Pleading With Hillary to Run: “If Not You, Who?”
“I was stunned. It takes two pages to cover the list of countries that have already had a woman leader....It includes Bangladesh, Indonesia, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, of course. Are we waiting for alphabetical order?...If not you, who? Who is the viable woman of either party who could win a primary nomination in 2016 if not you?”
— CBS Sunday Morning contributor Jane Pauley to Hillary Clinton in an interview aired June 15.
Opposition to Obama = “Vestiges of Racism”?
CNN’s Christiane Amanpour: “Senator Jay Rockefeller said recently and he suggested basically that some of the political opposition to President Obama could have something to do with the color of his skin. Do you agree with that? What do you think about that?”
Hillary Clinton: “Well, I can’t read the mind of all of the opposition, but some of it is virulent, and really, in my view, you know, quite detached from the job that not only this President is doing, but any President has to do....”
Amanpour: “Do you think some of that is latent racism, vestiges of racism, as some people have said?”
— Exchange during a June 17 CNN “Town Hall” special devoted to Hillary Clinton’s new book.
Don’t Criticize Hillary — Just “Enjoy” Her “Refreshing” Gaffes
Host Alex Wagner: “Is this a good rollout? Do you think that Clinton World thinks this is a necessary early step in terms of neutralizing controversy?”
New York Times national political reporter Amy Chozick: “I think political reporters who covered her in 2008 sort of enjoy these past couple gaffes, if you’ll call them that, because it says she is not as scripted, she’s not polling every single response that comes out of her mouth. And I think that that is sort of a refreshing sign from the candidate.”
— Exchange on MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner, June 10.
“I actually welcomed the slip-ups, because I thought that signaled that if she’s a candidate in 2016, maybe she won’t be so scripted and everything that she says is polled, to figure out how Americans feel about it before she utters every line. I kind of found the gaffe sort of refreshing in a way, at least as a political reporter.”
— Chozick a few hours later on PBS Newshour.
Imagine ABC Asking Mitt Romney These Questions
“You and your husband have very intense schedules. How much quality time — let’s say how many days in the month are you actually able to be together as a family?...You’re going to be a grandmother in the fall. Have you offered any names to Chelsea?... Politician you’d let babysit your future grandchild?... Game 3 of the NBA finals. Heat or Spurs? So you gotta go with Texas or Florida. That’s tough.”
— ABC’s Robin Roberts to Hillary Clinton on Good Morning America, June 10.
Don’t Forget: Conservatives Don’t Care About People
“A few hours ago, Eric Cantor was one of the most powerful men in Washington, but late today he announced he is stepping down as House Majority Leader after a stunning defeat in a Republican primary....Cantor had been trying to moderate the image of the Republican Party as a party that cared about people’s needs.”
— Scott Pelley on the CBS Evening News, June 11.
Can We Blame Cantor’s Loss On Conservative Anti-Semitism?
“You are a Jewish Republican, the only Jewish Republican in the House. You started your discussion after you lost, quoting the Old Testament, talking about your Jewish faith. Your district is one-quarter of one percent Jewish. And your opponent, David Brat, really put his Christian faith front and center....Do you think that there was anti-Semitism involved in your defeat?”
— Fill-in host Dana Bash to outgoing House Majority Leader Eric Cantor on CNN’s State of the Union, June 15.
CNBC’s John Harwood: “Lindsey Graham survived on the same night that Eric Cantor went down....I think there is a significant Eric Cantor-specific component to this....You know, Eric Cantor is a Jewish Republican. This is a very rural conservative Southern district where that is not a — you don’t have a lot of Jewish members of Congress from the South.”
Host Gwen Ifill: “Oh, but he’s been elected several times from this district.”
Washington Post political reporter Robert Costa: “He’s been elected since 2000. I don’t think the faith of Eric Cantor had anything to do with it.”
— Exchange on PBS’s Washington Week, June 13.
Matthews vs. Matthews on Ridiculing the Tea Party
“I don’t think you can assume that the liberals are smarter than the conservative professors. I think that’s crazy talk...This looking down our noses at Tea Party people has got to stop.”
— Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Ronan Farrow Daily, June 11, talking about the victory of Tea Party-backed Dave Brat over House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a GOP primary election the day before.
vs.
“Why do Tea Party crackpots keep winning elections out in the country?”
— Matthews on Hardball, May 16, 2012.
Once Again, Bob Sees a Landslide GOP Defeat
“This is like 1964, when you had eastern, more moderate Republicans headed by Nelson Rockefeller, and then out west the very conservative Republicans headed by Barry Goldwater. They never closed the divide in 1964. As a result, Barry Goldwater got beat and beat badly in that presidential election.”
— Bob Schieffer talking about Cantor’s defeat on the CBS Evening News, June 11.
