‘Politico’ Lies About Mike Huckabee Quote

-By Warner Todd Huston

For some reason, Politico felt it had to commit an outright lie about something Mike Huckabee said recently. In fact, they didn’t just invent the quote, Politico even invented the context in which he said it! Talk about media bias.

First of all let me say that I am not a supporter of Mike Huckabee. It isn’t likely that I would vote for him in a primary, though I would vote for him over a Democrat in the unlikely case that he should become the GOP nominee. So, I don’t come to this as an outrageously, outraged Huckabee supporter.

That said, let’s take a look at what Politico posted to Twitter to advertise a piece written by their Adam Lerner.

Just look at that headline tease. It says that Mike Huckabee called women at Fox News “trashy.”
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‘Politico’ Lies About Mike Huckabee Quote”


Professor Jedediah Purdy Wants You Forced to Follow His Religion

-By Warner Todd Huston

Professor Jedediah Purdy of Duke University Law School feels that you are not thinking right and therefore he wants you forced through “conflict” to accept his religion.

I assure you that this wouldn’t be his interpretation of the under girding of the essay he disgorged at Politico last week, but that is exactly what he is advocating nonetheless because his entire recipe for fixing our political culture is built on a religious-like belief in shadowy crises that he feels are besetting the country.

In fact, even as he pretended to be offering a “fix” for our political gridlock, he offered no proof whatsoever that the problems he thinks we face are based in fact. His entire piece was based on bald-faced assumption, all are forces taken as a given with not a single word to actually prove that his perceptions were real problems, the sort we should engage in “real” conflict to resolve.

Sadly, the essential lie-stiffened backbone upon which he hung the skeleton of his argument is what passes for “deep thought” at our fetid universities these days.
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Professor Jedediah Purdy Wants You Forced to Follow His Religion”


Media Giddy Over Chelsea Clinton Extending Dynasty With Baby Announcement

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Thursday, April 17, Chelsea Clinton said that she and husband of four years, investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, have a blessed event to announce as the couple is now expecting their first child. But the Old Media may be more excited than Chelsea that the Clinton dynasty is growing.

One of the earliest to bubble over with excitement seemed to be a screaming, all caps Tweet pushed out by CNN’s Candy Crowley.

Oddly, Crowley coupled Chelsea’s announcement with Obama’s wonderful Obamacare news, saying, “AT ABOUT THE SAME TIME-TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS: POTUS SAYS 8 MILLION ENROLLED IN ACA, AND CHELSEA CLINTON SAYS SHE’S PREGNANT.”

Even some of Crowley’s fans wondered why she was yelling at them with the all caps post that breaks netiquette standards.
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Media Giddy Over Chelsea Clinton Extending Dynasty With Baby Announcement”


Politico’s Crap About a ‘Career Path’ for Dissenting Journalists

-By Warner Todd Huston

Politico just published one of those articles that always drives me crazy where the media takes one or two examples of something and then tries to turn that into some sort of massive wave where in truth it is no such thing. This time Politico is saying that because three people left mainstream journalism to become media critics, that must mean there is a “career path” for disaffected journalists to fame and success.

The Politico story titled, “Media career path: Cry ‘media bias’,” is written by Dylan Byers and is loosely formed around the departure from CBS of excellent investigate journalist Sharyl Attkisson. Then the article segues to Bernard Goldberg and John Stossel both of who left big three network jobs to become Fox News analysts who often criticize the media.

The premise of the story is presented in the third paragraph:
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Politico’s Crap About a ‘Career Path’ for Dissenting Journalists”


Politico Reporter Picks Up ‘Bridge-ghazi’ Term

-By Warner Todd Huston

In order to appeal to an extremist MSNBC audience, Politico’s Glenn Thrush shamelessly pumped up the partisanship by giving Governor Chris Christie’s bridge lane closing controversy a “funny” name: “bridge-ghazi.”

During a discussion of Christie’s troubles on the January 13 Alex Wagner show, Thrush jumped in mirthfully using the term “bridge-ghazi,” much to Wagner’s amusement.

