Free Republic

In 1968, Pauline Kael, then The New Yorker's film critic, has famously been quoted as saying, "I can’t believe Nixon won. I don’t know anyone who voted for him.” The actual quote might actually have been a bit different, but the point remains: liberal elitists live in an echo chamber of their own ideas. On Monday, Phil Mattingly (recently named Kaitlin Collins' permanent replacement as a co-host of CNN This Morning) seemed to have his own Pauline Kael moment. Mattingly was commenting on a recent column by CNN analyst Ron Brownstein in The Atlantic entitled "Why Biden Just Can't Shake...

"A CNN panelist claimed that a father of four, who tagged a phone call with President Joe Biden with the phrase “Let’s Go, Brandon,” was not only being impolite but also harboring feelings “about insurrection.” Ron Brownstein, a senior editor at The Atlantic, joined a CNN panel to discuss a phone call between Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and an Oregon father Jared Schmeck who ended his live-streamed phone call with a less vulgar substitute for “f*** Joe Biden.” The CNN host dubbed the interaction between Schmeck and the Bidens “disrespectful,” “juvenile” and “reprehensible.” He also asked Brownstein for his...

Just as the MSM demands more "gun control" after every mass shooting, so every severe weather event causes the MSM to start beating the "climate change" drum. And so it began on CNN this morning. CNN's Senior Political Analyst Ron Brownstein gave the standard disclaimer about not attributing any one storm to climate change, but then proceeded to come very close to doing just that. He quoted a former NOAA offical: "this is a preview of the future. There is no doubt that climate change makes . . . storms like this more common." View the video here.

In a transparent attempt at blame-shifting, former Obama spokesman Josh Earnest has tried to place responsibility for President Obama’s failure to respond effectively to Russian meddling in the election . . . on Republicans. It’s been reported that Obama was paralyzed into inaction by fears of seeming to help Hillary during the campaign. Appearing on today’s Morning Joe, Earnest said: “The first time, [McConnell] didn’t have time to schedule time to talk about it. This is something that Republicans did not take seriously, and that did hamstring our efforts to respond to this as effectively as we would have liked.”...

How do you know that Jason Johnson was peddling hyperbole? Because after making his melodramatic statement, he insisted, “that’s not hyperbole.” On CNN this morning, Johnson—of Univision-owned The Root—speaking of the Comey firing, declared “this is how democracy dies.” He said of the current situation that it is “no longer a functioning democracy,” adding the obligatory “this is a constitutional and sovereignty crisis.” On the same panel, CNN’s Ron Brownstein portrayed President Trump as “a president who simply is systematically committed to delegitimizing and undermining any institution that he believes can check or challenge him.” Brownstein claimed that “the only...

Ron Brownstein of The Atlantic, Reihan Salam of the National Review, Mark Leibovich of the New York Times Magazine, and USA Today’s Susan Page break down presidential politics in the aftermath of the South Carolina and Nevada contests.

Soledad O'Brien and CNN beclowning themselves... is hardly news. What's news..., is Romney surrogate John Sununu aggressively pushing back against [them] for carrying/enabling Obama campaign's talking points. It's a thing of beauty... If this is going to be Team Romney's approach to the hostile media, it will pay big dividends.... ...Sununu hits a rhetorical grand slam by controlling the conversation and methodically taking it to where it needs to go: economic policy.Sununu also manages to do this without ever appearing angry or defensive. He's aggressive, respectful, on offense (and therefore not complaining), and perfectly prepared for what's coming. Bringing...

Calling the 2012 Republican presidential primary the most volatile for the GOP in generations isn't political hyperbole - it's empirical fact. Since the start 2011, seven different candidates or potential contenders could claim to be the Republican race's front-runner, according to polling from Gallup. The list includes Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. In at least one Gallup poll, each claimed at least a share of the lead in the GOP race. (snip) Polling data supplied by Gallup dating back to 1930 shows that no other race since that time has...

Here is video of Ron Brownstein talking with MSNBC about Martha Coakley and the reasons why he thinks she's behind in the polls. (Video)Brownstein started off by blaming Coakley, he said, "Coakley was a very complacent candidate who settled in for a long winters nap, and when she emerged she didn't leave that many people wondering where she'd been, she wasn't a strong candidate in any way." Brownstein went on to say that the "overlying reality here is that the President's approval rating among white voters is below 40%...in a state like Massachusetts where over 80% of the votes are...

LIBERAL VICTIMHOOD: A GAME YOU CAN PLAY AT HOMEJanuary 28, 2009I notice that liberals have not challenged the overall thesis of my rocketing bestseller, "Guilty: Liberal 'Victims' and Their Assault on America," which is that liberals always play the victim in order to advance, win advantages and oppress others. I guess that would be hard to do when the corrupt Democratic governor of Illinois is running around comparing himself to Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. Indeed, you can't turn on the TV without seeing some liberal playing victim to score the game-winning point. Caroline Kennedy tried...

Weekend Talk Show *Preview* for 6/24 and 6/25/06 (not the live thread)The main message is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.Sunday Shows for 6-25-06 ABC This Week (George Stephanopoulos) Meme: What is wrong with these Democrats?  We hand them the election on a silver platter and they just screw it up!Bush has had two good weeks - it's time to bring out the big guns and knock that fool down a peg Topics: Iraq Withdrawal?: In a pair of exclusive...

Sunday Shows for 3/23/06This main post is the Sunday Shows.  Message 1 will be the Saturday Shows and message 2 will be the show guest links post.  Then I'll post the ping list.Fox News Sunday (Chris Wallace) Meme: Hoekstra & Harman both don't like Negroponte, hurrah, hurrah!Panetta and Duberstein both don't like Bush's men, hurrah, hurrah!And Gilbert Arenas plays online poker at halftime....???? (that's the best I can figure as to why he's on) Topics: Reps. Peter Hoekstra and Jane Harman on Iran's nuclear ambitionFormer Chiefs of Staff Leon Panetta and Ken Duberstein on White House shake-upWashington Wizards' star Gilbert...

It may have the ring of cliché, but America's next presidential election will be among the most crucial events in contemporary history. Rarely in the modern era has the world seen such unchecked power exercised so ignorantly, arrogantly and with such profoundly counterproductive results as the Bush Administration's bait-and-switch invasion of Iraq. As Al Gore told an audience at NYU recently, "The unpleasant truth is that President Bush's utter incompetence has made the world a far more dangerous place and dramatically increased the threat of terrorism against the United States." The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Gore noted, has...

Talk about swimming upstream. Last week, an impressive group of centrist Democratic foreign policy thinkers released a thoughtful document urging the party to adopt a "progressive internationalism" built around a strong defense, free trade and American leadership through international alliances "to shape a world in which the values of liberal democracy increasingly hold sway." As a long-term compass, the manifesto — "Progressive Internationalism: A Democratic National Security Strategy" — offers Democrats much sound guidance.