Talking Points Memo Trasncript, Monday, March 3, 2008:
Subject's Memo: Political Craziness
It is getting crazy in politics land. That is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."
There's all kinds of weird stuff going on. Last Friday, Rush Limbaugh told Laura Ingraham right on this broadcast that Texas Republicans should vote for Hillary in order to throw the Democratic race into chaos.
On the other side, bomb-thrower Howard Dean is attacking John McCain's integrity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD DEAN: John McCain is a flawed candidate. Here's a guy who is a typical situational ethicist. He runs on his integrity, but he doesn't seem to have any.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Sure, you're a quality guy, right, governor? Good grief.
And then there's the press. A study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs says that from December 16 to February 19, an astounding — are you ready for this? — 84 percent of network news reports on Barack Obama were favorable. Eighty-four percent. And Hillary Clinton, the number was 53 percent. Very high, favorable.
Of course, NBC News is leading the Obama cheerleading, as "Saturday Night Live" is ironically pointing out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE")
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who is this man? What's his name?
AMY POEHLER, "HILLARY CLINTON": Medev...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dmitry Medvedev. Senator Obama, same question.
FRED ARMISEN, "BARACK OBAMA": Dmitry Medvedev.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct. Senator Clinton, Nigeria's foreign affairs minister, can you name him?
AMY POEHLER, "HILLARY CLINTON": I don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ojo Maduekwe. Senator Obama, same question.
FRED ARMISEN, "BARACK OBAMA": Ojo Maduekwe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that brings tonight's debate to a close.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
And it's not that far from the truth.
Now on the print side, election analysis is just as bad. The committed left Chicago Sun-Times actually ran a column saying Louis Farrakhan is a good guy. I swear. We asked publisher Cyrus Freidheim to comment. He would not. He's hiding under his desk. Cyrus, wise up, man.
And The New York Times once again used its book review section to savage President Bush — something editor Sam Tanenhaus does all the time. The game here is that The Times hires left-wing zealots like Columbia University's Alan Brinkley and former L.A. Times writer Jacob Heilbrunn to review "hate Bush" books. Of course, they love them. Yesterday, Brinkley even attacked the president's mother, Barbara Bush, in a disgraceful piece of writing. It doesn't get any lower than that.
And I don't even want to mention what Gloria Steinem said, but I have to in the "Pinheads & Patriots" segment.
"Talking Points" understands the powerful emotions in play this year and the role the corrupt media is playing in manipulating those emotions. With high gas prices, a wobbling economy and an unpopular war, the folks are uneasy. Therefore, it is easy to charge people up. ...
About John McCain's commitment to securing the border, and about Hillary Clinton's unbelievable spending proposals, those are all the things the media should be looking at, rather than trying to engineer the election in a dishonest way.
Once again, "Talking Points" is on the case. You'll get no spin here, despite all the madness.
And that's "The Memo."
Additional reporting by Fox News
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