MSNBC debuted the program Race To The White House today in Tucker’s old time slot and the review from the C&L staff is mixed at best. We realize that it’s the first run for this show, but the faces and format are all familiar and there is definitely room for improvement. Host David Gregory does an admirable job, although he loses control of the panel, allowing the lone wingnut to dominate the conversation by yelling and spewing delusional talking points over the other panelists — something we were hoping to see less of.
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Download | Play (h/t Heather)
Rachel Maddow, Eugene Robinson and Chuck Todd were spot on, as usual. Where the show stumbles is the presence of Joe Scarborough and his rampant, fact-free ranting which drops the IQ of the show by double digits. The panel discusses the tanking U.S. economy and the mortgage meltdown and the Scar defends President Bush saying it wasn’t deregulation that caused the current crisis, it was greedy homeowners:
Scar: “This is not the type of economy it was in 1992 when Bill Clinton got elected. It’s not the economy stupid, yet, for most voters out there.”
Gregory:”Rachel, there’s a big disagreement about that.”
Maddow:”Yeah, Joe, if you were running for reelection on the basis of a platform right now that the economy’s actually secretly awesome, we just can’t tell, I don’t think that you’d be reelected. [snip]
Scar:”This did not happen because of deregulation, this happened because homeowners got more home than they could afford, they got interest only loans, they gambled wildly because they wanted to turn it around and make hundreds of thousands of dollars and guess what? The market changed! [snip] You know what, no consequences. Gamble, go to Vegas, lose your money and you know what? We’re going to blame it on GEORGE BUSH!”
Joe has his own MSNBC morning show where he can yell and brow beat his co-hosts all he wants, isn’t that enough? The cheesy graphics are distracting and the sound effects and music are a little annoying. We give Race For The White House a C+. Lose the Scar and it automatically jumps into B territory.
UPDATE: The Huffington Post has another clip from the same show with Scarborough getting caught on-air stuffing a brownie in his face. Watch the clip here.
Filed Under: Campaigns/Elections, Economy, Election 08, Government Policy, MSNBC, Morning Joe/Joe Scarborough, Race To White House/David Gregory
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Dodd!
the content could be marginal - the big thing here to remember is “So long, bowtie!” and good f’ing riddance
Wow. Scarborough is actually almost partially right for once.
Yeah, those devious homeowners, tricking the poor banks into loaning them too much money - suckers!!
Jesus, how do people like Scarborough get through the day without their brain leaping out of their body out of pure shame?
Oh, and Rachel still kicks ass. She needs her own show - anywhere.
I thought the show moved well. Joe Scarborough was off the wall, on how Obama should not address John Hagee’s involvement with McCain’s campaign, and his view that the economic problems were not created or greatly enhanced by the Bush administration. His comments about Rachel and Air America will completely inappropriate. It was great not to have Tucker, and I can’t believe there is a place for him on MSNBC. He is generally off the wall.
When I tried to borrow money to buy a house, the bank wouldn’t loan it to me unless I could afford to pay back the loan. What happened since then? And don’t tell me it was the homeowners. I ain’t buyin’ it.
[deleted - off topic. please take it to an open thread. thanks. sitemonitor]
Joe “maidkiller” Scarborough is utterly unwatchable in the morning. I tried to watch this clown at the gym but everything he says come out of the far right side of his ass. The only choices that early is Joe, Sportscenter and Informmercials.
Maddow:”Yeah, Joe, if you were running for reelection on the basis of a platform right now that the economy’s actually secretly awesome, we just can’t tell, I don’t think that you’d be reelected.”
Rachel got it wrong. If Joe were running for re-election, he wouldn’t lose because of the dead economy thats actually secretly awesome. He’d lose because of the dead chick thats actually secretly in his office.
Have any of Joe’s guests ever called him on this?
Scar:”This did not happen because of deregulation, this happened because homeowners got more home than they could afford, they got interest only loans, they gambled wildly because they wanted to turn it around and make hundreds of thousands of dollars and guess what? The market changed! [snip] You know what, no consequences. Gamble, go to Vegas, lose your money and you know what? We’re going to blame it on GEORGE BUSH!”
If Bill Clinton were in office now who would Scar blame? BILL CLINTON!
Left&Left @ 9:
That’s so unfair. She wasn’t his maid. She was his administrative assistant.
Too much Obama bias on MSNBC to watch but of course deregulation is the problem.
Pretty much anarchy on Wall Street with the gop in the WH and this will end in another disaster.
Got gold?
Could use another Clinton economy, don’t ya think?
I never bother watching joe he is just another stupid lying republican scumbag.
No honor no integrity no honesty no intelligence.
Only other brain dead morons would watch this idiot!
Joe is right on this one. Personally, I took out 3 subprime loans in my insidious homeowner’s plot to destroy the economy. I felt I was going to earn thousands of dollars, but BOOM, the market changed!
Tried and true, withstands the test of time: JP Morgan wins again!
