Listening to Fat Timmy, Mathews and Scarborough

[chieftain]

before, during and after the debate, it is clear that NBC has declared war on Hillary Clinton. Although I am not a big fan of either Clinton, I think what this network is doing is reprehensible and dangerous.
In the lead-up to the big evening, Chris was relentless in his promotion of the idea that Hillary must be attacked. He constantly leers while wondering whether Bill will be a nasty, naughty boy in his capacity of first spouse.
Fat Timmy continued his bully boy act which he premiered in playing the hapless Rick Lazio's second during the NY Senatorial debate. His loathsome role as Jack Welch's personal sock puppet is beneath contempt and constitutes a continuing affront to journalistic standards.
Then in the morning, Ordinary Joe hammers home how Hillary has screwed up and how foolish the "Dimocrats" will be if they nominate her. Joe's concern for our Party is every bit as convincing as Timmy's cloak of non-partisanship.
All of us are rightly dismissive of Faux as a tool of the Republican Party. We should be even more concerned about the attack dogs which NBC has assembled. They have a veneer of respectability and credibility that though unearned is very real.
I hope and pray that whoever of the Democrats is elected, he or she makes sure that MTP becomes the forgotten Sunday News show. And that Big Russ's little boy spends the rest of his tenure interviewing various 3rd undersecretaries for irrelevant matters. Let him play gotcha with them.

[Tektonik]

1. Did you really need to include the word fat into your title?

[chieftain]

5. Probably not. Since I have spent my life dealing with being

fat, I should be more sensitive to others' feelings. On the other hand, it is an accurate description of an odious human being and I didn't want to disparage toads or bulldogs which were other images which come to mind when looking at him

[SteppingRazor]

2. I don't think it's necessarily attacking Hillary.

It's wanting to latch onto any controversy in the Democratic primary that they possibly can. A runaway frontrunner in the primary race is boring. There's no story to tell. It's not a conservative bias, like that of Fox. It's the bias toward sensationalism that infects the rest of the media. They need a controversy.

[chieftain]

6. I think it goes beyond the usual reporters' need for controversy.

One look at Timmy's flushed, contorted face convinces me that his goal is to take Hillary down, not just to enliven a debate. When you add Chris's hyperventilation and speech writing for Obama to Joe's relentless partisan sniping, I think a fair conclusion is that the word has come down from NBC corporate HQ to do as much damage to Clinton as possible.

[Catherine Vincent]

3. Yesterday someone was asking why Olbermann wasn't a participant.

This could be why. The rest agreed to go on attack mode of Sen. Clinton and he doesn't want any part of it.

[AtomicKitten]

11. No worries. Olbermann got in a gratuitous dig at Obama yesterday.

KO had a segment yesterday about UFOs and played Kucinich's clip talking about it, and then he showed Obama's picture with a truncated comment of what Obama actually said on the subject, making it look like Obama too was semi-serious about UFOs. If Keith had actually played the clip of Obama at the debate, it was clear Obama was being sarcastic.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, Mr. Olbermann. I never thought I'd see that kind of skewed reporting for the sheer purpose of snark coming from Olbermann.

[rodeodance]

4. The mods were rude----in not focusing on DK---or dodd or biden

[bpeale]

7. one has to wonder though...

whether the clinton's have something to hide the way Bill hid Hillary's first lady papers until AFTER the november election. something fishy about that. what do you think is in those papers? (speculation here) maybe the fact that she KNEW about monica lewinsky & did nothing about it? hmmm. would shed a whole different light on her martyrdom as first lady.

[chieftain]

8. Maybe they do have something to hide, and maybe it is

particularly heinous and just maybe your speculation is right. But that is an awful lot of maybes and it was just this kind of speculation that led to Ken Starr and the expenditure of $100 Million dollars spent to overturn the result of a legitimate presidential election.
Maybe the Clintons know that whatever they have written, said or thought can be twisted into something nefarious. With their collective experience at the hands of both the media and the hit men of the Republican Party, it may be wise to not allow yet one more opportunity to sully what started as clean laundry but in the hands of opponents can be made into support for the wildest theories which have been spread about them.

[LeFleur1]

10. Yeah

I, too, was wondering what could possibly be in the so called hidden papers about the Clintons that hadn't been splashed across the newspapers and blabbered from the TV screens. Ken Starr investigated every corner of their lives and made sure what he found (and what he surmised, and what he wanted) were front and center in every living room in America, not to mention the world.
"Hidden papers". What a crock.

[AtomicKitten]

9. Consider it a public service since her own party isn't getting her to answer the hard questions.

... or at least without a lot sniveling about being "picked-on."

[DangerDave921]

12. Gotcha

Why is it called "gotcha" when you ask a candidate to explain two, apparently contradictory, statements on an issue? What is a debate for, other than to ask difficult, probing, sometimes uncomfortable questions of a person?

If the mods only tossed softballs, there would be no point to having a debate.

[AtomicKitten]

13. I completely agree.

And her slipping and sliding on questions and the subsequent subterfuge from her camp to spin it/change the subject speaks volumes.

[DangerDave921]

19. won't make a difference though

I agree she dodges and weaves like crazy. But to read the numerous posts from HRC supporters on here, she gave intelligent, insightful, nuanced answers that showed her true leadership and brilliance. So in the end, it won't make a difference at all.

Hillary is counting on two things: a) her last name; and b) her gender. That's enough to get her past the 50% hump and the rest is just window-dressing. It doesn't really matter what she says about trivial little things like war or illegal aliens or social security.

[chieftain]

14. I will consider what Russert/NBC does a public service

only when they demonstrate equivalent zeal in questioning any Republican as they do in grilling Hillary. I am not holding my breath until it happens.

[AtomicKitten]

15. She brings it on herself by not giving straight answers.

[chieftain]

17. You don't think that Mitt gives straight answers do you? He

has not been subjected to the full Russert treatment nor will he or the other gang of RW Neanderthals ever be.

[otohara]

16. Yesterday's Hardball - Sickening Immigrant & Hillary Bash

I've never saw anything like it - It's okay for the immigrants to clean their homes and clip their lawns, but anything beyond that ferget about it.

[chieftain]

18. Amen. I thought Chris was going to become completely

unglued.

[rufus dog]

20. damn it - I hate to defend HRC

But the OP is correct. Mitt's flip flops get downplayed, Tweety turns Biden's slam of Rudy into Rudy being tough and quick to respond. They are going to do this to whoever leads on the Dem side.

[CitizenLeft]

21. this is so perfect a characterization I have to stand up and...

...applaud.

:applause:

"In the lead-up to the big evening, Chris was relentless in his promotion of the idea that Hillary must be attacked. He constantly leers while wondering whether Bill will be a nasty, naughty boy in his capacity of first spouse."

He is just grotesque.

[chieftain]

22. Thanks. Chris is truly weird. He was one of the earliest

of the punditocracy to express concerns regarding the Iraq War but his basic sensibilities are establishment Republican. He sometimes seems to careen out of control. He has some very big self control issues and behaves incredibly boorishly when speaking to women on enough occasions to seriously question his emotional maturity.