It should be remembered that the terrorist attacks on our facilities in Benghazi, Libya resulted in the deaths of four Americans, one of whom was Chris Stevens, our ambassador to Libya. To add “ghazi” to the far more trivial bridge controversy makes a mockery of their deaths.
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Politico Reporter Picks Up ‘Bridge-ghazi’ Term”


Nancy Pelosi: I Was a Mother, Then I Got A Life

-By Warner Todd Huston

Former Democrat Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi thinks that women who are mothers “have no life.” At least that is what she said during a Politico event in Washington this week.

Cortney O’Brien reports at Towhall that Pelosi appeared at the event with her daughter to talk about how she left behind her life as a mother and wife when she ran for Congress.

Apparently, Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra, told her mother to “get a life” when she announced she was thinking of running for Congress back in 1992.
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Nancy Pelosi: I Was a Mother, Then I Got A Life”


Politico Buttresses Liberal Republicans at the Expense of Conservatives

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Old Media establishment hates all Republicans, certainly, but they tolerate liberal Republicans because those sorts of Republicans don’t rock the boat and are quite happy taking the scraps from the Democrats’ table. So, the media always does its best to promote liberal Republicans and will use them as a foil to destroy conservatives–the latter of whom they truly despise. Politico recently had a perfect example of this Old Media strategy.

In a piece discussing how conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives are lagging with their donations to the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), Politico had a perfect example of how the left frames the debate when they are pretending to “report” on what is going on with the GOP.

The story noted how many of the House conservatives most associated with tea party principals don’t seem to keen on giving some of the campaign war chests to the NRCC so that it can promote left of center Republicans–and who can blame them?

In a great example of agenda “journalism,” the left’s narrative was perfectly pushed in the third paragraph of the slanted piece by Politico’s Alex Isenstadt.

Here is that paragraph:
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Politico Buttresses Liberal Republicans at the Expense of Conservatives”


Politico Misleads With ‘Cruz Praises Obama on Iran’ Story

-By Warner Todd Huston

A recent Politico story did double duty by misleading readers and attempting to make Texas Senator Ted Cruz look bad with a headline and first paragraph that simply aren’t really true.

The September 28 story was misleadingly headlined, “Ted Cruz praises President Obama on Iran,” leaving readers with the impression that Senator Cruz was happy with Obama’s Iran policy.

The first paragraph continued the subterfuge, but went even further to mislead.
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Politico Misleads With ‘Cruz Praises Obama on Iran’ Story”


Politico Hits Issa for ‘Little Boy’ Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

During a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Chairman Darrell Issa used an old saying to describe committee member and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings and despite that Cummings averred that he understood the comment and took no offense, but making a mountain out of a mole hill, Politico reported the incident as a “controversy.”

On July 18, Issa noted that Cummings was like “a little boy with his hand caught in the cookie jar,” an old saying that describes someone that got caught taking something or being somewhere he shouldn’t. It is not a race-based saying.

“I’m always shocked when the ranking member seems to want to say, like a little boy whose hand has been caught in a cookie jar, ‘What hand? What cookie?’ I’ve never said it leads to the White House,” Issa said during the hearing.

Hours later, Issa felt compelled to make sure everyone knew that his comment had no racial component to it.
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Politico Hits Issa for ‘Little Boy’ Comment”


Politico’s Thrush Politicizes Oklahoma Tornado

-By Warner Todd Huston

The destructive tornado that destroyed the quiet town of Moore, Oklahoma on the afternoon of May 20 was only a few hours gone, the devastation had yet to be measured, and the dead barely counted much less mourned and laid to rest before Politico’s Glenn Thrush felt it was already time to politicize the event and by scolding Oklahoma’s Senators because they are against global warming and big government spending, no less

Only hours after the monster storm ended, Thrush took to his Twitter account to slam Oklahoma’s Senators.

So, because a tornado hit in an area that has a long history of getting hit by tornados, if that area’s senators were global warming believers…. then, what, Glenn? If Oklahoma’s senators were to be global warming aficionados, would that somehow have warded off a tornado?