SCAR: “The market changed! [snip] You know what, no consequences. Gamble, go to Vegas, lose your money and you know what? We’re going to blame it on GEORGE BUSH!”
Go to Vegas, gamble all of America’s money on tax cuts for the rich and runaway spending for the military industrial complex. Tell 900 lies of why you lost the money. Then when you’re done loosing all of America’s money, bomb Vegas on the way out killing 4,000 Americans and countless other civilians.
That’s how George Bush would play Vegas.
Let’s run with Scar’s blame game. All of these crap-shooting home buyers just so happened to purchase these risky gambles in a time period that coincide with the Bush Presidency. That is one hell of a coincidence.
Roket @ 18:
And the Wall Streeters were raking in tons of money off these shaky loans. Go figure.
Is joe blaming homeowners for the bad economy… why doesn`t he blame the banks that raised the prices of houses and then gave out more and bigger loans to people who couldn`t possibly give it back.
its the banks who gambled
Don’t like the name of the show. The media WANTS to make this a horse race.
Me, I’ve had primary fatigue ever since it got nasty, and NOW they start a new show with the word “race” in the title. C-SPAN does something called “Road To The Whitehouse” where they show the candidates at campaign events w/o the pundits.
Joe was obnoxious as always, especially when he tried to talk over Rachel’s comments about Hague and the double standards. Joe kept asking what that had to do with anything.
Is he really that clueless or does he just arrogantly think everyone else is?
Bottom line (for me), these two new shows, Gregory’s and Dan’s Abrams’ “Verdict”, put me that much closer to canceling cable tv.
What caused the mortgage meltdown was lenders making loans without any consideration of whether the borrower could actually repay the loan. This happened because the companies making the loans then sold the loans and someone else, like pensions funds and so forth, would take the hit if the mortgage wasn’t repaid. The bundled mortgage backed security was graded AAA in order to facilitate the swindle. Now, the wingnut may say “let the buyer beware”, but buyer beware policies have been deemed not in the public interest, specifically conning or misrepresenting what was in the borrower’s interests by these lenders in order to obtain notes to be bundled into securities.
There should have been regulations controlling these mortgages so that none would have been granted that a “prudent man” wouldn’t do, to extend a concept from trust management.
The irony here is, because of the imprudent mortgages made, and the economics of supply and demand, a real estate valuation bubble developed, due to supply/demand economics. Prudent borrowers stayed out of the real estate market, or bought cheaper properties to reflect the economic reality. And, now, the government is to bail out the extravaganza facilitated by these mortgages, and in the process, perpetuate the real estate valuation bubble? I’m not so sure these houses should be priced other than what they’re worth.
What we have here is a crime, or it should be a crime. Of course, the Congress only seems concerned with blue collar crime. The sub prime mortgage affair certainly has a criminal effect on the country, with lots of economic damage, and no matter how it winds up, homeowners, or taxpayers or both are going to pay for it.
The only fair way to do it is to pull joe off, have Rachel take over and have guest like Noam Chomsky, Ted Kennedy and Karl Marx III, then we will finally get good coverage
Yeah Joe, keep blaming the American people. It’s all their fault right. Nevermind the piss-poor leadership of G.W. Bush and his failure to reign in predatory lending. Oh no, it’s all the fault of hard working Americans. Yeah, keep it up Joe and Republicans won’t see the White House for another 100 years.
The big firms that gambled on the loans get bailed out but the rank and file Americans who loose their homes are left to fend for themselves.
Compassionate conservatism.
Scarborough doesn’t know how to keep his mouth shut when it’s not his turn.
Joey needs to go back to the sandbox and play. Or time out.
Oh, yes, all those nice gentlemanly Wall Street firms were snookered by low-income cheats! That is why we must rescue the banks. And it has nothing to do with deregulation or banks taking idiotic risks!
No, I’m not buying it, either. Chuck, you sound like a first-rate loser.
Well, we can call agree that Scar has the beadiest eyes, probably foretelling other parts that are teensy. Hey Joe, just some news…whomever the occupant of the WH is, at any given time, will get credit for successes that aren’t his doing and get blamed for failures that aren’t his fault. The same goes for GWB. For him, more of the ‘fault’ side because he is the WORST president, ever. If you want to sit there and whine about your buyers remorse on W be my guest. But if you voted for him, then you are partly to blame for all that W has wrought. Yes, good and bad. and Rachel is excellent.
i will tell you one thing though, joe wasn’t *entirely* wrong about the arm problem though. while it certainly wasn’t the root cause of the meltdown i personally have seen tons of people buy and build bloated homes with arms while i bought a much more modest home with a fixed rate mortgage. a lot of those arm people are going to go belly up because they were greedy and gambled and i’m a bit ticked that they might get a freebee bailout while me, little miss buy smaller at a higher fixed rate gets nothing except to pick up the tab thru taxes.
no one held a damn gun to these homeowners heads to get them to sign the mortgage. there *is* a thing called personal responsibility you know.
