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Lawrence O’Donnell And Dave Weigel Dissect The Slim Pickings In The GOP Primary

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The hearty liberal mockery of Thursday’s Republican primary debate took center stage on last night’s Last Word, and it’s hard to see how Lawrence O’Donnell could resist being snide about a Republican field where even the head of the RNC was openly hoping other people run. O’Donnell discussed whatever it was that happened last Thursday with Dave Weigel, who expressed far more excitement for Ron Paul and Herman Cain than Tim Pawlenty and Rick Santorum

Of the candidates that showed up to the debate, O’Donnell reckoned that only Pawlenty and Santorum were credible, with Santorum being a “reasonable choice” for vice president despite being radical on social issues. Given that these were the only candidates he cared about, O’Donnell asked Weigel– who attended the event– how the “Pawlenty versus Santorum debate” went. “I don’t think I was watching that,” Weigel responded, though, if he had to evaluate them, he noted that Santorum was the only one on the stage with extensive television experience, and it showed. Meanwhile, he compared Pawlenty to 2008 Mitt Romney, noting that “he benefits inch by inch for showing up to anything.” But neither of them “excite people,” Weigel concluded, then turning to the more colorful characters in the debate.

While he joked that no other absent candidates felt that “by not competing with Herman Cain they missed a great opportunity,” he did note that he was exciting to watch and sparked interest in many on the left, while the object of most of the applause of the night, Rep. Paul, “proved that he will again be there irritating Republicans,” about as much as he could ask for.

The discussion via MSNBC below:

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  • WCinWI

    Why should we care about what two liberals talk about on MSNBC?

  • Barack Must Go

    Lawrence O’Donnell And Dave Weigel Dissect THIS !

  • TeaPartyPatriot

    Nov 2012 was a wake-up call to the “Corrupt B-tards” of the lamestream socialist media. They realized then that the American voters were no longer swallowing their lies, distortions, fact-hiding, half-truths and shameless proselytizing for them to idolize the lunatic-left Messiah and his (and their) near endless misrepresentations about his beliefs and positions.

    Never forget that “You Lie!” hussein is nothing more than an artificial creation of the lunatic-left socialist media with no more substance or depth than a Daffy Duck cartoon. Wherever there are no mirrors, no cameras and especially no teleprompters (heavy drug use significantly impairs short-term memory), hussein vanishes.

    So to make sure that the voters don’t stray off the lunatic plantation in 2012, they will redouble their assault on the truth, the facts and – most of all – reality, to fool the voters back to the brain-washed days of the 2008 campaign when they had them convinced that “hopey-changey” bs would save us all. (Reality: “hope-changey” is actually the lunatic-left “Road-to-Hell”.)

    The lunatic-left socialist media has no choice but to continue to try to prop-up their shallow, profane, arrogant, platitude-spouting, inexperienced, Marxist, drug-addicted, smug, elitist, narcissistic, pompous, flip-flopping, racist, anti-Semitic gas-bag who is so mentally deficient from extensive drug use he even has to plagiarize his hollow platitudes, who hijacked the nomination with fewer votes than Hillary received, and who stole the election with extensive ACORN fraud.

    They have nothing else to offer.

  • insideguy

    TeaPartyPatriot guy, Do you just have this written out and post it on different boards all day? Or did someone write this out for you and you thought it sounded pretty cool?

  • felixw

    The number of recent article on Mediaite about

    Tim Pawlenty 0
    Bobby Jindal 0
    Mitt Romney 1
    Mike Huckabee 1
    Newt Gingrich 2
    Donald Trump 2,302,456

    Lesson: the liberal media covers the candidates they want to run against. Is strangely silent about the candidates it can’t turn into the punchline for jokes. But this isn’t journalism. It’s wishful thinking.

  • MrTPar_taY

    Wonder if Obama knows how to balance a checkbook?

  • http://www.perceptionasreality.blogspot.com/ skoorbekim

    Larry O is whistling past the grave yard… with selective editing… and condescension…
    Larry O building up Santorum?! he wishes…
    Weigel does a good job in this interview…

  • winning

    Man, I’ve been holding my breath, waiting to hear what progressive douchebags have to say about Republicans. Jeez, there’s no way I’m gonna vote for any of them after hearing what msnbc has to say. I know that those people are objective, as opposed to those assholes at fox who’re only interested in putting out right wing propaganda.

  • THE REAL ROYAL KING

    WCinWI said:
    Why should we care about what two liberals talk about on MSNBC?

    Self-imposed ignorance is very ugly Bidet. Had you watched the segment, you would have known that the Weeper of the House couldn’t be bothered to watch the debate and implicitly mocked the current field, and the RNC Chairman explicitly did so.

