Free Republic

Chris Christie might have millions of admirers across the country, people who love the Jersey governor's blunt style. But among the Republican media and political elites who populate Morning Joe, Christie's a no-hoper. That's what Joe Scarborough divulged on today's Morning Joe. Said Scarborough: "off the air in Republican circles . . . nobody thinks Christie can win." View the video here.

Alison Lundergan Grimes (D), who is trying to unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) this fall, appeared before the Louisville Courier-Journal editorial board on Thursday to make her pitch for their endorsement. The life-long Democrat, whose father represented Kentucky for the party in the state House and who herself has been on the ballot in the state on the Democratic ticket, was asked a simple question. Did she vote for President Obama in 2008 and 2012? And she didn't answer. Repeatedly......... .... there was no reason to do this. Grimes is fairly new on the national scene, but she's...

Remember when dissent was patriotic? When people like Hillary Clinton screeched that "we have a right to disagree with any administration?" Forget about it. That's so, like, 2003. You know, when George W. Bush was President. Things are different today. Now, criticizing a sitting president is wrong. Very wrong. Just ask Joe Scarborough, who on today's Morning Joe accused Leon Panetta of a "lack of character" for criticizing President Obama in his book and public appearances. View the video here.

Whatever liberal leanings he might have, sometimes the political animal in Chuck Todd just can't contain itself. Take today's Morning Joe, where Todd host absolutely annihilated Alison Lundergan Grimes, Dem candidate for senator from Kentucky, for her refusal to say whether she voted for Barack Obama for president. Todd ripped Grimes as "ridiculous," then twice declared that she had "disqualified herself." Ouch! Even Mika Brzezinski was embarrassed by Grimes' cringe-worthy performance, as you'll see in the screengrab. View the video here.

Elite Dems across America might be scuttling away from Barack Obama. But the president can count on at least one man to stand by his side: MSNBC's Thomas Roberts. On today's Morning Joe, Roberts accused Leon Panetta of criticizing President Obama for base motives: "getting paid" off his book, and currying close ties with Hillary Clinton. Roberts lame line of attack came after Joe Scarborough and Mark Halperin [citing Ron Fournier] said Panetta's criticism of Obama echoes what elite Dems from Washington to Hollywood are saying in private—but are afraid to express in public. View the video here.

Early in today's Morning Joe, teasing Chris Matthews' upcoming appearance, Mika Brzezinski admonished "you two be nice now." They weren't. Yet again, the two MSNBC hosts came to verbal blows. The detonator wasn't political differences. Instead, the two MSNBC hosts squabbled over personal supremacy like a pair of eighth-grade boys in the schoolyard. Matthews was on a riff, offering a extended rundown of his predictions on the various Senate races. He didn't want to stop when Scarborough sought to interrupt. "Just a minute, Joe. Just a minute," insisted the Hardball host. Shot back Scarborough: "no, no. It's my show. I'm...

Could the "Islamic" in "Islamic State" be a clue? Not for John Kerry. Appearing on today's Morning Joe, our clueless Secretary of State insisted that what drives ISIS is a "radical, extremist, cultish" philosophy, but not--perish the thought!--a "religious attitude." Kerry was of course echoing the analysis of that noted theologian, Barack Obama, who two weeks ago declared that ISIS is "not Islamic." In fairness, Presidents George W. Bush and Clinton have expressed similar sentiments. For a thorough debunking of the ISIS Islam-deniers, see here. View the video here.

Ever since the Ray Rice elevator video went public, Morning Joe has been in a state of sustained moral outrage over the NFL's mishandling of the issue of domestic violence. All well and good. But things turned testy this morning when a New York Times reporter turned the tables on Joe and Mika. When Mika Brzezinski suggested that sponsors should boycott the NFL, Alan Schwarz asked if Joe and Mika should march into the office of the NBC Chairman and demand that the network stop supporting the NFL by broadcasting its Sunday night games. After first jokingly suggesting that the...

"Are you an American who's tired of recent-immigrant cab drivers who can't find their way from Grand Central Station to the Empire State Building? Welcome to Ameri-Rides, the new taxi service for Americans only that guarantees you a native-born American driver!" -- apocryphal ad. How do you think that concept would go over on Morning Joe or anywhere else in the MSM? But when Morning Joe today discussed SheRides, a new taxi service that hires only women drivers and accepts only women passengers, all the panel members—Mika, Joe and Willie—dug the idea. The notion is that some women riders feel...

