Hilariously tone deaf as Nicole Wallace and Keith Ellison talk about Marco Rubio:
Republican strategist Nicolle Wallace said Sunday that Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) is good for the Republican Party because, as one of many attributes, Rubio "knows who Tupac is."
"He's everything we need and more," Wallace, a former aide to President George W. Bush and an adviser on Sen. John McCain's 2008 campaign, said on ABC's "This Week." "He's modern. He knows who Tupac is. He is on social media. "
Apparently to Wallace, having a Twitter account and being able to identify a hip hop artist who died 17 years ago constitutes "modern."
Here's Joe Scarborough on Wednesday morning, blaming President Obama for not paying down George W. Bush's and Ronald Reagan's tab fast enough.
SCARBOROUGH: Let's just talk straight. George Bush left him with a trillion dollar deficit. He has answered that by increasing the deficit for four years in a row. The biggest deficits ever. The fastest rate of growth ever. The biggest entitlement spending ever. The biggest defense spending ever. The biggest discretionary domestic spending ever. In every single category, there is not a close second...this guy makes George Bush look like Calvin Coolidge.
What was absolutely amazing about that remark and this discussion generally was the conflation by Scarborough and former Bush mouthpiece Nicole Wallace of deficits and spending. It shouldn't have to be pointed out that they aren't the same thing.
This is the little bait and switch Republicans have been pulling all along. The deficit isn't just a product of "spending" but of historically-low taxes and the worst economic crash since the Great Depression, which started in 2007, under their watch.
Question: who thinks President Obama was going to reduce the deficit with two wars in progress, the worst crash since the Great Depression and with historically low taxes?
Republicans assert that Barack Obama assumed sole responsibility for the budget on Jan. 20, 2009. From that date, all increases in the debt or deficit are his responsibility and no one else’s, they say.
This is, of course, nonsense – and the American people know it. As I documented in a previous post, even today 43 percent of them hold George W. Bush responsible for the current budget deficit versus only 14 percent who blame Mr. Obama. [...]
Republicans would have us believe that somehow we could have avoided the recession and balanced the budget since 2009 if only they had been in charge. This would be a neat trick considering that the recession began in December 2007, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
They would also have us believe that all of the increase in debt resulted solely from higher spending, nothing from lower revenues caused by tax cuts. And they continually imply that one of the least popular spending increases of recent years, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, was an Obama administration program, when in fact it was a Bush administration initiative proposed by the Treasury Department that was signed into law by Mr. Bush on Oct. 3, 2008.
Under their hero Ronald Reagan, the debt nearly tripled, and under George W. Bush, it doubled. Republicans therefore have absolutely no credibility on the matter, and the appropriate response when they bring it up is to mock them dismissively, as Obama did.
On the same day Barack Obama met with the conservative water carrier Bill O'Reilly on Fox News, the McCain campaign made it clear that Sarah Palin won't be talking to any of the media any time soon.
In a jaw-dropping appearance on MSNBC Thursday, McCain aide Nicole Wallace told Time's Jay Carney that the press wouldn't get a chance to take shots at the hockey mom turned McCain running mate.
According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don't care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy. According to Wallace -- in an appearance I did with her this morning on Joe Scarborough's show -- the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin's scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads.
Given the highly combustible mixture that is Palin's reed-thin resume, radical right-wing agenda and mushrooming portfolio of scandals, Team McCain's effort to field the first stealth vice presidential candidate in history comes as no surprise.
But for conservatives so found of countdowns and ticking clocks, the question now is: when will "Disappearing Palin" meet the press? Apparently, "Sarahcoulda," but won't talk to the media.
I’m not surprised Dan Bartlett is going to one of the networks; I’m surprised Dan Bartlett didn’t go to one of the networks sooner. (via TP)
Former Counselor to President Bush, Dan Bartlett, has joined CBS News as a political analyst. Bartlett will provide on-air analysis on a variety of political issues, “including at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions and beyond,” according to the press release.
Said CBS News & Sports president Sean McManus, “We’re very pleased to have Dan Bartlett join our team. We now go into the final stages of this fascinating political season with two analysts — Dan and Joe [Trippi] — who have had unique and extensive hands-on experience in major political campaigns and government.”
This is the latest part of a strange phenomenon of rewarding the Bush gang with high-profile opportunities at major media outlets. The Bush White House has been, for lack of a better word, a disaster for the country. From a journalistic perspective, these guys have been a nightmare — embracing almost comical levels of secrecy, propaganda, and media manipulation.
And yet, the moment presidential aides leave the West Wing, media outlets jump at the chance to put them on the payroll.