  • WCinWI

    THE REAL ROYAL KING said:
    Self-imposed ignorance is very ugly Bidet. Had you watched the segment, you would have known that the Weeper of the House couldn’t be bothered to watch the debate and implicitly mocked the current field, and the RNC Chairman explicitly did so.

    No one should care about a Journolista!

    Also, if you wish to call me a name, I will just report you. Choose your fate.

  • Glackin

    TeaPartyPatriot said:
    Nov 2012 was a wake-up call to the “Corrupt B-tards” of the lamestream socialist media.

    WELCOME BACK from the future! How did the Delorean do?
    Really, child, get someone to read it to you before you post it.

  • Glackin

    Let’s be honest. The GOP would be in better shape if Slim Pickens WAS running.

  • mediadoubt

    WCinWI said:
    Why should we care about what two liberals talk about on MSNBC?

    Perhaps, given that the universe of voters is vastly larger than what you’re interested in. Taking the larger view, your individual point of view is largely irrelevant.

  • mediadoubt

    TeaPartyPatriot said:
    Nov 2012 was a wake-up call to the “Corrupt B-tards” of the lamestream socialist media. They realized then that the American voters were no longer swallowing their lies, distortions, fact-hiding, half-truths and shameless proselytizing for them to idolize the lunatic-left Messiah and his (and their) near endless misrepresentations about his beliefs and positions.

    Never forget that “You Lie!” hussein is nothing more than an artificial creation of the lunatic-left socialist media with no more substance or depth than a Daffy Duck cartoon. Wherever there are no mirrors, no cameras and especially no teleprompters (heavy drug use significantly impairs short-term memory), hussein vanishes.

    So to make sure that the voters don’t stray off the lunatic plantation in 2012, they will redouble their assault on the truth, the facts and – most of all – reality, to fool the voters back to the brain-washed days of the 2008 campaign when they had them convinced that “hopey-changey” bs would save us all. (Reality: “hope-changey” is actually the lunatic-left “Road-to-Hell”.)

    The lunatic-left socialist media has no choice but to continue to try to prop-up their shallow, profane, arrogant, platitude-spouting, inexperienced, Marxist, drug-addicted, smug, elitist, narcissistic, pompous, flip-flopping, racist, anti-Semitic gas-bag who is so mentally deficient from extensive drug use he even has to plagiarize his hollow platitudes, who hijacked the nomination with fewer votes than Hillary received, and who stole the election with extensive ACORN fraud.

    They have nothing else to offer.

    “Uh, Mr. Toilet Paper Patriot? This is Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine calling. Please stop sending your unsolicited manuscripts to our office. My editors have threatened to quit if they have to read one more word from you. Please take my advice — and I mean this very sincerely — if you have a day job, don’t quit it.

    And if you call again, we’ll be informing the authorities. Bye now.”

  • mediadoubt

    Admittedly, Clinton came out of nowhere in 1992 — eventually pulling away from a pack of uninspiring candidates. Republicans must be hoping for something like that, but it’s not going to happen with anyone who was on the stage the other night.

    It’s a sign of significant disarray that there aren’t yet at least three or four serious, declared candidates with a ghost of a chance of beating Obama. If the ‘Licans are hoping for a white night, he or she should be saddling that horse Real.Soon.Now.

  • Barack Must Go

    mediadoubt said:
    Admittedly, Clinton came out of nowhere in 1992 — eventually pulling away from a pack of uninspiring candidates. Republicans must be hoping for something like that, but it’s not going to happen with anyone who was on the stage the other night.

    It’s a sign of significant disarray that there aren’t yet at least three or four serious, declared candidates with a ghost of a chance of beating Obama. If the ‘Licans are hoping for a white night, he or she should be saddling that horse Real.Soon.Now.

    Like getting advice from a pickle. A tiny gerkin at that….

  • CAconservative

    Slim pickings in the GOP? The Liberals have got “Alfred E.Newman” in the White House and their putting down the GOP? Obimbo’s got another year and a half to continue his hunt for the bottom. In a short, two and half years this socialist clown has managed to divide America on everything from economics to race, and culture. The Liberals shiny-knight turns out to be nothing more than a court jester.

  • joe7

    Some people just don’t care to have people experienced in governance and prefer good campaigners and good candidates over good leaders. Seems to be where O’Donnell and his like minded slogan junkies stand.

