Atrios names Halperin his #4 Runner-Up for Wanker of the Decade. Inexplicably, Atrios fails to mention this episode, in which Halperin insisted that McCain not knowing how many houses he had during the 2008 election was good news for McCain.
You really have to appreciate his logic. McCain can’t answer a reporters question, so therefore AYERS! It’s really Halperin’s crowning achievement.
You have to appreciate how stupid something is for Will, McCain, and George Steph to mock it.
BGinCHI
Halperin takes every gold in the Sanctimonious Olympics competitions.
What an entitled, smug SOB.
Village Idiot Team Captain.
r€nato
Hey John, cut the Great Powder Blue Satan some slack. There’s only so much wankery that can fit in a blog post.
Halperin’s wankery, it contains multitudes.
Hal
Priceless.
Carnacki
Halperine being named No. 4 Wanker is good news for John McCain
Violet
When Stephanopolous says he can’t follow Halperin’s argument, you know Halperin is way off message.
r€nato
Who will be #1? I think it’s going to be Fried Man.
kindness
@Carnacki: Halperine being named No. 4 Wanker is good news for
John McCainRomney. fifyMarc
The truly amazing thing about that video is that amidst all that Halperin wankery, Cokie Roberts still manages to steal the show in the final seconds. “It’s going to be a 50/50 election”–after Iraq, Katrina, Schiavo, Goldman Sachs. Sure. Sure it was.
Reminds me of how yesterday I saw John King working his magic electoral map, trying so hard to create a horse race by giving all sorts of states to Romney “just for the sake of argument.” Sure, New Mexico is going to go for Romney but Michigan will be a swing state. Sure they well.
schrodinger's cat
Making wankers of the decade list is too easy, with the Village of idiots that is our MSM. I bet making a list of non-wanker punditubbies employed by major news media outlets will be much more difficult.
RP
That video perfectly captures everything that’s wrong with the DC media in under three minutes. The problem isn’t that Halperin is a moron (although he is), it’s that he was so desperate to “win the day” by coming up with a clever, counterintutive take on the news that he came up with the most absurd and idiotic theory in the history of journalism. There’s no effort to find truth — just a sad attempt to get attention.
Violet
@Marc:
I detest Cokie Roberts. I wish someone would force her to live on minimum wage in an area where the majority of the population isn’t white. After a year of that I might be interested in what she has to say.
c u n d gulag
SO MANY WANKERS – so little bandwidth!
Tom Q
@Marc: Sadly, if you go to Zandar’s thread a few below, you find people in comments here making the same argument for this year. In Village World, it’s always going to be a toss-up election (I remember Tim Russert telling us in early Fall ’96 “it’s just going to get closer and closer”), and Eeyore Democrats are always willing to believe that spin.
amk
Frankly, I don’t see the ulitlity of any of these pundtwits. What exactly they bring to the table for them to be paid five figure sums ?
schrodinger's cat
@r€nato: I nominate Bobo, totebaggers’ favorite conservative.
schrodinger's cat
@amk: How is Chennai tonight? BTW father-in-law if off all drugs now, recovering slowly, still in the hospital though. Hubcat will be home on Friday.
+Does a Happy Dance+
amk
@schrodinger’s cat: How is your fil doing ?
GregB
Mark Halperin=Pundick.
danielx
@amk:
Five figure sums; whaddya talking about? If there’s any of these twits making less than six figures – hell, less than $150k – I’d be very surprised.
But Helperin is way up there, it’s true. Not many could come up with a seven word statement that has become a mocking byword for completely obtuse pundit assholery. It ranks right up there with the Friedman unit.
All together now…
This is good news for John McCain!
Marc
@Tom Q: I take nothing for granted, and there’s nothing wrong with gearing up for a fight. In a post-Citizens United world, we’ll have to fight for every vote.
But losing New Mexico to the party of Latino-bashing? Michigan to the guy who wanted to let the auto industry die? Uh-uh. We start with a higher electoral floor than Romney and we have a lot more paths to victory than he does. What we don’t have is unlimited corporate money and a media that’s rooting for us. We’ll still have to work for this one.
Quincy
@Marc: Chicago Tribune had a short piece today about the election coming down to Nevada, Colorado, Virginia and Ohio. They acknowledged that polls had Obama up 3-7% in Florida, but essentially admitted that to support their BS premise they were giving Florida to Romney because “some strategists” believe that’s what will ultimately happen. Also, Iowa, New Hampshire and North Carolina. I think its safe to expect 7 months of this.
Cris (without an H)
Though let’s note that this round table wankfest was three days before McCain announced his VP choice.
WereBear
So many idiocies, so little space.
