Politico

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media Bias - Mitt Romney - Paul Ryan - Politico - Warner Todd Huston

Politco’s Full Court Press to Destroy Paul Ryan

August 17, 2012 by

-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”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government - Joe Biden - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Mitt Romney - Paul Ryan - Politico - President - Warner Todd Huston

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

August 17, 2012 by

-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?”

Animals - Democrats/Leftists - Ethics - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Mitt Romney - Politico - Warner Todd Huston

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

August 6, 2012 by

-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?”

Barack Obama - Blogging - Computers - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - Government - Inernet - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - New Media - Politico - President - Technology - Twitter - Warner Todd Huston

Politico Gives Team Obama Pass on Its Twitter-tastrophies

June 12, 2012 by

-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”

Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - Liberals - Media - Politico - President - Republicans - Tea Party - Warner Todd Huston

Politico’s Fake Tea Party-Slamming South Carolina Poll

January 17, 2012 by

-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”

Barack Obama - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Ethics - John Boehner - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Politico - President - Warner Todd Huston

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

December 28, 2011 by

-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?”

Conservatives - Elections - GOP - Government - Herman Cain - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Politico - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

Politico Tries to Smear Herman Cain With Bad Pizza

October 20, 2011 by 1 Comment

-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”

Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - Journalism - Liberals - Media - Media Bias - Politico - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

Politico Lying about Palin Again?

October 21, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Radio host Mark Levin says that Politico’s piece slamming Sarah Palin today is an outright lie, at least as far as his part in the story is concerned.

In a long piece by Jonathan Martin about how he thinks Sarah is wrecking havoc on GOP politics across the country, he says this…

According to a source familiar with the situation, she backed out of planned interviews with conservative talk-show hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin the morning she was scheduled to talk to them. And her multiple schedule changes so annoyed Glenn Beck that he finally decided not to have her on his radio or TV show to promote the book.

Levine says that this is flat out untrue. On his Twitter feed, Levine wrote:

This is a flat out lie. Sarah Palin never backed out of any interview with me. Period.

One wonders why Martin didn’t actually practice proper journalism and check out the claims of his “source familiar with the situation” and call Hannity and Levine and see whether or not it was true from their perspective?

So much for “journalism,” eh?

On her Twitter feed, Governor Palin tsked Mr. Martin:

Johnny, Johnny, Johnny…ya just made big mistake lying about Levin, Beck, Rush…U can lie about me, but taking on the Big Guns? Not smart

She cracks me up.
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Politico Lying about Palin Again?”

Democrats/Leftists - Elections - GOP - Government - Liberals - Media - Politico - Republicans - Warner Todd Huston

Politico Ignores Dems. Culture of Corruption to Talk of GOP’s ‘Offbeat Candidates’

August 17, 2010 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

Interestingly, Politico is trying to rearrange this election’s narrative from the real one of widespread voter dissatisfaction with the Democrat status quo to one of “offbeat GOP candidates” that will “hurt the GOP.”

Gee, why would that be, eh?

As Democrats all across the land are either stepping aside so as not to face difficult reelection campaigns, or losing their incumbent seats to primary challenges, the latest polls show the GOP beating the heck out of Democrats on a generic ballot. Further, Republican voters are energized as never before and 57% of poll respondents even say that the Democrat’s agenda is “too extreme.” But even with all this Politico sees defeat in the wind for the GOP. They’d be about the only ones that do, too.
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Politico Ignores Dems. Culture of Corruption to Talk of GOP’s ‘Offbeat Candidates’”