    Its sad that we have reached a time in this country where the worth of a candidate is not in being established in the field and an experienced leader; but based on their celebrity appeal and cult of personality. We care more about catch phrases than substance. Thanks for personifying it O’Donnell and hack media

  • Snidely

    Amazing that this article missed the most electable candidate on the dais – if I read what the people want correctly – Gary Johnson completely. The guy is socially moderate, fiscally conservative, with experience as a 2-term governor of New Mexico. Isn’t this what the Tea Party is supposed to want?

  • X-3

    felixw said:
    Lesson: the liberal media covers the candidates they want to run against. Is strangely silent about the candidates it can’t turn into the punchline for jokes. But this isn’t journalism. It’s wishful thinking.

    You are correct, and the lesson I offer you is how Duncan Hunter (and to a great degree, Tom Tancredo) were snubbed by the media in 2008.

  • X-3

    Snidely said:
    Amazing that this article missed the most electable candidate on the dais

    Unfortunately, “electability” is what the Republican heirarchy thought they saw in McCain–and besides, it was “his turn,” just like it was Bob Dole’s “turn” a few years ago.

    I don’t know what other conservatives (or those who call themselves “conservatives”) want, but among the established Republicans, I haven’t seen what I want yet:

    1. Less government, in general; get rid of those departments, bureaus, agencies, and offices that have failed in their mission (e.g. Department of Energy, Department of Education, Health and Human Services).

    2. Stop wasting money; conduct an audit of ALL departments, bureaus, agencies, and offices, and give them only enough money to do their jobs.

    3. Deregulate this country to encourage all those industries who have fled to foreign shores to return here and build the things that Americans need in America.

    4. Stop being the “Mother Teresa” to the rest of the world.

    5. Get rid of the IRS and implement a flat tax. (Herman Cain was the ONLY one in the subject debate who had enough nerve to say this.

    6. Make the US energy independent; drill here, drill now, and use Americans (not Petrobras) to drill in American waters and employ American workers to do the drilling. Next, increase the US strategic reserve to a level ten times what it currently is, which will enable the US to leverage the price of foreign oil. While they’re at it, our government must also soften some of the EPA standards–especially e.g. those that were imposed in 1975, that makes it impossible to build a new–and more efficient–oil refinery even by today’s technical limitations.

    7. Herman Cain touched on this but he didn’t go far enough; secure our borders, NOW! Round up every last criminal alien infesting our country and send them back to their own country in cattle cars (which is a better mode of transportation than they used in getting here.)

    I will support ANY candidate of ANY party who agrees to do these things.

  • mediadoubt

    X-3 said:
    Unfortunately, “electability” is what the Republican heirarchy thought they saw in McCain–and besides, it was “his turn,” just like it was Bob Dole’s “turn” a few years ago.

    I don’t know what other conservatives (or those who call themselves “conservatives”) want, but among the established Republicans, I haven’t seen what I want yet:

    1. Less government, in general

    . . . etc., etc., etc. . . .

    I will support ANY candidate of ANY party who agrees to do these things.

    Dream on.

    1. Department decapitation. That’ll work. Eliminate regulatory and governance agencies essential to the health, education, and stockpile stewardship of the country. But hey! You’d save one tenth of one percent, so knock yourself out.

    2. Department audit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, all departments are audited continuously. You would change this by introducing political criteria into the audit process. That’s going to work. But hey! You’d save one tenth of one percent, so knock yourself out.

    3. Deregulation hell. I’ve lived in industrial countries that have “deregulated.” They are hellish. Polluted to the point of unlivability, financial systems left to the most rapacious with the most muscle, pay-to-play for every service government shakedown artists can insert themselves into. Despite recent supreme court rulings, corporations are not human beings and don’t behave as such. Amoral and unrestrained. Unregulated, they will suck you dry.

    4. Mother Teresa-ing costs us about as much as the Army spends on spot remover over a three-day period. But hey! You’d save one hundredth of one percent, so knock yourself out.

    5. Flat earth tax. Yeah, great. Taxes aren’t regressive enough, and the richie riches don’t get enough of a break — let’s tip the table more their way. And without the IRS, they wouldn’t even pay the pittance due. Madness.

    6. Energy independence through environmental devastation. We can’t drill outselves out of energy dependence. There isn’t that much oil in US territory. Facts are stubborn things. We can make things better by aggressive conservation efforts and by applying alternative fuels and energy sources to automobile travel, but “drill, baby, drill” is a cartoon fantasy. Strategic Reserve? Sure. Why not. Won’t do any good, would cost billion and billions of dollars (managed by what agency, since you’ve shut them down?), but knock yourself out.

    EPA standards preventing refinery construction? Another story from your children’s book of conservative fables. I know a little about refineries, since my company builds the suckers. They aren’t impossible under current regulation, and without those regulations would be poisoning the country and the planet as they were prior to the 1975 laws. You got 5 billion? I’ll build you a frakkin’ refinery (pun intended).

