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Good ol' Mike Barnicle dutifully carried Dem water this morning, maintaining a straight face while calling Hillary Clinton a "strong" candidate. But also on the Morning Joe set was Nicolle Wallace, who reported that "Democrats think she's terrible. I hope [Biden] doesn't run, because he's better than her." For good measure, Mark Halperin opined that Biden might want to wait until February, on the theory that if Bernie Sanders beats Hillary in Iowa or New Hampshire, "there'll be panic," or as Wallace put it, "pandemonium." View the video here.

MIKE BARNICLE: ..... So that means that if I lived in Iowa, I would want to know where each of those members of that 53% (Note: Trump, Carson, Cruz and Fiorina combined) lived, and I would want to live as far away from them as possible, because there is something seriously wrong with the Republican party if those people combined have a majority of the voters.

When it comes to conservatives, liberal media types are lately really letting their snobbery show. Last week, as we reported here, John Fugelsang referred to conservatives as "rubes" who Fox News worked to keep in its "paddock." Today, it was Mike Barnicle's turn to display his disdain. Guest-hosting on With All Due Respect, Barnicle declared "I would want to live as far away as possible" from the 53% of Iowa Republican voters who favor anti-establishment candidates Trump, Carson, Fiorina and Cruz. View the video here.

85 On Wednesday, MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” co-host Mika Brzezinski said that “Just like Fox” Univision and Fusion anchor Jorge Ramos was lecturing GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, not asking him questions. After fellow co-host former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough stated, “he gave a lecture, he wasn’t asking a question. And i don’t know what politician would have been — actually I wouldn’t have been that patient with him. I would have said, ‘You got a question?'” Brzezinski added, “Just like Fox, the debate.” Panelist Mike Barnicle added that Ramos was engaging in a “debate” with Trump, not a Q&A. Scarborough...

Questions for Mike Barnicle: does the phrase "suicide bomber" ring a bell? How about "martyrdom" in the name of Allah? On today's Morning Joe, Barnicle's argument in favor of the Iran deal was that to oppose it, one would "have to believe Iran is suicidal." The former Boston Globe columnist reasoned that if Iran dropped an atomic bomb on Tel Aviv, "Tehran would be a combination of glass and sand and cement within 15 minutes." View the video here.

Talk about killing the messenger . . . Mike Barnicle has blamed the New York Post for the fact that New York City has become less safe under Mayor Bill de Blasio. On today's Morning Joe, Barnicle--holding up the front page of today's Post--whined that part of the problem is "the way crime is now covered in this city--especially in this paper, okay? If someone is shot in Times Square, or a guy with a hatchet in midtown is attacking people, it's on the front page." Boo-hoo. The fault, dear Barnicle, is not in the Post, but in de Blasio,...

How bad are things getting for Hillary when a popular argument among her defenders is that there was no corruption because Bill cheated the people who thought they were bribing her? Last week, we reported on Hillary fan Dorian Warren suggesting that Bill was "running serious game on many of these countries saying oh, I'll talk to my wife, give me the check, and then never mentioning [it.]" On today's Morning Joe, Mike Barnicle made that same argument, claiming there was no quid pro quo because knowing Bill, he took the money saying "yeah, sure, I'll call him for you,...

For Iran, Mike? On today's Morning Joe, reliable Obama fan Mike Barnicle managed to keep a straight face while lauding the Iran deal as an "extraordinary feat." He did so despite poll numbers displayed showing that a huge majority of Americans don't think the ayatollahs will keep their promises. Let's see: sanctions lifted while centrifuges keep spinning and nuclear scientists beaver away in hardened, bomb-resistant facilities. Extraordinary, yeah. View the video here.

There are still 10 months to go in 2015, but Mike Barnicle is a strong frontrunner for Clumsiest Comment of the Year. In a Morning Joe segment today on ISIS outrages, and shortly after mentioning the atrocity in which ISIS burned dozens of people to death in Iraq, Barnicle said that the complexity of dealing with ISIS makes "you want to set your hair on fire." View the video here.

Joe Scarborough opened today's Morning Joe with a protracted and impassioned plea for America—and in particular President Obama—to call out radical Islam by name. Mika Brzezinski was dubious, citing unspecified "difficult times" in the past when presidents used the wrong language. But taking Mika's misgivings a giant step further, Mike Barnicle flatly declared that we can't call radical Islam by name because "we're the Crusaders." View the video here.

