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Peggy Noonan to Stuart Varney on November 6th, before the polls closed: "I'm seeing Romney rising here."

Apparently Peggy was smoking some really good something before she had this interview with Stuart Varney on Fox Business yesterday. She waxed poetic about how Romney was "stealing in like a thief with really good tools", spinning Romney rallies as huge overwhelming successes and Obama rallies as unfilled stadiums.

And oh, that Nate Silver! Noonan's Sunday Wall Street Journal column was rife with denial. This particular section made me double over with laughter, actually:

Obama and the storm, it was like a wave that lifted him and then moved on, leaving him where he’d been. Parts of Jersey and New York are a cold Katrina. The exact dimensions of the disaster will become clearer when the election is over. One word: infrastructure.

Yes, that would be the infrastructure the president asked Congress to repair in 2011 when he sent the framework for the American Jobs Act to Congress. You remember President Obama's speech in front of the bridge between Ohio and Kentucky that desperately needs repair? The roads, the bridges, the infrastructure that the president practically begged Congress to tackle before something catastrophic happened? That infrastructure.

Instead we got 30 bogus 'jobs bills' and Congressional obstruction on anything to do with infrastructure.

Yet here comes Peggy Noonan, cheering the infrastructure like a holy God coming down from the heavens to spark...enthusiasm. For Romney. Yes, Peggy Noonan and her bobblehead Stuart Varney are nodding away like she's a sage with prophetic God-given powers to Know What This Country Needs.

Hilarious and not hilarious.

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God, Mary Matalin is such an old, bitter, sourpuss, isn't she? Look at how angry she gets when Paul Krugman contradicts her on the facts. Guess it must really suck being the one with no credibility!

STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, you brought up the trend over the last year, and I want to come to you in a second, Jon. But first, let's put up this chart we have showing that trend across several presidencies of the last year of an incumbent running for president, and it does show, Mary Matalin, that President Obama's improvement in the unemployment rate in an election year is in the green zone, in the zone where presidents get re-elected.

MATALIN: Here is the real world, as Peggy alluded to. Real median incomes have fallen twice as much under the Obama recovery as they did in the Bush recession. At this point in time, under Ronald Reagan's policies, which Governor Reagan has a 21st century application of, growth and jobs were growing at five times the rate they are.

Let's just look at last year. The states where 17 governors, Republican governors instituted conservative reforms, those states are growing their economy and creating jobs at twice the rate the national one. This is about policies. We know they've worked. There is no recovery in the history of any recessions or depressions that have been as slow and as poor as this one and the revisions upwards --

(CROSSTALK)

MATALIN: Yes, it is, Dr. Krugman. It's completely, totally true.

KRUGMAN: I'm sorry, but it just isn't true.

MATALIN: I don't make up numbers.

KRUGMAN: Well, but just look at them, then. Because the fact of the matter is, this is actually a fairly typical slow post-financial crisis recovery, which is picking up speed. So although it's terrible -- and I've been bitterly critical of policymakers in general for not doing more -- the fact of the matter is we are clearly now in the upswing, where you can see the beginnings of a turnaround.

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush hoped to use his Republican National Convention appearance to rehabilitate his brother's shattered reputation. After claiming on Sunday that it was "unbecoming" for Barack Obama to continue to "blame others" for the economic calamity he inherited from George W. Bush, on Thursday Jeb suggested the President should be "spanked" for pointing the finger at Dubya.

Now, there are only a few problems with this approach, not the least of which is that most Americans agree with Obama. In 2004, then Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney defended President Bush from John Kerry by protesting that "The people of America recognize that the slowdown in jobs that occurred during the early years of the Bush administration were the result of a perfect storm." Worse still, even now Team Mitt whines that "Governor Romney inherited an economy that was losing jobs each month" back in the Bay State. As it turns out, President George W. Bush and his acolytes have never stopped blaming Bill Clinton for the GOP's lost decade.

Jeb's brother made that point during his final press conference on January 12, 2009. During a month in which Americans would only later learn that the U.S. economy shed a staggering 820,000 jobs, President Bush passed the buck forwards--and backwards:

"In terms of the economy, look, I inherited a recession, I am ending on a recession. In the meantime there were 52 months of uninterrupted job growth. And I defended tax cuts when I campaigned, I helped implement tax cuts when I was President, and I will defend them after my presidency as the right course of action. And there's a fundamental philosophical debate about tax cuts. Who best can spend your money, the government or you? And I have always sided with the people on that issue."

But while that fundamental philosophical question is still the subject of heated debate, the facts should not be.

