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I’ve never hidden my deep and abiding love for Rachel Maddow as a pundit and am so glad for the recognition she’s due. Armed with facts and wit, she can run circles around all these other talking heads without breaking a sweat. Maybe that’s why the MSNBC bookers saw fit to match her to four conservatives on Race To The White House: Substitute host Joe Scarborough, Tony Blankley, Michelle Bernard (who has of late been the omnipresent guest on all MSNBC shows), and former Scarborough Country and Hardball producer Noah Oppenheim, now the author of The Intellectual Devotional.
But the taker of the proverbial cake has to be Scarborough, who compensates for his general wrongness of position by a steady stream of snide and dismissive remarks. In a discussion focused around the media-driven narrative that Barack Obama has flip-flopped in his positions (they LOVE that word, have you noticed?) and is rushing to the center, Rachel is the lone voice from the left pointing out that his rhetoric has not changed radically and that he has always advocated a centrist (”post-partisan,” I think it was called) position and Scarborough both sneers at Rachel for pointing this out and cheers Obama for taking a more “responsible” stance. When poll after poll finds that the majority of Americans think we should get out of Iraq, Scarborough thinks it will reassure Middle America if Obama slows down the withdrawal.
Were I running John McCain…er, were I, were I running Barack Obama’s campaign, I would tell him to do this. Because I think this actually reassures Americans, okay this guy said what he needed to say to win the far left in the primary and now as he moves to the general election, he’s getting more responsible on FISA, he’s getting more responsible on troop withdrawal. Doesn’t this make middle Americans in Ohio and West Virginia and Pennsylvania like Barack Obama more?
Yeah, everyone feels much better when we move to the right…that’s why the GOP brand is suffering so much. Rachel tries again:
I think the important thing to recognize here is that there’s a difference between taking a centrist position because it’s good for the general election and changing his position. What I’m saying about this Iraq stuff is not that Barack Obama secretly has a left position on Iraq that nobody else recognizes. I’m saying his position on Iraq is very centrist and has been all along and is not changing. This was the position his campaign was taking through the primaries and we have ascribed a much more liberal policy to him, but when you go back and you look at the tape and you go back and look at the statements from his campaign, all the way back through the spring, all the way back when they were attacking Hillary Clinton for having a plan for withdrawal that wasn’t subject to conditions on the ground, it shows you that this is where he’s been all along. You can call it centrist, but it’s still consistent.
And The Scar’s response?
You might support Obama, but you have the “Clinton cackle” down, Rachel.
Classy to the last, Joe.
No Trackbacks To “Race To The White House: For Joe Scarborough, When All Else Fails, Insult As Much As Possible“
Rachel, you rock.
I don’t think Joe Scarborough EVER should be introduced without reference to the young, attractive, female intern who died under unexplained circumstances in his Florida office.
woody, tokin librul @ 2:
That’s not fair. At least let him explain… So Joe? Tell us about the young, attractive, dead, female intern in your Florida Office. Well? Joe? Anything?
Don’t care about TV.
Care about this country and its fundamental purposes. Individual freedom. That sort of thing.
Joe says X. Rachel says Y.
Don’t care.
Care about this country and its fundamental purposes. Individual freedom. That sort of thing.
Is this journalism? How sad.
fiver @ 3:
Wouldn’t wanna be “unfair,” of course…We’ll follow your protocol. Works for me…
Thomas Stone @ 5:
No…
No it’s not ‘journalism.’
It’s ‘punditry.’
Useless babble.
Turn your TV’s off and DO something positive and productive.
Thats the way you bring the kind of change this country needs.
What an A. S. S.
But, that is nothing new.
Rachel Maddow can out think Joe Scarborough while hooked to a Valium IV. Didn’t he walk off a program to sulk some other time after she destroyed his point? And he is a former congressman. What an empty headed twit. Hey MSNBC, why don’t you find someone who can actually think through his points instead of just getting snotty and sulky.
I was offended by that repugnit remark. How insulting. Joe has a history of not being able to counter Rachel respectfully. Remember when he walked off before on the show?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0C-4bm6Ilo
Rachel: “Let me make my point before you dismiss me.”
[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
OMG! She kicks Joe’s ass so badly he now needs 3 conservatives to support him and when he loses he has to take a vote! And she still kicks his ass. bwaAHAHAAHAAHAH AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH. That was funny.