Guess when you're as brilliant as Mike Barnicle, it's OK to ridicule others for their supposed lack of smarts. Today's Morning Joe was teasing an upcoming segment about a tough question that reporter Kasie Hunt had posed to Rick Perry. Mockingly trying to imagine the question, Barnicle offered "she asked him what day it was." View the video here.

Mike Barnicle could be the early leader in the race for the lamest excuse for a Dem loss. On today's Morning Joe, Barnicle claimed that the death of Boston Mayor Thomas Menino "disrupted" the Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign, and that but for it, Martha Coakley might have "pulled it out." Really? Menino might not have been the most silver-tongued speaker, but the five-time Beantown mayor was a popular figure in the Bay State. It's not hard to imagine that far from hurting Coakley's campaign, Menino's passing might have prompted some sympathy votes for her, a fellow Dem. View the video here.

With about a month to go before the elections, let's loosen up our lever-pulling arms by inviting NewsBusters readers to vote on the lamest excuse offered by three Morning Joe panelists today for President Obama's failure to heed the intelligence about the threat ISIS posed. 1. Columbia prof Dorian Warren: congressional intelligence committees are to blame for not raising the issues with President Obama. 2. Mike Barnicle: James Clapper is to blame for not assembling the intelligence to the point that it got the president's full attention. 3. Eugene Robinson: not fair to blame the president considering there could have...

Joe Klein waited till the very end of 2011, but has managed to make a strong bid for Most Asinine Assertion of the Year. Appearing on Morning Joe today, Klein claimed that Iran's interest in getting nukes would "just be to deter Israel" and Pakistan. Certainly when it comes to Israel, this has to be among the most hideous instances of blaming the victim in recent memory. View the video here.

Here was the Morning Joe panel bemoaning Ted Cruz's supposed incivility at CPAC in allegedly insulting war hero Bob Dole, when up pops Mike Barnicle to ask "what does it say about CPAC, where the most popular speaker they had and received the most rousing reception is a moron, Sarah Palin?" A bit later, Mika Brzezinski piled on, calling Palin a "multi-million dollar moron." When Joe Scarborough challenged her, saying "you don't think that, right?", Mika didn't retract her slur, saying only that Palin is "savvy in selling a message that makes a lot of money." View the video here.

Looks like Mike Barnicle's not going to let anyone get to his PC-left when it comes to women. On today's Morning Joe, Barnicle claimed that "a lot of men . . . fear the fact--and I think it's a fact--that women are better balanced than men. They have better judgment about things than a lot of men." Barnicle's comment during a discussion about the statement made yesterday by Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant that the decline in educational outcomes for children today is due to the entry of women into the workforce. View the video here.

A question with a more obvious answer might yet be asked on national TV this morning, but someone's going to have to try very hard . . . On today's Morning Joe, during a segment on the Atlanta school-test scandal, Mike Barnicle actually wondered out loud why more top college grads take jobs with high-tech firms like Google, or in the financial-services sector, instead of teaching. Barnicle had earlier declared that standardized tests don't teach kids how to think. Might Mike have taken one such test too many in his day? When Willie Geist gently pointed out the obvious to...

So, all of a sudden the left in America is concerned with anti-Semitism. That’s a riot. Is this the same left that constantly sides with the Muslim Brotherhood and goes out of their way to support Islam? That left? It just goes to show, when pundits on the left want to accomplish something — there is no end to the lengths they will go. I’m speaking, in this case, of gun control and the fascist mayor Michael Bloomberg’s one-man crusade for their confiscation. And don’t think for a moment that it’s not his endgame. As with everything Bloomberg involves himself...

Showing respect for a Republican senator--a conservative one to boot? That's more than Mike Barnicle can seem to comprehend. On today's Morning Joe, when Mark Halperin mentioned that despite disagreeing with Cruz on immigration, he has "great respect" for the Republican Senator from Texas, Barnicle interrupted to ask "why do you have great respect for him?" After Halperin explained the reasons for his respect, the most Barnicle could manage was a skeptical "okay." Republican commentator Nicolle Wallace also weighed in, ambiguously. View the video here.

On Morning Joe today, the Reverend Al Sharpton agreed with Mike Barnicle that anti-Semitism explains the opposition to Mike Bloomberg in his gun control campaign. H/t NB reader cobokat. If ever there were an expert on anti-Semitism in America, it could be Al Sharpton, he of Freddie's Fashion Mart and Crown Heights riot infamy. The spectacle of Sharpton lamenting the supposed anti-Semitism of others was ironic, if not repulsive. Note that Dan Senor, who might also know something about anti-Semitism, being Jewish and having attended university in Israel, rejected the notion. View the video here.