Alexander the Great. Stonewall Jackson. George S. Patton. To this list of some of history's greatest military strategists, a new name must be added: that of Barack Obama. That is, if you agree with Joe Scarborough's take on President Obama's statement at yesterday's press conference that "we don't have a strategy yet" regarding possible attacks on ISIS in Syria. According to Scarborough, speaking on today's Morning Joe, President Obama's "no strategy" statement was "straight out of The Art of War where when you were weak, you make your enemies think you were strong. When you were strong, you make your...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)There are 65 prominent people who might run for president in 2016. The Democratic and Republican fields contrast sharply. Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner, while there is no front-runner on the Republican side. Twenty-three Democrats have been mentioned as a candidate or are eyeing a bid, according to an analysis by The Hill. The GOP side has 42. Most of the people on this list won’t run, and some have adamantly claimed that they’re not interested. But many politicians have changed their minds on seeking the White House. Before mounting his 2008 bid, then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he...

Like what? Seriously, Mika Brzezinski, when you claim as you did on today's Morning Joe that Barack Obama has done "great things" on race, precisely what do you have in mind? H/t NB reader Ray R. Was it choosing to make the racist Reverend Wright his personal pastor? Appointing Eric Holder as Attorney Genera? Accusing the Cambridge police of acting "stupidly" in the arrest of a black man? Complaining about Americans who dislike him because they don't like the idea of a black president? Inviting Al Sharpton to the White House? Really, Mika, we want to know. View the video...

Inevitability, my eye. If Republicans can't defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016 [assuming she gets there], they should be brought up on charges of political malfeasance. So lacking is Hillary in the most basic of personal political prerequisites that even Morning Joe called her "canned" and cringeworthy. The panel was commenting on an excruciating clip of Clinton prior to her hug-it-out dinner with President Obama last night. Watch it if you dare, but the panel's point was a larger one--that there is something about Clinton's public persona as to be seriously off-putting. View the video here.

President Obama is more "forceful" and "stubborn" about playing golf than he is about pushing through his policy agenda. That was Dana Milbank's take on today's Morning Joe. As Joe Scarborough described it, earlier this week the normally left-leaning Milbank enjoyed a "12-minute honeymoon" with conservatives after his Washington Post column called Obama's decision to go golfing while the world burned an example of "tone deafness" if not outright "stupid stuff." Milbank double downed on the notion today with his suggestion that the president cares more about making it to the first tee than enacting his policy positions. Milbank seemed...

There are days when Mika Brzezinski will surprise you. Take Morning Joe today, and Brzezinski's comments on the news that ESPN had suspended Stephen A. Smith for a week for his comments about women "provoking" domestic violence. Said Mika: "I think it's too bad we can't have a conversation without people exploding, because I think he was trying to make a point. It might have been inartful but there was a point to what he was saying that is absolutely valid and has value." Surprising, no? View the video here.

Latest dispatch from the Department of Too Much Information: Thomas Roberts wants you to know that if diagnosed with low-T, he would take a testosterone supplement "without hesitation." More surprising is Roberts' reckless attitude. Asked whether testosterone's possible health risks would dissuade him from taking the hormone, Roberts replied: "No. I want to live today, I will borrow from tomorrow." Roberts' startling admission came during today's Morning Joe segment on Time's current cover story, "Manopause," which looks into the testosterone-supplement boom and its associated dangers. View the video here.

MSNBC’s Mika Brzezinski is having a tough Wednesday. After interviewing Israel’s Ambassador to the United States Ron Dermer, Brzezinski said “keep it right here on Morning Jew.” See video at link...............

The man who suggested that the US shoot down Israeli airplanes is at it again. Surveying the Israeli/Hamas conflict, Zbigniew Brzezinski couldn't summon up one word of condemnation for Hamas' intentional targeting of Israeli civilians with thousands of rockets and mortars. Instead, Jimmy Carter's national security adviser had harsh words for only one person: Benjamin Netanyahu. Appearing on today's Morning Joe, Brzezinski said he didn't include Netanyahu in the category of leaders man enough to negotiate, accusing the Israeli PM of having "scuttled" peace efforts--again without a word of criticism for Hamas. Zbigniew ended his anti-Israel tirade by decrying that...

Hobby Lobby's objection on religious grounds to paying for abortion-causing contraceptives for its employees reminds Eugene Robinson of segregationists who cited the Bible in support of their views. In his great magnimity, Robinson allowed that the Hobby Lobby case "is perhaps a bit different." But if the WaPo columnist didn't think the segregation analogy was relevant, he presumably wouldn't have cited it in the first place on today's Morning Joe. There was also a point of light on the show. Donny Deutsch, after announcing that he was "far from a conservative," nevertheless went on to make the explicitly free-market argument...

According to most of the Morning Joe panel on Monday, the media is not doing its job covering the IRS scandal. As Mark Halperin opined, "I think with a different administration, one that was a Republican administration, this story would be a national obsession, and, instead, it's getting coverage here and a few other places. But it deserves a lot more questions."