    7. Secure the borders and ship undocumented laborers home? Yeah right. You going to jail the millions of employers? You going to protect your immigation agents from the wrath of those employers as you shut down their farms and orchards? You going to explain food costs doubling? And for that matter, you going to build a 30-foot high fence around the country? That’ll work. Much better to approach immigration issues from a standpoint of reality.

    So no, you’re not going to find a candidate who will do those things. And if you find a candidate who promises to to them — they’ll be lying.

  • mediadoubt

    CAconservative said:
    Slim pickings in the GOP? The Liberals have got “Alfred E.Newman” in the White House and their putting down the GOP? Obimbo’s got another year and a half to continue his hunt for the bottom. In a short, two and half years this socialist clown has managed to divide America on everything from economics to race, and culture. The Liberals shiny-knight turns out to be nothing more than a court jester.

    Grownups who don’t use terms like “Obimbo” and “Alfred E. Newman” agree — the ‘Lican field is long on no-hopers, has a handful of could-runs-but-won’t-win-fanatics’-primaries, and offers a scattering of total nuts. I’m not sure what you’d get by picking over that field except, perhaps, belly-button lint.

    The division you speak of is wingnutjobs from the rest of us, a separation sensible people welcome — you don’t want the certifiable fringe making policy.

  • CAconservative

    mediadoubt:

    We have a certifiable-fringe sitting in the White House now! A legitimate malignant narcissist who believes he, and he alone has all the answers, no matter what you think, or how much you protest. Almost daily, he forces his abject will on this country. He is systematically undermining this countries principals. He insults our allies, and coddles our enemy’s. If Obimbo plan is to manufacture a crisis in order to give him the justification to move us toward socialism, he’s doing a damned fine job!
    Grownups don’t get duped by empty slogans and euphemisms, do they? They actually listen to, and read what that candidates platform is. Obimbo told you upfront he was going to fundamentally change America. Were you not listening? Did he openly tell you that he was going to take from those that do, and give it to those that don’t no matter how much you disagree? Bimbo, is a vulgar term defining someone who is a user, who will do almost anything to attain their personal goals as long as someone else is paying for it. What part of that applies to Obimbo?
    We are early into the election cycle. This time around the GOP will not be dictating by themselves. The Tea-Party is going to be involved and we are not going to allow the dismal repeat of 2008. This time around Obimbo will be met head on, and his own pathetically dismal record as president will be all we need to rid ourselves of this incompetent fool.

  • X-3

    mediadoubt said:
    Dream on.

    You’re the one who needs to wake up. Our government has tried it your way for the past hundred years. Where has that gotten us?

    1. I’m not talking about decapitating the entities whose mission is not essential or the ones that are failing in their mission–I’m talking about closing their doors. Take the Department of Energy, for instance, they have NEVER achieved or even made progress in their stated goals, yet they get $25 BILLION of our money every year. That’s known as throwing good money after bad and that is a stupid thing to do.

    2. On audits, you’re speaking of the “internal” variety. Ask the Captain of the Titanic how things were going, then look at what happened. President Bush had private consulting firms doing audits and they saved the taxpayers zillions of dollars but the backlash from the liberal idiots (especially Pat Leahy) was such that they were toned down.

    3. If you think overregulation is so good, why don’t you go out and buy yourself a TV made in the USA? Libs always cite pollution as a reason to avoid deregulation but meanwhile all our high tech jobs go elsewhere.

    4. As it currently stands, our tax code is full of loopholes installed to help political cronies. If everyone has to pay an equal amount, there are no loopholes. I guess either some of your cronies are getting rich on those loopholes, or you would have to pay taxes out of your welfare check, and that’s why you want to punish the achievers and reward the parasites.

    When was the last new refinery built in the US? I’m not talking about frac tanks and centrifuges. As a retired petroleum geologist, I can tell you there is lots of untapped fields in the US, but what I was talking about is upping the strategic reserves of refined oil. I suppose you’re on board with -0bama, in allowing petrobras to drill in US waters and our buying the oil they steal from us?

    7. I suppose you are employing the CRIMINAL ALIENS I’m talking about. You want the cheap labor and you’re willing to let your fellow Americans (if you are an American) starve. Meanwhile MS-13 is dealing drugs and committing crimes in your city’s streets and you’re enjoying paying for the welfare of their babies.

    Your way hasn’t worked and it will NOT work. It’s time to give a shot at a fiscally responsible idea for a change before the US ends up as another third-world shithole.

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