Or, perhaps if said senators were believers in big government spending would that somehow have been a bulwark to stop natural disasters?

Or is it, Mr. Thrush, that you are always in a rush to find any reason to attack someone because they don’t believe in your love of big government and your zealous belief in global warming? Regardless of whether a town is destroyed and children are killed it all still serves as fodder for your desire to advance your political objectives?

Is that it, Mr. Thrush?

Related: Liberal Laughing that ‘Conservatives’ Were Targeted by Oklahoma Tornado Today.
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Politico’s Thrush Politicizes Oklahoma Tornado”


Politico: AG Holder Now Untouchable

-By Warner Todd Huston

Politico has declared embattled Attorney General Eric Holder untouchable after the many scandals, lapses, overreaches, and contempt charges have failed to induce the President to fire him.

After noting that politicians have been calling for his ouster for years, Politico says that “after years of trying to get Holder, the attorney general doesn’t seem at all worried” that he’ll be fired from his position as chief law enforcement officer of the United States of America.

Quoting only Holders friends on the direct question on the AG’s current status, presenting Holder as but a fall guy for Republicans to beat up on because they can’t attack the President directly, and saying that the GOP has no “discipline” and has repeatedly made claims that were “overblown or just plain goofy,” Politico says that he’ll be able to hold his job for as long as he wants to be there and with the President’s full support.
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Politico: AG Holder Now Untouchable”


Conan O’Brien Slams Republicans, Democrats, the Press at WHCD

-By Warner Todd Huston

Typical of when a Democrat is president, during a keynote monologue at the White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD), the President is spared from too many mean spirited barbs. In keeping with that tradition, TBS’ Conan O’Brien poked a lot of fun at Republicans and conservatives with a bit sharper stick than he used to poke Democrats.

This year’s WHCD started with a slew of media outlets discussing the now annual slam on the event as delivered by long-time Washington reporter Tom Brokaw. The semi-retired NBC anchor has lamented for some time that the whole party atmosphere, replete with musicians and Hollywood celebrities–fittingly, this year the Duck Dynasty folks attended–makes a mockery of the seriousness of the media’s work.

After the President delivered his spiel on Saturday night, late night comedian Conan O’Brien took the stage to deliver the keynote address.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans showed up early as the comedian’s targets and naturally, even though he hasn’t been in office for over four years, now, an obligatory slam of George W. Bush as “stupid” had to be delivered.

Near the top of his address Conan mentioned the opening of the George W. Bush Presidential Library joking that the library had “Millions of books, articles and documents and if you go you can be the first to read them.”
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Conan O’Brien Slams Republicans, Democrats, the Press at WHCD”


WHCD Lauded and Bashed

-By Warner Todd Huston

The White House Correspondents Dinner (WHCD) has been a mainstay Washington to-do for years. Lately, however, it has come under fire for turning Hollywood–literally. In the wake of the event, some outlets continued the bashing but most lavished attention on the dinner or at least lauded it as harmless fun.

One of the quickest to slam the event was Sarah Palin, who did not attend. From her Twitter account, Palin indulged some rather salty language in criticism.

Britain’s Guardian newspaper was so fascinated by the whole thing, the paper set Jim Newell to live blog the night.

Newell opened his coverage with a nice slap at the pretentiousness of it all.
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WHCD Lauded and Bashed”


Politico Tries to Sink Another Perry Campaign

-By Warner Todd Huston

In a March 28 article, Politico made to report on the situation in Texas Governor Rick Perry’s inner circle but instead of a concise report this long and oddly repetitive piece was seemingly more interested in constantly reminding readers that the Governor didn’t fare too well in the 2012 Presidential election.

The quixotic piece by Politico’s Alexander Burns is ostensibly about a lightly manned Perry campaign staff. Many older Perry staffers, Burns reports, have now left the Governor’s employ and there seems to be some confusion as to public knowledge of who is doing what inside Perry’s organization.