“So much of it reminds me of 1964 — maybe I’m the oldest person around, and I probably am, and maybe the only one old enough to remember that — but I remember a Republican Party where you had Republican moderates, mostly in the east headed by Nelson Rockefeller, and then you had western conservatives headed by Barry Goldwater. Those two factions never came together and Goldwater lost the election in a historic landslide. How do you prevent that from happening?”
— Host Bob Schieffer to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus on CBS’s Face the Nation, June 15.
Flashback:
“It is very much like 1964. In 1960, Republicans lost narrowly with an establishment candidate, Richard Nixon. They got to 1964, they threw out all the establishment candidates, they threw out their party leaders and they nominated Barry Goldwater who — fine man — but he was far to the right of most of the people in his party, and they lost in a landslide. And that’s why you have establishment Republicans worried about what’s going to happen now in November.”
— Schieffer on the September 15, 2010 CBS Evening News, a few weeks before Republicans gained 63 House seats and six Senate seats, the GOP’s best performance in a midterm election since 1938.
Ted Cruz, Leader of the “Hate” Brigade
“Ted Cruz is back at it, leading the haters of the right....With Cruz as their ringleader, the hate wing of the Republican Party showed off a side of the party traditional Republicans don’t want you to see.”
— Host Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s Hardball, June 9.
NBC Declares the Debacle in Iraq Is All Bush’s Fault
“Make no mistake, what’s happening in Iraq right now is a direct outgrowth of the U.S. decision to invade the country over a decade ago.”
— Anchor Brian Williams on the NBC Nightly News, June 13, talking about Islamic radicals seizing control of huge swaths of northern and western Iraq.
MSNBC Viewers Too Sensitive to Hear “Redskins,” But...
“The U.S. Patent and Trademark announced today that it’s canceling the trademark registration of Washington D.C.’s professional football team. Team owner Daniel Snyder maintains that the name of the team, a racial slur I won’t say here, is meant to be respectful of Native American heritage and football tradition....Senator Harry Reid made an actually interesting case on the floor of the Senate, continuing to talk back to Dan Snyder. And I just will warn people, he does use the name of the team. So, I’m just going to warn you guys about that in advance.”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The Reid Report, June 18.
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“One of the most comprehensive first-person accounts of slavery comes from the personal diary of a man called Thomas Thistlewood, who kept copious notes for 39 years....In 1756, he records that ‘a slave named Darby catched eating canes; had him well flogged and pickled, then made Hector, another slave, s-h-i-t in his mouth.’ This became known as ‘Darby’s Dose,’ a punishment invented by Thistlewood that spoke only of the slave owners’ savagery and inhumanity....When Mrs. Palin invoked slavery, she doesn’t just prove her rank ignorance. She confirms that if anyone truly qualified for a dose of discipline from Thomas Thistlewood, then she would be the outstanding candidate.”
— Then-MSNBC host Martin Bashir, November 15, 2013, delivering a prepared commentary that aired without advance warning for viewers.
Republicans Need to “Redeem Their Reputation as Human Beings”
“I think about some of the Republicans that they would rather love God instead of the neighbors they see before them because it demands seriousness of them, a commitment to those who are the least of those. So I don’t know why the Republicans do that, but if they want to redeem their reputations as human beings, I say they join the rest of us and get concerned about the least of these who are immigrants who deserve a path to citizenship in America.”
— MSNBC contributor Michael Eric Dyson filling in as host of The Ed Show, June 11.
It’s Official: The New York Times Is Going to Pot
“I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain. I barely made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours. I was thirsty but couldn’t move to get water. Or even turn off the lights. I was panting and paranoid, sure that when the room-service waiter knocked and I didn’t answer, he’d call the police and have me arrested for being unable to handle my candy.”
— Maureen Dowd in a June 4 New York Times column about what happened after she ate a marijuana-laced candy bar during a visit to Colorado.
TV’s President Heller: “Obviously, I’m a Big Fan of Obama”
“Obviously, I’m a big fan of Obama, as a guy who’s smart and articulate and supposedly leading all of us. I say to myself, ‘what has got to be going on in the private side of this guy’s brain’ — the pressure, the racism that is thrown out — and he handles it with such dignity. There’s gotta be a private side to him where he goes, ‘Why do I have this job?’”
— Actor William Devane, who plays “President James Heller” in the current season of Fox’s 24: Live Another Day, as quoted in a June 16 profile in USA Today.
PUBLISHER: L. Brent Bozell III
EDITORS: Brent H. Baker, Rich Noyes, Tim Graham
DEPUTY RESEARCH DIRECTOR: Geoffrey Dickens
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INTERNS: Laura Flint, Jackie Seal and Connor Williams