Is it not amazing that the television pundits that proclaimed so loudly that Obama was an agent of change are now backpeddling furiously to identify him as “always being center”?? I know you just HAVE to get a Dem elected, but talk about absurd. He’s went from being the new revolution sweeping the nation on the left, to, well he’s always been half left, half right.
.
THIS is why I don’t have cable.
When the great ignorence is switched on this coming Feb of 2009, I may even loose my local newz infotainment.
.
Rachel you are one heck of a woman. You are the BEST!!!!!
“How many here agree with Rachel that the world is round?
“Show of hands?
“Nobody?
“That settles it the world is flat!”
Such is discourse in America today, the facts are voted out by a rigged jury.
Why is that these talking heads never say the Republican candidate needs to “move to the center” to win?
DJ @ 18:
When they say center they mean right. The so called “Center” in this country is considered far right in every European country and most of the rest of the planet.
“I’m saying his position on Iraq is very centrist and has been all along….” -Maddow
I think I said that back in December right here but nobody was listening. All I got back was “he’s the only one who opposed the war from the beginning.”
Well now we see what happened to Clinton and Edwards and everyone of the 29 Democratic Senators who voted “aye”.
They had an electorate to face and made a political decision that superseded the ethical one.
Welcome to the real world, Mr. Obama. How’s that workin out for ya?
American “journalism” is nothing more than right wing blow hards spouting their ignorance. The U.S. has no legitimate 4th Estate for the citizenry. That’s just the way the corporations want it.
The “scab” still sniffs bush’s jockstrap - and gets energized when he does. What a right-wing tool!
Of course Scarborough thinks the American public wants to stay in Iraq. These people really are completely convinced that the polls are all wrong and that the vast majority of America thinks exactly like they do.
I’ve spoken with 26%ers and the Republican candidates for Congress in my district and they all say the same thing with the same conviction: 80% of America believes what we believe, we will win the House, Senate, and Presidency in November.
Delusional, just like Dukakis said.
This is one of the reasons I no longer watch this show and MSNBC should be embarrassed that they allowed this to go on.
Joe Scarborough has a problem with strong women. Look what he did to his co-host Mika I have no opinion of my own Brzezinski. At one point they appeared to be too cozy. Know one knew he had baby on the way until the baby came too early. And know knew she had a husband until she recently started bringing him up.
Oh for the days of Edmund Burke.
Although he was a monarchist, he was English and therefore anti-French. But when he described the new Queen of France, Marie Antoinette of Austria appearing on some grand stairs, in a nimbus of light, and all the sabres of the men-at-arms raising their sabres from their scabbards simultaneously, it was almost erotic.
Such an ass. I watched this clip earlier, and honest to God, he is such a pig. Your title hits it right on the head. Why does Rachel have to be matched up with that disgusting, lying sack of shit??
Johnny2Bad @ 19:
What are you saying, Johnny2Bad? That Obama’s being smeared? Because he’s being smeared by the left and the right, if you- of all people- haven’t noticed. That you don’t like his “wait and see” stance on this? It’s not that different than Edwards’, iirc, the difference being that Edwards said he hoped to draw down to a brigade-sized force by a certain date.
I can not watch any of that crap. I see these clips on C&L and I think, “Yup, mostly knuckle dragging eejits and bampots with the occasional, outnumbered liberal having the microphone cut off or having the rightwinger run off to his greenroom crying…yecccch!
Here’s Maddow on Obama…Making the same point…Painting Obama a “centrist”.
“I think if this was a pure liberal candidacy we’d be talking about single-payer healthcare, we’d be talking about prosecuting members of the current administration for war crimes, we’d be talking about abolishing the death penalty. I mean, I can dream up a liberal candidacy for you. I would have to dream it, though, because Barack Obama is not that guy.”
Hmm. Single payer, war crimes trials, no death penalty…Hey, sounds good to me.
Oopppss. “…Barrack Obama is not that guy”.
Pity.
Didn’t Scarborough kill one of his interns?
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s @ 32:
No Jay, he didn’t “Kill” anyone. That I know of. His intern was found dead in his office in Florida. They say he was in DC when it happened. But the medical examiner was fired for malfeasance.