But Burns’ motivation for the long piece is questionable. For one thing, he notes several times that Perry is in a “different” phase of his work as Governor in that being governor is his chief job at the moment. Therefore, future campaigns have taken a back seat to governing. This, of course, would be a good reason why Perry has thinned his campaign staff. He just doesn’t need an entire retinue of advisors and campaign staffers to do his job as Governor. In fact, this point seems to make much of Burns’ speculations rather moot, yet his reporting leads readers to imagine that Perry’s staffers are like rats leaving a sinking ship.
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Politico Tries to Sink Another Perry Campaign”


Politico Celebrates Obama’s ‘Bipartisan Spirit’ With Hagel Nomination

Politico Celebrates Obama’s ‘Bipartisan Spirit’ With Hagel Nomination
-By Warner Todd Huston

Upon President Obama’s nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense, Politico celebrated the move as proof of Obama’s “bipartisan spirit.”

Politico notes that Hagel has detractors on both sides of the aisle, but it appears the Washington political newser feels that makes him a great choice.

But inside the White House, the choice makes sense. It appeals to Obama’s bipartisan spirit — and the optics aren’t bad, either — to have any Republican as Defense secretary when Obama is seeking to end the war in Afghanistan and dramatically reduce the Pentagon’s budget.

Obama’s mythic sense of “bipartisanship” is deftly laid low by Peggy Noonan who wrote last week that Obama just loves to taunt.

Politico buries at the bottom of its long piece any listing of just why Hagel is opposed by some left and right.
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Politico Celebrates Obama’s ‘Bipartisan Spirit’ With Hagel Nomination”


Politico Just Realized Progressives Have Gripes About Obama

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now that Barack Obama has been successfully re-elected, The Politico has miraculously discovered that some progressives are not exactly thrilled with the most left-wing president in American history. The lefties want more, says Politico. But, is this turn about really that sudden?

In a lengthy December 2 piece, Politico lays out the left-wing voices in the “progressive media” that have lately taken to criticizing the president for not leaning far enough to the left. If not criticizing, exactly, perhaps a more fitting word is they are “encouraging” Obama to take up the left-wing policies he’s given lip service to but not pushed too hard to implement.

The absurd aspect to Politico’s piece is that the Internet newser seems to think this criticism is all new. One has to wonder why Politico has paid no attention to the far left’s criticism until now? Perhaps Politico wanted to make it seem as if the left was united and had no qualms over Obama but now that he’s safely re-elected, it is Politico, rather than the far left, that finds it is safe to criticize the president?
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Politico Just Realized Progressives Have Gripes About Obama”


Politico Pumps NJ Gov. Christie as ‘Mitt’s First VP Choice’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Ever since New Jersey Governor Chris Christie went all weepy over how wonderful Barack Obama was in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the Old Media establishment has been attempting to use Christie as a wedge to cleave voters away from Romney and toward Obama. Politico followed that narrative with another unnamed source story, this time saying that Mitt Romney really wanted the boisterous New Jersey Guv instead of Paul Ryan as his VP pick.

Calling the tall tale “one of the most tantalizing subplots of the 2012 campaign,” Politico offered the claims of those oh, so well known unnamed, “campaign insiders,” saying that Romney was leaning heavily in favor of Gov. Christie for his veep.

But as you read the story, it really tends to show that, to the contrary, Romney didn’t really consider Gov. Christie a top tier candidate for the number two slot. In fact, there are many good reasons why Chris Christie would have made a terrible choice for vice president.

Naturally we know that the real purpose for this story is to keep in front of readers Christie’s over the top, effusive praise of Obama during natural disaster, Hurricane Sandy. They mention Christie’s response to Obama several times in the piece.

OK, we get it. Christie got weak in the knees for the Bamster.
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Politico Pumps NJ Gov. Christie as ‘Mitt’s First VP Choice’”


Yahoo! News, Politico: Come On, Those Polls Are Meaningless!

-By Warner Todd Huston

Suddenly Yahoo! News wants you all to know that all those darned old polls showing a big Romney surge are “meaningless at this stage in the election.” That’s right, are you going to believe Yahoo! or your lying eyes?

