Halperin: I’m Sorry the President is a Dick
So I’m not even through my first cup of coffee when I read that Mark Halperin called President Obama a dick on national TV. Well — on MSNBC, which is pretty much the same thing. Politico is calling it a “gaffe,” but let’s look at the context. Mediaite has the rough transcript:
oe Scarborough: Mark Halperin, What was the president’s strategy? We are coming up on a deadline and the president decided to please his base, push back against the Republicans.I guess the question is, we know a deal has to be done. Is this showmanship? A lot of times you go up there and both sides and they act tough so their base will be appeased, then they quietly work the deal behind the scenes.
Mark Halperin: Are we on the seven second delay?
Mika Brzezinski: Lordy.
Halperin: I wanted to characterize how the president behaved.
Scarborough: We have it. We can use it. Go for it. Let’s see what happens.
Brzezinski: We’re behind you, you fall down and we catch you.
Halperin: I thought he was a dick yesterday.
That was no slip of the tongue. Halperin knew exactly what he was going say, so much so that he even first asked his host if the censor had the traditional seven second delay to work with. It wasn’t even a “Kinsley gaffe,” defined by Mike Kinsley as “when someone in Washington speaks the truth by accident.”
Nope.
Halperin thought the President had been a dick. Halperin said he thought the President had been a dick. And I watched that press conference yesterday, and the President was well and truly a dick. That’s no gaffe, and I’m sorry Halperin felt the need to apologize for speaking the truth.
But that’s been SOP in Washington for decades now.
And I’m sure the dozens and dozens of viewers who saw this live are appropriately miffed at the lack of decorum….
the truth is always a defense.
So was the guy with his finger on the “bleep” button asleep, does “the D word” not meet the requirements of “bleep,” or is there maybe a creeping sense, even at MSNBC, that this assessment is correct? Maybe, a la the recently-revised John Lennon, the censor is a closet conservative.
You really wonder how much heavy lifting the press is willing to do for so little reward. Maybe Obama’s Atlas is about to shrug.
I don’t think they have a guy with a bleep button. When Scarborough said go for it he either didn’t think Halperin would say something needing a bleep or he thought they had a delay when they didn’t. At any rate score one for truth.
Halperin must have been talking about his looks. As far as his perceptions go – these are just two of his on the money prognostications:
1. “Watch out. Newt is the real deal.”
2. “The N.Y.C. mosque is a no-go.”
The only reason anybody would have him on must be to make the viewing audience be amused by his stupidity. And, from a woman’s pov – he’s a real creep. Maybe, that’s why he seems so bitter. He gives off a similar vibe as Anthony Weiner.
Even though the MSM has been in the tank for Obama, at some point, reality dictates that they will ultimately cover their own asses.