Tom (Not Tom) @ 4:
Amen. Love the “brain leaping out of their body out of pure shame” line. I watch these people and think they really can’t be dumb enough to believe what they’re saying and your line sums up that feeling perfectly. Can’t wait to borrow it.
LOL,
Scarborough really, really, really is an idiot.
He makes me laugh when I hear him talk. Who knows, maybe Joe will get a case of Tucker virus and make a quick exit to the Conservative happy farm.
Great to see C&L on top of it. I shot this off to their mailbox right after the second segment:
During tonight’s premier, Rachel Maddow was making an excellent point on the media’s obsession with Rev. Wright’s comments while virtually ignoring the histories of McCains whacky religious sponsors. Joe Scarborough would not allow this valid note to sound, further undermining any intelligent discourse on the subject.
I hope that David Gregory will work to referee the exploration of these topics in a way that will add to the public’s understanding of the issues, rather than continue the unhealthy mode of empty blather that political coverage is devolving into.
Lastly, I would never promote the words of Rev. Wright in damming America in any way. The view that he was expressing is one that is valid in much of the world however, and I think that this should be an opening for the discussion of policy mistakes that we have made, and the impact they have on our global image.
Instead of talking heads, how about a show that represents the thoughts of Americans.
I don’t feel a need to consume the sound-bited opinions dished out by the pundit class.
Especially when it’s presided over by a guy who spent a lot of time laughing along with George W. Bush at White House press conferences.
I love how JoeScarb blames this mess on home owners gambling on the market and Maddow calls him out. (Yeah, let’s blame those greedy home owners!!!)
Why don’t the pinstriped douchebags on Wall St. ever call what THEY’RE doing “gambling”?
.
porkchop @ 2:
Could not have said it any better! Perfect!
It seems so unfair to put Maddow… a Stanford grad and Rhodes Scholar on the same platform with those turkeys. She is about the brightest and fastest pundit on the tube these days… she needs her own show.
Where are all of the Libertarian Pauletts to tell us stupid country folk that Scarborough was exactly right and it is all part of the evil Federal Reserve’s plan rule the world? Regulation only makes things worse. Let the market set things right, if people die well people die.
Joe Scarborough is just a genuinely dumb person.
chris @ 24:
We know that the use of the Hitler analogy when losing an argument is Godwin’s Law. What is the official name of the right wing talking point which equates questioning our government with communism?
Brownie, you’re doin’ a heckuva job.
I thought maybe it would be something with a reporters edge .Boy was I wrong a total waste of time.
Least he’s not blaming it on the liberals, which all my Republican friends are doing.
I am excited. These are momentous times. We have to face the adult challenge. It is time for Americans to grow up.
“Race” is a red herring issue. It can be used in our political system whenever the real issues don’t work to get people what they want. Hillary is using the “race” card against her Democratic opponent, Obama. She is obviously not interested in issues that matter to the voters. This is as plain as the sun in the sky. She just wants to be president. She sits back and enjoys the mess when she could come out forcefully against the racial attacks on Obama.
Obama is a human being. If anything, his being 50% “white” is more important than the “black” part, since he was raised in Hawaii by white grandparents. The “human” part is where we all connect. Christians should know this, right? Scientists have proven that there is no scientific basis for “race” divisions. It is all nonsense. Obama can bring us together. He possesses a unique background with which he could unite us all. People have got to want to be united first. We need to learn that if we’re not working for the unity and cooperation among people of different, that we’re doing the opposite. It should be clear. By supporting Civil Rights, no one is taking rights away from “white” people. I would be considered “white” I guess, but I resent having to state that on a form. “Black”
joe is such a good little neocon. For a minute there, I thought he was starting to see the light.
But once you put your feet in that repug political hack mode, it’s impossible to see the reality again, and you lie and bullshit with the rest of them.
Let him have his fantasy world…just get his pompous ass off the tube so other people don’t have to suffer his “fantasy view” with him.
onceler @ 38:
Yep, his logic falls in line with the republican “base”…
I’m really dating myself here, but Scar reminds me of Clutch Cargo. Clutch is the cartoon equivalent of Joe. Same little slits for eyes and a mouth that moves like some cheesy animation.
For those of you who have no idea who I’m talking about, check it out.
Don’t they have other people? I mean, it’s the same faces.
Joe says he’s not a repug but he’s lying. He’s not fair at all. Yeah we are going to blame the chimpy decider because he’s
responsible.Why blame the home owners? I guess he hasn’t seen tent city and the little home people were evicted from. Get the fuck off your high horse Joe. The air is too thin for Joey.Doesn’t Joe know there are gambling taxes and government gambling exemptions?
Free shit, man, free shit.
chris @ 24:
I thought you were leaving. I thought the reason you were leaving was because you were “making good talking points” and nobody would address your points.
I guess, in all fairness, Ted would be a good replacement for Joe. they both have super questionable, super shady histories of dead chicks.
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so seriously - do you want