Mother Jones‘ Kevin Drum has done it again. His articles are humorous and smart.
Here’s his take on Mark Halperin’s faux pas on Morning Joe yesterday. The piece was written yesterday, as well.
Mark Halperin is one of my least-favorite political analysts, a reliably unimaginative weathervane of conventional wisdom. Today, on Morning Joe, he gave his considered opinion of Barack Obama’s press conference performance on Wednesday: “I thought he was kind of a dick yesterday.”
Halperin didn’t quite realize he was on the air when he said this, and when he did he immediately apologized and was later suspended by MSNBC. However, this is of zero interest to me. If Halperin thinks Obama is a dick, it’s fine with me if he says it publicly. In fact, I’d rather he say it publicly. A mild reproach from MSNBC management for offending the delicate sensibilities of Morning Joe viewers would have been sufficient apology.
Needless to say, what’s actually interesting here is that Halperin, in fact, thinks Obama is a dick for getting slightly combative yesterday. And this is interesting precisely because Halperin is an unimaginative weathervane of conventional wisdom. It presumably means that a fair-sized chunk of the DC press corps also thinks Obama was a bit of a dick yesterday.
If this is the case, all I can say is that the standards for dickitude have become alarmingly low in Washington, DC, these days. I mean, Republicans have spent several consecutive months holding the country hostage to their tea-party base, pretending to negotiate a budget deal when they obviously had no intention of ever agreeing to any kind of compromise, all but chortling publicly at their own cleverness, and dressing down Obama in front of the TV cameras at every opportunity. But after putting up with this for months, it’s Obama who’s a dick for finally pushing back a bit against these guys? Seriously?
Related articles
- Mark Halperin’s Dick Move (jeffwinbush.com)
- MSNBC Has ‘Indefinitely’ Suspended Mark Halperin For His ‘Dick’ Remark About Obama (thenewspundit.com)
- Mark Halperin Suspended by MSNBC for Obama D-ck Reference (thehollywoodgossip.com)
- MSNBC Suspends Time’s Hark Halperin for Calling Obama a “Dick” On Morning Joe (themoderatevoice.com)
- Mark Halperin Suspended by MSNBC After Calling President Obama a ‘Dick’ on ‘Morning Joe’ (VIDEO) (aoltv.com)
- Mark Halperin Calls President Obama A ‘Dick’ On Morning Joe; Quickly Apologizes (mediaite.com)
Sadly, I doubt very much that anything will get done, until the Republicans have one of their own in the White House.
Want my opinion? Obama looks to be a one term president. I hope I’m wrong.
Well Don, I’m optimistic and have a hunch that he’ll get his second term. I’m not going to give up on him that easily. So, in essence, I think you are wrong.