For Yahoo! News, David Rothschild says that we should just ignore the polls. Obama is the big winner and that is that. Move along. Nothing to see here.

The reason Rothschild says the national polls are meaningless is because, thanks to the Electoral College, our system isn’t a national vote, per se. Rothschild is focusing only on the key swing states that he says are the only ones worth paying any attention to. And he feels all the swing states are in Obama’s column so forget what the national polls say.

Naturally, Rothschild favors the left-wing Nate Silver of The New York Times who has consistently claimed that Obama will practically run away with this election despite the fact that some of the most reputable polling organizations in the country such as Rasmussen and Gallup have shown a close race all along.
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Yahoo! News, Politico: Come On, Those Polls Are Meaningless!”


Politico Hires Name-Calling Journo Fired From Yahoo!

-By Warner Todd Huston

In the world of journalism, no bad deed goes unrewarded. Take the case of former Washington bureau chief for Yahoo! News, David Chalian. You may recall that he was fired after he was heard saying during the Republican National Convention that Republicans were “happy to have a party with black people drowning.” He may have been fired from Yahoo! for this ignorant statement, but now he’s been hired by Politico.

You’ll recall that the Republican convention started in the midst of a full-blown hurricane, a storm some feared would again swamp New Orleans. Of curse the Old Media was filled with reminiscences of Hurricane Katrina and worries for New Orleans’ minorities was again everywhere. Speculation that the GOP would cancel its convention was also ubiquitous.

The GOP did postpone its opening day, but decided not to cancel the whole show and this caused some left-wing tongues in the Old Media to start wagging that Republicans were obviously racist. Cue David Chalian who was heard on an open mic perpetrating that very calumny.

On August 28, while in an ABC control room, Chalian unleashed his hateful charge, saying: “They’re not concerned at all. They are happy to have a party with black people drowning.”
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Politico Hires Name-Calling Journo Fired From Yahoo!”


Politco’s Full Court Press to Destroy Paul Ryan

-By Warner Todd Huston

Politico seems to have decided where it stands on Paul Ryan. On its main page on the afternoon of August 15, the news site seemed to carry a single message: Paul Ryan is a bad, bad man and Romney made a big mistake picking him as his wingman.

Ryan is slammed in a dozen stories on Politico’s main page. He’s either personally bad, reflects badly on Romney, or he makes his Party look bad. In fact, on this day there was only one sort of positive story about Paul Ryan that appears on Politico’s main page.

One story even ridicules him for having appeared too many times on the campaign trail dressed almost the same as Mitt Romney. Seriously. Politico is even now trying to attack Romney and Ryan over how they dress!

Here is a listing of the Ryan is bad stories:

  • How Ryan spurned deficit commission
  • Ryan no help to Romney with Hispanics
  • Romney’s VP pick lays out a road divided
  • Obama attacks Mitt-Ryan on Medicare
  • Tom Reynolds warns on Medicare (Ryan pick is bad for publicity)
  • Romney and Ryan: Fashion twins
  • Boehner tries to calm House GOP (Over Ryan’s budget ideas)
  • Beneath ‘Mediscare’ talk, who’s right?
  • Press restrictions on Ryan trail (whining about how bad Ryan’s aides are)
  • GOP pros fret over Ryan
  • Romney/ Ryan Medicare plan (Jay Leno slamming the GOP)
  • Obama hits Romney/Ryan on Medicare (Video)

And the Positive Ryan Stories:

  • Poll: Small post-Ryan bump for Mitt

On the purported positive story, note that the headline goes out of its way to call the polling bump “small” as if it is inconsequential? Yeah, we don’t want people excited that Romney/Ryan got a bump in the polls, do we?

So, Politico has decided. Paul Ryan brings nothing good to the ticket and there just isn’t a single thing out there to report that puts him in a positive light. Imagine that?
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Politco’s Full Court Press to Destroy Paul Ryan”


Long After Romney-Killed-My-Wife Ad, Politico Finally Ready to Compare Claims Of Romney and Obama?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Now that Mitt Romney has picked Paul Ryan for his running mate, Politico finds itself finally ready to compare the stump claims and campaign ads of the two campaigns. But instead of looking at gutter ads like Obama’s claiming Mitt Romney killed a steel worker’s wife, Politico thinks it’s better to compare ads and rhetoric focused on Medicare.

Calling it the “Mediscare” campaign, Politico’s piece is a long comparison of Obama’s and Romney’s claims of how each other would treat Medicare. This is certainly a useful discussion, to be sure, but where is Politico’s piece comparing Romney’s mild campaign thus far to the cynical, lie-filled attacks that Obama and Joe Biden as well as all their minions have launched at team Romney over the last few months?

Wouldn’t it have been useful to compare Romney’s issues-based campaign claims to Obama’s claiming that Romney killed a man’s wife or even this week’s claim from Biden who told an African American audience that Romney and Ryan want to bring back the black slave trade? (And worse, Biden even resorted to “black dialect” to do it!)
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Long After Romney-Killed-My-Wife Ad, Politico Finally Ready to Compare Claims Of Romney and Obama?”


Politico: ‘Ten Things to Know’ About Ann Romney’s Horse?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Political news site Politico is not done needling Ann Romney for having a top-rated horse in the Olympics, apparently. Witness an actual Politico headline: 10 things to know about Rafalca.

Most of the “ten things” are just facts about the horse, Rafalca, but one of them was a political jab and a second was misleading.

The political jab was that purported funnyman Stephen Colbert made a satirical video about the horse. Ho hum.

The misleading one was in the first few words of point five. It says that Rafalca “has her own clothing line.” Politico goes on to report that owners of the horse have made up ball caps and t-shirts screen printed with the horse’s name for fans to buy over the Internet.
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Politico: ‘Ten Things to Know’ About Ann Romney’s Horse?”


Politico Forgets to Mention Democrats Caused Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Problem

-By Warner Todd Huston

In its update on the coming student loan interest rate hike deal in Congress, Politico dances its blame-the-GOP tap dance once again saying that the coming rate hike is all just “politics.” But somehow Politico forgets to note that this interest rate problem is of the Democrats’ own making in the first place.

Reporting that Congress has signed off on a bipartisan deal to halt the scheduled interest rate increase on millions of student loans, Politico takes a paragraph to “explain” what the hold up was.

Lawmakers moved quickly on Friday to end a legislative dispute that got caught up in politics on Capitol Hill and on the campaign trail, as Obama repeatedly blamed Congress for delaying and Republicans accused the president of being AWOL in negotiations.

Yes, those darned old Republicans were just engaging in “politics.”

But, wouldn’t it have been nice for Politico to note why we got here with this student loan interest rate fiasco?
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Politico Forgets to Mention Democrats Caused Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Problem”


Politico Gives Team Obama Pass on Its Twitter-tastrophies

-By Warner Todd Huston

[Note: A shorter version of this article appears on BigJournalism.com]

One cannot help but feel that Politico is once again giving cover to Barack Obama’s reelection campaign with its latest love letter of an article. This time Politico is sure that Obama is king of the Internet. But it seems that at least one Internet-based area has been a disaster for Obama of late: Twitter. Not that Politico mentions any of that, of course.

Politico’s piece lauds Obama’s data advantage, sure that the President’s highly paid “techies” housed on the sixth floor of his Chicago HQ are sweeping away all before them on the Internet. In fact, Politico is so impressed with Obama’s “techie” effort that they proclaimed that this year’s organization makes the 2008 campaign’s “look like cavemen with stone tablets.”

That’s pretty definitive, isn’t it?
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Politico Gives Team Obama Pass on Its Twitter-tastrophies”


Guilt By Association Used by Old Media Only to Hurt Republicans

-By Warner Todd Huston

Last week two political operatives were arrested in separate incidents, one Democrat and one Republican. It certainly isn’t news that political operatives sometimes break the law, but how the different incidents were reported is typical of how the Old Media establishment uses guilt by association to tar Republicans but rarely does the same thing to take swipes at Democrats.

The similarity in the two stories is that both of the accused are former staffers of high profile politicians. The Democrat was an Obama campaign staffer while the Republican was a staffer of the Republican Governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker. Neither currently works for those high profile pols, but only the Republican was linked to his former boss. The Democrat’s link to Obama was mostly ignored by the media.

Story One: Some Guy Arrested

We’ll begin with the tale of Iowa Democrat operative Zachary Edwards who tried to steal the identity of a rival Republican in order to use that identity to get the Republican in trouble.

Edwards tried to use the identity of Iowa Secretary of State, Republican Matt Schulz (and/or Schultz’s brother) to illegally obtain some sort of state benefits so that he could then claim that the Republicans were illegally obtaining state benefits. This Edwards fellow hoped he could smear the GOP Sec. of State as engaging in some sort of unethical behavior. (The Iowa Republican blog has more on the fight between Schultz and Iowa Democrats)

Now, as it happens Edwards is not only a member of a politically connected Democrat consulting firm, Link Strategies — a company with long-standing ties to powerful Iowa Democrat Senator Tom Harkin — but Edwards was also a member of Obama’s Iowa team in 2007/08. Edwards’ bio has since been scrubbed from the Link Strategies page but read in part, “In September 2007, Zach joined the Obama New Media department as co-director of the Nevada New Media team and then moved on to direct New Media operations in five other primary states (New Mexico, Texas, North Carolina, and South Dakota).”

For a screen shot of Edwards memory-holed bio from the Link Strategy site, see the Iowa Grounds blog.

So, how was Edwards’ arrest reported? For one thing, it was hard to find Edwards’ Democrat affiliation and his past role as a top Obama campaign staffer in stories of this incident.
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Guilt By Association Used by Old Media Only to Hurt Republicans”


Politico’s Fake Tea Party-Slamming South Carolina Poll

-By Warner Todd Huston

It almost seems that on a daily basis the onetime political news website Politico is edging toward a Daily Kos-like experience and on Jan 14 we see yet another step in Politico’s journey toward left-wing extremes with a fake poll that claims that no one in South Carolina likes the Tea Party movement. Did I mention it was a “Facebook poll”?

The headline ways it all, really: Facebook/POLITICO poll: South Carolina users cool to tea party. If the fact that this “poll” is just some posting on a Facebook page doesn’t make you laugh at its validity, the hilarity continues as Politico goes on to treat this silliness as real news.

“Almost two-thirds of adult Facebook users in South Carolina say they aren’t fans of the tea party, according to a Facebook poll conducted today with POLITICO,” the “news” website begins.

Come on. Does anyone imagine that Politico reached “almost two-thirds” of the Facebook uses in South Carolina? Does anyone even imagine that Politico reached even a representative number of Facebook users in South Carolina? Was there any scientific method at all to this or was it just some posting that a handful of South Carolinians saw on Facebook? Bet you can guess.
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Politico’s Fake Tea Party-Slamming South Carolina Poll”


Politico’s Top 10 Political Blunders: Mostly GOP Blunders?

-By Warner Todd Huston

Top ten lists at year’s end are always subjective, to be sure. But some lists seem rather obviously out of whack at first glance. Politico’s “Top 10 political blunders of 2011” is one of those lists that is glaring for what isn’t present as opposed to what is. And what isn’t seems to bespeak that Politico wanted to avoid focusing on Democrat failures in a year when there are so many Democrat failures.

Politico bills this list as one of the “worst political strategic decisions” of 2011. Strangely enough, this list contains fully seven GOP “blunders” yet only three Democrat goofs. Some of the GOP blunders are also questionable for any top ten list considering what is missing from the thing.

First we need a rundown on what is on this list, and in the order Politico places them.

  • Obama pivots to deficits
  • Republicans vote on the Ryan budget
  • Tim Pawlenty bets it all on Ames
  • Mitt Romney hides
  • Rick Perry debates
  • Jon Huntsman returns from China
  • Mr. Daley goes to Washington
  • Mitch and Haley stay home
  • Dems pick Charlotte
  • John Kasich pushes S.B. 5

Isn’t it fascinating that some of these “top blunders” did not actually result in a major reversal of great import of some type or another? Take the Jon Huntsman point, for instance. Jon Huntsman is not consequential and his decision to enter the GOP primary race instead of staying in China is not going to make much difference to anyone, anywhere. The Mitch Daniels point is also specious for such a list as Daniel’s decision to sit out 2012 did not necessarily end his career. Further the blunder of Democrats picking Charlotte, North Carolina, while certainly a messy proposition fraught with mistakes, is hardly any kind of end of the world goof, is it?
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Politico’s Top 10 Political Blunders: Mostly GOP Blunders?”


Hypocrisy: Left Wants SCOTUS Justice Thomas Recusal, Ignores Kagan’s Clear Conflicts

-By Warner Todd Huston

This past weekend the Washington Post published a hit piece on the grand opening of a museum in Georgia dedicated to the birthplace of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The paper was desperate to make some grand conspiracy, some lawbreaking evil from the project. But whatever is going on with the museum, this story was just one more shot orchestrated by the left aimed at forcing Justice Thomas to recuse himself from the upcoming hearings on whether or not Obamacare is Constitutional. Of course, this is all a smoke screen to hide the fact that it is really left-wing darling Justice Elana Kagan that should recuse herself from the case.

The Post story was a mish mash of innuendo, guesswork, and partisan claims, all amounting to much of nothing for proof of wrong doing. The Post even took the opportunity to use the word “whitewashed” when describing the color of the building housing the museum commemorating Justice Thomas’ birthplace. None too subtle, that.

There was plenty of other coverage of the opening of the museum that was positive, of course. Still it is apparent that the left hates Justice Thomas so much that they can’t even stand it that a small commemoration of his place of birth be created.

But real facts weren’t on the agenda for this article on Thomas. This article was meant as yet another slap at Thomas in order to mount pressure against him for the upcoming case against Obamacare. The left has been floating the demand that Justice Thomas recuse himself because his wife has worked as a “conservative activist and lobbyist, where she specifically agitated for the repeal of ‘Obamacare.'”
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Hypocrisy: Left Wants SCOTUS Justice Thomas Recusal, Ignores Kagan’s Clear Conflicts”


Politico Misstates Concealed Carry Law Claims it Violates State’s Laws

-By Warner Todd Huston

Apparently Politico does not like the new concealed-carry reciprocity law recently passed in Congress. They must not like it. After all, aside from covering it in a negative light, the newser so badly misstated the law that it could easily turn its readers against the whole idea. But perhaps that’s the idea?

The law, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act of 2011, would allow gun owners that have a concealed-carry license in their home state to carry their firearm in another state if that state also has a carry law in place. The law, however, does not allow someone to carry a firearm in a state that does not currently allow its own citizens to enjoy concealed-carry rights.

All this law does is standardize the lawful status of interstate gun carriers so that law-abiding citizens are not confused by and in fear of violating the many different state statutes concerning their firearms when traveling.
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Politico Misstates Concealed Carry Law Claims it Violates State’s Laws”


Politico Tries to Smear Herman Cain With Bad Pizza

-By Warner Todd Huston

Politico unleashed an incredibly misleading smear job on Herman Cain this week by attacking “his” Godfather’s Pizza in a faux taste test in both written and video form. The idea was to see if Herman’s pizza was a good product. Naturally the taste testers hated the pizza. But is Godfather’s Pizza really Herman’s pizza? Of course not.

Politico assembled a taste-testing panel made up of a Democrat operative, a Republican operative, and a food blogger. Three pizzas were presented in a blind tasting and the result was that the Godfather’s pizza was deemed the worst of the bunch.

But was this a straight forward, unbiased test? Hardly.
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Politico Tries to Smear Herman Cain With Bad Pizza”