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According to the wingnut bobbleheads of This Week With Disney, the Democrats are the ones who have to worry about the gender gap. While it's true that economic issues are a major concern for women, so are personal options:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Congressman Todd Akin, now the Republican Senate candidate in Missouri, despite the wishes of the entire Republican establishment, how big of a blow is this for the party?

WILL: Well, it's considerable. Part of the path to Republican control of the Senate runs through Missouri. There's still a path, but it gets more difficult if he remains the nominee. I'm not convinced that that's the case when he realizes how little money he'll have. But it does complicate putting the hands of all Senate gavels, committee gavels in Republican hands.

And the strange thing about this, George, is abortion is an issue that the judiciary took custody of with Roe v Wade in '73. And on the three issues that the political system can deal with -- parental notification of abortion for minors, public funding, and late-term abortions, the country is overwhelmingly with the Republican side.

Mm, not so much lately, George. And as for your confidence that Akin won't have any money, I don't know. He's a Tea Party fave - what's to stop them from funding him independently of the GOP?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Jennifer.

GRANHOLM: Well, except that now, you've got a Republican -- I mean, you have had a Republican Party platform that embraces this human life amendment. Post-Todd Akin, the Republicans knew that this would be an issue. They had several days to address it and to make it clear in the platform that there would be exceptions for rape and incest, and yet they chose not to. So now Romney is in a position of having to distance himself from his own platform. And it gets to the issue, the fundamental issue is, what kind of leader is he? Is he going to embrace what the Republican Party is all about, or is he going to flee from it? Choosing Ryan, I think, was his answer.

STEPHANOPOULOS: He mostly wants it to go away, Mary Matalin. And we're seeing Todd Akin -- George thinks he might get out. I got that same sense while I interviewed the congressman this week, but since then he's dug in a couple of times. We have a new poll out this morning. He's now down nine points to Claire McCaskill in the Missouri race he was winning.

MATALIN: George, he may have dug in, but he's not going to have a shovel to continuing digging. Because he's not going to have any money. George Will is right. We need to win Missouri. We're going to win Missouri. Ann Wagner is going to end up being our candidate. The party is going to get Ann Wagner in.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you're just convinced that he's going to get out?

MATALIN: Or we'll run a third party, we'll run a write-in. We can do it. We have the money to do it. We are going to transfer the money. It's not as easy as -- but it's a good state for Romney. And we'll get it back.

What this Akin thing has done is turned -- it's not going to affect our convention. Romney -- we had that platform forever. We think that abortion is a tragedy for the woman. We revere the sanctity of life. But we -- they have turned their convention into an anti-Akin thing, which should be concerning to you, since a third of your members identify themselves as pro-life. And half of independents identify themselves as pro-life. 50 percent of Americans identify themselves as pro-life. This is not going to be a social --

Mary's blowing smoke, she is. She's seen the polls: Many, many of the people who identify as pro-life also don't want to get involved in restricting someone else's personal decision. That's a very soft 50 percent.

GRANHOLM: But 70 percent would like to see an exception for rape, or incest. And that's the issue.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Is there a danger, though, Congresswoman, in the Democrats seeming to focus on this to the exclusion of the economy?

EDWARDS: Well, I think it's actually a broader question. Republicans want to pretend that Todd Akin is an aberration. But in fact, it's their party platform, that's consistent with an agenda that they have had, that's actually not been supportive of women, whether you're talking about abortion or contraception, family planning, or a woman's health. And so, I think Republicans want to run away from Akin, but they actually can't run away from a platform and a party represented by Paul Ryan on -- at the top of their ticket that has not been supportive of women in any case.

SCORE!!!!! Donna Edwards gets the puck in the net!!! ((((((Go, Donna!!!))))))

STEPHANOPOULOS: And, Greta, one of the things we're seeing is you have Democratic Senate candidates in other states, like Elizabeth Warner in Massachusetts, running ads about Akin.

VAN SUSTEREN: Yes. And of course, Senator McCaskill should be sending a fruit basket to Congressman Akin every single day--

STEPHANOPOULOS: She wanted him in the race, there is no question about it.

VAN SUSTEREN: She wants him in the race, and what's happened is, they have had -- the Republican Party has had a horrible gender gap, and all those women were sort of on the edge. Now the Democratic Party has incredible ammunition against Republicans for those undecided women, who think, wait, legitimate rape, what's that? That's the danger, is that gender gap. And you shake your head no at me.

MATALIN: You know why I'm shaking my head? Because the Democratic gender gap with men is as great as the gender gap with women.