Clime Acts
Lord god, all these closeted, hateful old gay queens in media working out their issues on the nation as a whole embarrass me as a gay man.
I apologize on Halperin’s behalf, basically for his existence.
Oh, I forgot to apologize for the existence of Ms. Stephanopolous, also too.
amk
@schrodinger’s cat: LOL. Talk about Indian mind meld. Glad to know he is doing good and you get to do your happy dance.
Had a small tremor problem today afternoon for about 10 minutes. Scared the bejusus out of my daughter. Otherwise, fine.
amk
@danielx: My bad. Math challenged.
Mnemosyne
@schrodinger’s cat:
Yay! My FIL is doing better, too — turns out that having a 103 degree fever can cause things like confusion and muscle weakness, and once you get the fever down, the patient does much better. Who knew?
He also started doing much better once he got to his preferred hospital with his own doctor and nurse practitioner. And I have to admit, I am not at all surprised that he’s happier with the care he gets at the university-affiliated nonprofit that he was at the for-profit hospital the ambulance took him to. But that may be my own prejudices speaking.
EIGRP
Why are you hating on Marky Mark (Wahlberg)? Did he become a Republican?
don
Hard to believe that he wrote some pretty good novels. Or maybe that explains his ability to create such wankerism.
Scott de B.
@don:
Are you confusing him with Mark Helprin?
Rafer Janders
@Violet:
I can never think of Cokie Roberts without remembering this inspired piece of hackery, when Obama was going to visit his grandmother during the 2008 election. The “I know Hawaii is a state” is what really seals it for me:
ROBERTS: Yeah, that he has certainly come nowhere near closing the deal. As we’ve talked about before, in this year that should be such a Democratic year given all the other indices, he is tied in the polls and stage-sided in the polls and going off this week to a vacation in Hawaii —
VICTORIA CLARKE (former Pentagon spokeswoman): Right.
ROBERTS: — does not make any sense whatsoever. I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii and I know Hawaii is a state, but it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place. He should be in Myrtle Beach, and, you know, if he’s going to take a vacation at this time.
CLARKE: Well, and —
ROBERTS: And I just think that, you know, this is not the time to do that.
Tom Q
@Scott de B.: Yes — it was, though, Helprin who was the Dole speechwriter.
Richard
Halperin is an excellent example of what was going on those days, with reporters and pundits pretty much being the leashed monkeys to Karl Rove’s organ grinder.
Tom Q
@Marc: Of course fight to the end, but I think Obama, despite Villager wisdom, has the profile of an easily re-elected president — charmismatic incumbent who achieves significant domestic and foreign successes and has the economy growing during the election year, facing a lackluster opponent. That was the profile Reagan had in 1984, and I didn’t kid myself (as some of my friends did) that the Dems had a chance back then, so I’m consistent about this. I certainly grant the possibility of vast cash differentials (to deal with Citizens United) to alter the outcomes of down-ballot races, but I think the presidential race is pretty much decided on fundamentals that no amount of ads can alter.
Back in the late 80s, pundits spoke of the GOP having an electoral lock on the presidency — so many states were solid Pub that Dems had to thread the needle to triumph. They seem not to want to note that things have swung around completely. Dems now have an enormous number of electoral votes locked down, and even a tiny popular margin can lead to well over 300-320 EVs. GOPer, on the other hand, need to keep OH/FL/VA/NC/CO all on their side to even squeak by, as Bush did twice (once with a Supreme assist).
Marc
@Tom Q: Yeah, I agree–and if it weren’t for Citizens United, Republican insanity, and a media desperate to make it a horse race, I would even say Obama was headed for a 1984-style romp. But given the above I’m not looking to rest on my laurels.
ETA: And of course, there’s the House and Senate races to consider.
schrodinger's cat
@amk: What tremor? That does not sound good. Take care of yourself.
amk
@schrodinger’s cat: After effects of Indonesian Aceh quake today. Thankfully no damages in both places.
Catsy
It’ll be interesting to see who 1 through 3 are, because Halperin would’ve had my vote for the biggest wanker in punditry. There isn’t a shred of integrity or honest analysis in anything he says, and he is wrong about literally everything. The fact that he has any influence or credibility at all is a searing indictment of the state of political punditry in this country.
schrodinger's cat
@amk: Oh ok, I thought you had some health related issues. Good to know that everything is fine.
AdamK
Perhaps this wasn’t included as wankery because it so obviously crossed the line into asshattery.
AfGuyReturns
@schrodinger’s cat: He made it harder for himself – excluded DEAD candidates.
Some of THOSE (hello, Breitbart!) should have been lifetime achievement recipients.