring "Courage" of Senator's Tax Hike Talk
CBS's Bob Schieffer: "It was Coburn who may have won the prize for candor."
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK): "...You know, the reason I'll stand up as a conservative Republican, one of the biggest deficit hawks in Congress, and say 'I'll negotiate on taxes' — because our country's in trouble."
Schieffer: "That is not the first time we have heard someone offer that analysis, but it may be the first time a member of Congress has been willing to admit that Congress simply lacks the courage to do what everyone knows needs to be done."
— CBS Evening News, June 13, previewing a town hall meeting aired the next morning on The Early Show.
MSNBC Anchor Apparently Unaware of 1964 Election
"President Lyndon Johnson was from Texas and he was never actually elected Commander in Chief. As we all know, he was JFK's Vice President, sworn-in as President aboard Air Force One after Kennedy was shot in Dallas. Johnson decided not to run for re-election in '68 as the Vietnam War brought his popularity to an all-time low."
— MSNBC daytime anchor Thomas Roberts on June 13, talking about Texans running for President. Johnson won 61.1% of the popular vote as the Democratic nominee in 1964, the largest majority in American history. [Audio/video (0:43): Windows Media | MP3 audio]
With Global Warming, a Giant Ark May Be Good Planning
Correspondent Janet Shamlian: "Johan's ark has proven seaworthy, but how realistic is this Dutchman's dream of doom? Because of global warming, the concept of a flood happening here is not unheard of. Al Gore predicted as much in the movie, An Inconvenient Truth."
Clip of Al Gore from movie: "If Greenland broke up and melted, this is what would happen to the sea level in the Netherlands, absolutely devastating."
— Story on NBC's Today, June 22, about a man from Holland who constructed a full-size replica of Noah's Ark. [Audio/video (0:30): Windows Media | MP3 audio]
Learned His Left-Wing Lessons from Journalist Dad
"Both his writings and our family dinner conversations featured extensive discussions of how the military-industrial complex encouraged warmongering and how America's need for oil explained its policies in the Middle East."
— Washington Post columnist and former reporter Robert McCartney, June 19, writing a Fathers Day tribute to his father, long-time Knight-Ridder Washington correspondent Jim McCartney.
CNN Gives Maher Airtime to Denounce "Horrible," "Psychotic" Conservatives
Anchor Anderson Cooper: "If you had to vote for one of them [the Republican candidates], is there one you would vote for? Who would you vote for? I mean, if you had to pick?"
HBO's Bill Maher: "I'd vote for Ron Paul, if I had to pick. I mean, Ron Paul is at least not a panderer....I think he's a cut from a different cloth than the rest of those people who are, of course, selling their souls to the corporate interests who back them, and who have just horrible society-killing ideas about America."
— CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, June 14. [Audio/video (2:03): Windows Media | MP3 audio]
Anderson Cooper: "Do you think he [Anthony Weiner] should resign?"
Bill Maher: "At this point, yes. Not because I think he did anything so incredibly awful. I mean, Dick Cheney used to go out and shoot birds by the hundreds that were, like, in a cage. To me, that's a lot more psychotic than anything Anthony Weiner ever did."
— Exchange later on the same program.
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