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Generally, my husband and I watch the Sunday shows together. He's a good sounding board and will tell me if I'm getting too in the weeds with our clip selections. Generally speaking, he's more cynical than me about politics but less cynical about the media. This morning, he redlined on both when he heard Romney surrogate and Republican strategist Mary Matalin utter these laughable words:

The only way the Obama campaign can run against Romney is distort his position or the Republican position. There is no -- nor has there ever been -- any Republican position that's been no regulations. We are for regulations and always have been. What common sense means clear and uniform and predictably enforced.

Wuh-what? Apparently, the reason Republicans long so much for the mythical days of yore is because there will be no video or audio to contradict their lying lies. To wit:

The Blind Spot in Mitt Romney's Economic Plan: What Romney would do: Cut taxes and regulations, shrink government, undo pretty much the entire Obama agenda, and stick it to labor.
House GOP announces jobs plan focused on cutting regs and taxes, August 2011
GOP jobs plan: Cut regulations and debt, reform taxes, September 2011
GOP's 'Reform 2.0' package targets business regulations and property taxes, January 2012
GOP Targets Safety Net Programs, Financial Regulations To Avoid Defense Cuts, April 2012
Cut regulation, boost insurance market, GOP candidates say, May 2012

The entire GOP plank has been about letting the "free market" decide and getting "big government" out of the way. But we can look around and see the manifestations of the free market lies (looking at you, Goldman Sachs) and Americans aren't buying it any more. So now, the Republican mouthpieces like Matalin have no choice but to spin an obvious lie to weasel out from behind an economic point of view that has done nothing but bring disaster to the 99 percent.

This morning my crazy thing locator pointed to this pro-Palin oped by Mary Matalin, who pooh-poohs complaints in Palin's book about the rough, nasty and foul-mouthed staffers inside the McCain campaign:

Time is the most valuable commodity on a campaign and you just can't waste it thinking about how to choose your words carefully or get your job done more diplomatically. If someone isn't in tears every day, that day wasn't all it could be advancing the campaign. I once witnessed an experienced (big) man slap a professional female colleague across the face over an ad buy... and no one thought anything of it, starting with the woman. In fact, she would have been insulted if anyone told her she should have been insulted.

Yes, politics is a hard job full of lots of pressure, long days, and high-stakes high-stress decision making. And many of the personalities attracted to that kind of work are narcissistic, most to the point of tantrums, and more than a few to the point of violence, and think it's no big deal. Matalin isn't just dishing about a specific instance here; she's pimping her insider importance--you bet she can remember just exactly the specific "ad buy" mistake that "deserved" the workplace assault and battery--and contrasting that insider importance to Palin's relative political naivete.

Matalin should be ashamed of herself, her politics, and her "professionalism" on a daily basis. That she actually points to an instance of physical assault of a female employee by a male superior as "the way it is in a campaign--get over it" just puts everything that's wrong with her argument in high relief. Does anyone wonder what would happen if that kind of thing happened in the private sector, or the outrage if a former corporate employee reported such physical assault as "acceptable in the business we're in" hearsay on the pages of CNN's website?

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Argh, there's so much wrong with this clip that it's all I can do to keep typing and not smacking my head against the desktop. First of all, they ask on Krugman to discuss his NY Times column talking about how GOP obstructionism has reached cartoonish levels and they decide to frame the segment on whether Obama lost his "MOJO"? Seriously? A major news organization ignores the absurdity of the GOP overarching need to find things with which to smear Obama and instead frames the issue for the President of the United States as an Austin Powers plot? And no one but a hyper-partisan conservative "party before country" cheerleader thinks that the IOC selecting Rio for the 2016 games has something to do with a failing on any kind on the part of Obama. Cheers to Anderson Cooper for validating what Krugman so aptly described as "bratty 13 year old" behavior and using a Nobel Laureate to do it. Way to keep on top of the issues of the day, Anderson.

And there's that issue of media's bizarre notion of balance again. Sweet Jesus, why on earth would anyone need Mary Matalin's opinion on Obama's "mojo"? The woman has spent years advising Dick Cheney, fer cryin' out loud, what exactly is her expertise in mojo? As would be expected, Matalin never answers anything directly, resorting to the familiar GOP projection and mean-spritied insinuations, saying she's never drunk the kool-aid on the messiah-like qualities of Obama.

Watch as Krugman acknowledges that Obama hasn't done everything perfectly and that there's still far to go, but that the level of discourse from the right prevents any actual adult-level dialog. And Matalin proves him right by devolving into fingerpointing and bringing in one non sequitur after another. Of course, everything that Obama has been hit with has an equivalence in Matalin's mind to that poor, misunderestimated George W. Bush. If you believe Matalin, the Democrats did nothing but screamed "Liar!" and "Loser" to Bush. Constantly. Hmmm....funny that, I don't remember it that way, but maybe that's because I'm part of the reality-based community.

