Media Fluffing Of 2016 Republican Prospects Is In Full Swing

The 2016 Presidential election may be 2 years away, but that won't stop Republican hacks in the media and "non-partisan" weasels from catapulting bullshit into the public arena.  We'd like to share two examples that floated to the top of the bowl in just the last 24 hours.

Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog gives us an example of hack (and Republican legacy hire) Mark Halperin's starry-eyed fluffing of Jeb "The Bush Whose IQ May Be Higher Than A Shrub" Bush:

It's clear that Halperin wants to believe that Jeb will run. Breathlessly, he explains what a formidable general-election candidate Jeb would be in a race against Hillary Clinton:

Finally, the most macro significant question for any Republican putting him or herself forward to beat Clinton is this: what states can you win that Romney lost? For Bush, the easy answer includes Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Iowa, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Virginia. If he runs a strong campaign, Bush could perhaps compete in California and possibly New Jersey and Michigan.

No, that's nuts.

Steve goes on to perform a simple act of journalism (i.e., he checks the facts) that shows Clinton kicking Jebbie's ass in States where they've polled the match-up.  Verdict:  Halperin wins, hacks down.

Charles P. Pierce on Bush hack and "No Labels" twit Mark McKinnon's piece in Politic-ho (first McKinnon's chin stroker on "competence", then Charlie's rejoinder):

(McKinnon) It also means 2016 could become a referendum on Obama's competence. Democrats leave him out of the discussion, but Republican strategists are quick to tie the general theme to him, without any prompting. Even though some of the most recent incidents are clearly beyond his control - presidents can't personally oversee hospital workers in Dallas, for example - he has plenty of stumbles that did happen on his watch, like the Veterans Administration scandal and the sputtering launch of Obamacare last year. And Republicans believe the public is worried enough about the government's general track record that they'll be ready for a candidate who's just a good manager. 

(Charlie) At this point, anyone who is still defining the Affordable Care Act by its "sputtering launch" is just being a hack. But the rest of this swill is also simply rote memorization of the narrative that the Republicans want to sell, and I do mean sell, to a midterm electorate scared stupid by six years of the deliberate disinformation. The people selling that narrative are the people who purposely wrecked the government's "track record" in unprecedented fashion, and not simply to demolish the agenda of a Democratic president, but also because they are the creatures of a philosophy and of a self-contained political universe in which government is not supposed to work, at least not for the general good, anyway. So, now, having thrown a carload of spanners into the works, the same people point out that the mechanism was built to fail. It's a neat trick, and it almost always works.  (our emphasis)

So, every time you hear the words "competence" in the same sentence as "Republican,"  you can take it as a joke.  "Vandals" and "Republicans," now that's a different matter.

BONUS:  Here's Digby on what a worthless hack Halperin is.

Anyone Buying This?

Weekly Standard and Fux News prick Fred "Barney" Barnes apparently has been trying to push the meme that, in his dealings with Congressional Rethugs, President Obama is the one that's been uncompromising. (This, of course, has a provenance wider than Barney -- in fact, it's pretty standard Rethug talking point stuff). Washington Monthly decided to call Barney out on it, though, with satisfying results.

Barney used to be a "journalist," but I guess the wingnut welfare provided him as a full-time Rethug hack was too good a deal to pass up.

(Images: Uncanny resemblance? You be the judge!)

Personas Non Grata

We said it yesterday, but it bears repeating and repeating: For our two cents, the following die-hard, Clinton- over- party- over- country hacks should not be allowed anywhere near the Obama campaign once the Magical Inevitable Hillary Machine evaporates: Harold "Icky" Ickes (a man the Rude Pundit says is "desperately in need of a punch in the nuts"), Terry "Even Ickier" McAuliffe, Lanny "Fanny" Davis, and Howard Wolfson (to whom no opprobrium can adequately do justice). Nothing this group of high-profile Clinton enablers could bring to the table would be worth the price to be paid in honor and truth-telling. For these Four Horses Asses of the Apocalypse are fabricators and weasels of the lowest category, and to bring them into the Obama campaign would just as surely tarnish it as would the addition of Hillary herself on the ticket (not gonna happen).

Meanwhile, more rational Clinton backers, like national co-chair and former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack are saying she should call it quits after tomorrow's primaries.