Obama is DLC. In other words, a Clinton, Lieberman, Democrat.
Pretty much every one of these clips goes as follows:
Scartissue: Okay, Rachel, let’s hear from the liberal we’re obliged to have on here. Go ahead, spew your nonsense.
Rachel: Actually, Joe, I can make a clear, cogent argument for my side. The facts are that—-
Scartissue: Nope, the facts are on my side no matter what. I’ll give you the last word, though.
Rachel: I would have appreciated your not interrupting, but I’ll take the last word. The facts are that—–
Scartissue: Oh, you should just be grateful we let your kind on here at all. Thank you, and goodnight.
Sad to see Rachel treated like that.
Perhaps rather than giving a progressive voice, MSNBC/GE wanted a progressive punching bag. They had to take a little while and let Rachel speak for the last several months before they began the ridicule.
Happy Independence Day, everybody. Coincidentally, 200 more days until he’s gone.
Maybe MSNBC can fire Joe next, after all Rity empty head Cosby is history and Tucker empty suit Carlson has already lost his waste of sixty minutes show (Wanna bet he is gone once his contract runs out?).
You all watched the results of Scabbie’s contract negotiations this past month…..he will not go on MSNBC on the same level as Maddow…he will host. Obviously he was burned too many times on Race and demands his being senior. Pat Buchanan gets clobbered by her repeatedly….and Scabbie as well….but now he get’s the last word. Shame on MSNBC for kowtowing to ‘his largeness’ over Rachel….expected but not desirable….but the network that let’s Andrea Mitchell get away with her blatant lies let’s Scabbie live….to everyone’s detriment…then again Andrea has been shacking up with Alan Greenspan as husband/wife for 11 years….of course she will spout the conservative line……as MSNBC does not want to lose that ‘connection’.
By the repugs logic, since every thing is going so well in Iraq why shouldn’t we be withdrawing from there?
I mean c’mon. Things are going swimmingly. So lets get the hell outta there already. Oh , that’s right , the oil.
sadly, you are disagreeing with Rachel when you write this, and apparently, buying into the lie that Obama has “moved to the right” on this issue. he has not. nothing about his position is any different than it was 2002 - 2008. same. end of story.
I saw the first part of this show, Maddow took Scar to the woodshed. He wasn’t about to let her win.
Attila the Neopopulist, no Stomach for Imperial Adventures @ 32:
you’re an idiot who doesn’t know what they’re talking about. troll.
Joe is a spineless coward reduced to taking a poll amoung conservatives to keep Rachel down. He’s a dillweed.
Joe Scarborough missed the birth canal and was born
out the backdoor, dropped out on his head and was
left with a permanent IQ of 29. he can’t tell the truth,
so being condescending and disrespectful is all he has.
onceler @ 39:
Yep. As he has said…the same as Hillary on “99% of the issues”.
Genitalia excluded…What’s the difference again?
Johnny2Bad @ 29:
And again: What’s your point? Because I know where you’re coming from- or at least I know that you constantly hammer Obama, why you do…well, I’m not so sure about your motivations- but these last few posts aren’t really making your opinion of this all that clear.
Rachel Maddow has adopted the annoying Republican practice of laughing through everyone else’s comments. I guess when you are a shill for an empty suit like Obama an empty laugh is the best you can do.
Rachel is very smart. Smart enough to know that being an Obamabot means career advancement on MSNBC.
BTW, I can’t stand Scarborough. I’ve always thought the investigation of the tragic death of that young lady in his Florida office was a cover up.
dadams @ 43:
Are you calling Scarburro an asshole baby?
couldn’t agree more.
OK site monitor, go ahead.
As long as Rachael Maddow is an effective apologist for obama — you’re gonna love her — so did I — LAST YEAR……….but for my buck she fell in line with Keith O and bashed the fuck out of the Clintons. So impressed with Rachael — not so much. It’s always about whose ox is getting it raw, afterall. But what would you do if she actually said , WELL DAMN, HE IS MOVING AWAY FROM HIS PROMISES AND ORGINIAL POSITIONS….like all politicians. If it was Hillary now in the driverseat and she was changing her mind on the war, fisa, blah blah blah ———- you would be screaming —- or not???
ConcernedCanuck @ 14: