Cheering Democrats' "Fiscal Fraud," Palin a "Daffy," "Delusional" "Joke"

Cheering On the Democrats' "Fiscal Fraud"

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer: "The fraudulence of these [health care] numbers is absolutely staggering....When the program starts, it will be annually - it will cause a huge deficit annually. That is an absolutely phony number that [Senator Harry] Reid gave us."
Newsweek's Evan Thomas: "Charles is right. This bill is a fiscal fraud. I'd still vote for it, because I think it's a good thing to extend benefits and start down the road to universal and - because of the health insurance...."
NPR's Nina Totenberg: "I am not saying it's ideal. But we have to start this. But if we don't get a health care bill this time, it is probably the last chance."
- Exchange on Inside Washington, November 20. [Audio/video (0:26): Windows Media [1] | MP3 audio [2]]

Sarah Palin: Nothing but a Daffy, Delusional Joke

"My guess is she's not ever going to run for anything and I think if she did, I don't think she would get very far....I think she'll be a great attraction out, you know, as an amusement. She's interesting, she's a celebrity. But I can't imagine that she has much future in politics. I really don't."
- Bob Schieffer on CBS's The Early Show, November 16. [Audio/video (0:56): Windows Media [3] | MP3 audio [4]]

"She's a joke. I mean, I just can't take her seriously....The idea that this potential talk show host is considered seriously for the Republican nomination, believe me, it'll never happen. Republican primary voters just are not going to elect a talk show host."
- New York Times columnist David Brooks talking about Sarah Palin on ABC's This Week, November 15. [Audio/video (0:30): Windows Media [5] | MP3 audio [6]]

"So she's [Sarah Palin] Ernest Hemingway now: 'I'd rather write than talk.'...No evidence of having written before. Now she says, 'I want to go back to my career as a writer.' Is this delusion here?...Is this absolute delu-sion?...I just think the whole thing is absolutely daffy, but she proceeds on here and she'll have a bestseller with not having written anything. It's amazing! Great work."
- MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Hardball, November 17. [Audio/video (0:30): Windows Media [7] | MP3 audio [8]]

Fretting Congressmen Might Face "Circus" of Rowdy "Teabaggers"

"The holidays are coming up. Do we expect to see the kinds of big rallies and the kind of - some of the theatrics, the circus atmosphere that we saw the last go-round over the summer when you were talking about controversial policy, 'teabaggers' and all that other thing? Do you think we'll see something equivalent to that?"
- Fill-in anchor Suzanne Malveaux to political analyst Gloria Borger on CNN's Situation Room, November 23.

CBS: Obama's Afghanistan Stall "A Good Thing"

"The President has been agonizing over this decision for two months already, and now he's sending the Pentagon back to the drawing board.... He's recently immersed himself in the agony of war, honoring the fallen at Dover Air Force Base and, on Veterans Day, walking through Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery where war dead from Iraq and Afghanistan are buried. That the President is so thoroughly researching such a critical decision is a good thing, according to CBS News national security consultant Juan Zarate."
- White House correspondent Chip Reid on the November 12 CBS Evening News.

Media Sycophants Fret About Obama's "Stress"

"I've had a couple people ask me this at NBC, are you losing weight, do you feel the stress? Where is this coming from? Or at the one-year point, do you feel like, 'Oh my God, I look in the mirror, boy, they're right, this job does age you?'"
- NBC White House correspondent Chuck Todd to President Obama in a November 18 interview, the video of which was posted at MSNBC.com.

CBS's Chip Reid: "Asked about the stress of the job, the President denied reports that he's skipping meals and losing weight, but he admitted it's taking a toll."
President Barack Obama: "My hair is getting gray and it is the butt of a lot of jokes....Absolutely that weighs on me. Whenever I visit Walter Reed or other military hospitals, I see the incredible sacrifices that our young men and women are making. That is a heavy, heavy weight."
- CBS Evening News, November 18.

Obama's Real Problem: He's Too Smart

"President Obama has his chin out on just about every hot issue out there: Health care, terror trials, job losses, even the breast cancer report. He's exposed and vulnerable. His poll numbers are dropping. Is he just too darned intellectual? Too much the egg head?"
- Chris Matthews on Hardball, November 20. [Audio/video (1:15): Windows Media [9] | MP3 audio [10]]

Gore a Genius, Too

"The Thinking Man's Thinking Man: Al Gore's New Plan for the Planet."
- Cover of the November 9 Newsweek.

But Overseas Protocol "Just Too Confusing"

"Before we leave the topic of the President's trip overseas, I've often thought the hardest subject for every President, what do you do with royalty? We're not trained to greet royalty since 1776. The President, as we saw with the emperor, went the full way, lots of comment about that.... [After snapshots of other Presidents greeting Japanese emperors] Who can blame them for not knowing what to do?...It's just too confusing when you're American."
- ABC's Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, November 16.