But hey, how much honest analysis can you get from someone who openly admits she reveres the Fat Bastard himself, Rush Limbaugh? For that alone, she should be laughed off camera.

ABC's "This Week" - Former President Jimmy Carter; national security adviser Stephen Hadley.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Defense Secretary Robert Gates; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Democratic strategists James Carville and Bob Shrum; Republican strategists Mary Matalin and Mike Murphy.

CNN's "Late Edition" - Sens. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Joe Biden, D-Del., Bob Casey, D-Pa., Evan Bayh, D-Ind., and Joe Lieberman, I-CT; Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

"Fox News Sunday" - Former Sen. Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter; Hadley; Olympic speedskater Joey Cheek; Alex Ovechkin, left wing player for the Washington Capitals hockey team.

"The Chris Matthews Show" - Panel David Brooks, Clarence Page, Elisabeth Bumiller, Kelly O'Donnell. Topics: Is McCain the change voters want? Can he outshine the anti-war Dems? Will Hillary's supporters go with Obama if they have to?

Sunday on C-SPAN at 6:30pm (ET) How We Pick the President Sunday "The Week" Magazine & The Aspen Inst. host a panel discussion on the 2008 presidential campaign titled, "How We Pick the President: What's Moving Voters in 2008." Panelists include Republican Strategist Karl Rove, Democratic Pollster Doug Schoen, and Fmr. NY Times Executive Editor, Howell Raines.

By the way, this is a good time to let our readers know how much we appreciate all the tips and support you folks offer us in the comment threads. We read 'em, we use 'em. Thanks much. Feel free to let us know in the thread below if you see anything this morning that's clipworthy--first time commenters are always welcome to pipe in.

Are the Sunday Morning Shows worth getting outta bed for, honey? Oh just fetch some coffee and stretch that T1 line over to this side, thanks:

ABC's "This Week" - Howard Wolfson, campaign adviser for Hillary Rodham Clinton, and David Axelrod, campaign adviser for Barack Obama.

CBS' "Face the Nation" - Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M.; Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Evan Bayh, D-Ind.

NBC's "Meet the Press" - Republican strategists Mary Matalin and Mike Murphy; Democratic strategists James Carville and Bob Shrum.

CNN's "Late Edition" - NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer; Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean; Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Reps. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, and Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

"Fox News Sunday" - Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

"The Chris Matthews Show" -Can Obama translate his national momentum into wins in Texas and Ohio? If Hillary fails to win the nomination, does Bill Clinton share the blame? Meter Question: If Hillary loses Ohio and Texas, will she drop out before Pennsylvania on April 22? Would Hillary be better off now if Bill hadn't played such a public role in her campaign?

60 Minutes: Ohio Steve Kroft talks to Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and reports from Ohio.

CBS's Sunday Morning: an op-ed by Ben Stein on Election '08 as well as a piece on The Onion.

Well, what do you expect her to say?

Download | play Download | play (h/t Heather)

When asked for her take on Hillary Clinton's big laugh at the Democratic debate that it took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush presidency and it may well take another Clinton to clean up after this one (good line, but in reality, I think we'll be cleaning up after Bush for a very, very long time.) Republican hack...er, apologist, hmm...strategist Mary Matalin starts whining that every thinking Democrat knows it's not about Bush:

MATALIN: You know, this…even Democrats—thinking Democrats—this is not going to be a race about Bush. They have united, this party’s been united under one organizing principle for eight years: it’s anti-Bush. People are over it.

RUSSERT: But in a Democratic primary?

MATALIN: Even Democrats are over it. What are you going to do? What are you going to…and always, elections are about the future. They’re not about the past. She’s just…it’s just a…it’s cute, it was clever, but in the end, it was sophistry.

Sorry, Mary. As I look at the tatters of the Constitution whose bright promise brought my grandparents here many years ago; as I look over pictures of the horrors and brutality done in our name in the Middle East and places like Guantanamo; as I read over the decisions made by the Roberts Supreme Court that value corporations over citizens and read that in a time of war Exxon has posted record breaking earnings yet again; as I realize that most Americans are just one tragic circumstance from being homeless and bankrupt from medical bills, I must tell you that we are most assuredly NOT over Bush.

The candidate who can convince me that they can undo this damage is the one who will get my vote. YOUR opinion, Mrs. Iraq Study Group--given your enabling of all that I've listed above--disqualifies you from saying what is sophistry or not.