"Infuriated" by Pro-Life Amendment; Wants IRS Unleashed on Catholic Church

"A white man deciding a woman's responsibility in her own procreation. I mean, I find it infuriating. I mean, I really think it doesn't matter what side of the abortion issue or pro-choice issue you're on, the fact that you're making health care harder and harder for women to navigate the system, I think it's outrageous, just outrageous....It really is about one more burden for women navigating the health care system. Before I blow my top, time to turn to Monica Novotny at the news desk."
- NBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman talking about the passage of the Stupak amendment to the House health care bill forbidding the use of taxpayer money for abortions, MSNBC's Dr. Nancy, November 9. [Audio/video (2:05): Windows Media [11] | MP3 audio [12]]

Host Dr. Nancy Snyderman: "This is going to be a Pollyannaish statement. The Catholic bishops appearing [supporting the pro-life Stupak amendment] and having a political voice seems to be a most fundamental violation of church and state."
NOW President Terry O'Neill: "You know, that's the first thing that I said. I don't know where the Internal Revenue Service is, but I hope they're paying attention."
Snyderman: "Me, too. And I just want to, sort of, say good-bye to you by pointing out that Stupak and Henry Hyde, the two amendments that restrict a woman's right to choose, are both white men telling women about reproduction."
- MSNBC's Dr. Nancy, November 12. [Audio/video (0:44): Windows Media [13] | MP3 audio [14]]

NBC's Lauer Suggests Liberal Bias - at Another Network

"Do you think CNN got tired of opinions in general?...Or did they get tired of your specific opinions, too conservative?...You seemed to lead people to believe that when you were speaking out against President Bush and his immigration policies, you got much less kickback from CNN than when you started to speak out about the policies of Barack Obama. So, was this an issue that CNN wants to appear neutral, but maintain a more liberal stance?"
- Co-host Matt Lauer to ex-CNN anchor Lou Dobbs on Today, November 17. [Audio/video (2:16): Windows Media [15] | MP3 audio [16]]

Good Riddance to Lou Dobbs "Rancor"

"So wily Lou has picked the locks/That kept him in his padded box/And tiptoed off, in just his socks./Or should we say, weighed anchor?
"So now we wonder where he docks/To whom he'll lead his rabid flocks:/The Pop that loves his famous Vox/And adores his rancor.
"A network just for frat-boy jocks?/Where aliens are put in stocks/And viewers pelt them with big rocks/Before each half-time show?"
- Part of a November 12 poem [17] written by Newsweek editor Jerry Adler on Dobbs' exit from CNN, announced the previous evening.

Bush Destroyed Us, Obama Will Fix Us

Fortune managing editor Andy Serwer: "Overall, it was a decade where Americans really suffered. There was, you know, a deferral of responsibility, neglect, and these things all sort of came home to roost this decade. So, not a great one...."
Time editor Richard Stengel: "Andy's point, which I think is really good, is that we're actually, we're too pessimistic about the decade to come, and in fact it's going to turn out to be a lot better than we think....I do think the election of Barack Obama as the beginning of the next decade might be a way of kind of reconceiving American exceptionalism."
- Discussing Time's designation of 2000-2009 as "The Decade from Hell" on MSNBC's Morning Joe, November 25.

Media Commentary Pollutes Pureness of Obama Experience

"Lincoln was lucky. His speech at Gettysburg wasn't televised, and so he wasn't subjected to hours of commentary in advance of his address, setting expectations, or hours after his speech, analyzing his every word. No one tried to tease out the difference between his 'Commander in Chief moment' and his 'pastor-in-chief role,' as various TV pundits undertook to do while waiting for President Barack Obama to speak at a memorial service Tuesday for the men and women killed last week in the massacre at Fort Hood. Televised speeches now come larded in so much analysis, before and after, that it becomes almost impossible to connect with them in a genuine, visceral way."
- Time's David von Drehle, November 10 item [18].

Actress Wants Close Encounter with Obama

"I would love to meet (President) Obama. I think he is so charming and smart. It took us no time at all to turn on him. Certainly leading the country is a really tough job."
- Actress Morena Baccarin, who plays the alien leader "Anna" on ABC's sci-fi V series, as quoted in a November 24 USA Today profile [19].



PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
EDITORS: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham
NEWS ANALYSTS: Geoff Dickens, Brad Wilmouth,
Scott Whitlock, Matthew Balan, and Kyle Drennen
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE: Michelle Humphrey
INTERN: Mike Sargent
MEDIA CONTACT: Colleen O'Boyle (703) 683-5004