So Tim Pawlenty’s PAC launch received a fair amount of coverage this week, most of it positive. At least one person had a different take: Rachel Maddow. Here she is attacking his team:
Now, I think this is just hysterical and utterly predictable, but I suspect it surprised Pawlenty. Why? Because Pawlenty has been on Maddow’s show more often than he’s been on conservative talk radio. Pawlenty’s probably been on Maddow’s show more often than all the other major Republican politicians combined. Tim Pawlenty and Rachel Maddow arelikethis. Here he is in February:
In March
In April
And here she is, over a year before he’ll announce for anything, running a 6 minute attack segment on him without providing, as best as I can tell, any opportunity for Pawlenty or his team to present a counterpoint. The deuce you say?
Now Maddow’s a liberal and not just a John King liberal. She’s an avowed liberal, a personally pleasant but rhetorically equivalent Keith Olbermann- a Sean Hannity of the left. No one should expect her to give a Republican fair coverage in the long-term. But, the thing is, there are Republicans who expect exactly that. Presumably, for awhile, Pawlenty was one of them. We sure know John McCain was one up through 2008. It gets them all of nowhere. It’s fine to engage the avowed left, or the secret left (MSM), but that’s what it should be: engagement. You should go into each interview, not attempting to show how “reasonable” you can be but to varying degrees, to challenge the assumptions of the left. Because the media’s favorite Republican is the worst job on the political scene. Even worse than John Edwards’ pseudo, homo-erotic baby-father.
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Matthew E. Miller can be contacted at Obilisk18@yahoo.com and at his Pawlentyesque blog
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:18 pm
I have to say, Pawlenty looks terrible in a green suit.
FYI, Pawlenty ‘12.
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Sean Hannity of the left? That’s a horrible comparison….she’s more like…uh…Greta? Cavuto?
October 2nd, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I don’t think she’s that personally pleasant. She’s pretty smug throughout, not as bad as that arrogance and elitism-made-flesh Olbermann, her’s is more subtle, but still rather annoying.
And Matthew, I don’t think Republicans really should expect much of a fair shake from her, and are going to have to accept some bias from the media to the Democrats. That’s just the way these people work. There’s a time to be polite and moderate in the media, and there’s a time to be combatitive in a reasonable manner. Candidates need to have the conviction that they are fighting for America, and not be afraid to challenge the media liberals from time to time as part of that. There’s nothing wrong in that at all. But candidates on the media should also avoid just running through partisan points, as it’s useless in expanding our side and usually galvanizes the other.
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:04 pm
2 – Greta isn’t a right-winger though, other than her husband having ties to Sarah Palin’s PAC.
October 2nd, 2009 at 7:52 pm
Greta is a liberal, but she is usually fair and balanced unlike this Maddow lady.
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:10 pm
Maddow went from Air America, a radio network nobody listened to, to MSNBC, a TV network nobody watches. Thanks, I guess, for the reminder as to why I never watch it either, but it was a painful reminder.
October 2nd, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Personally pleasant? Surely you’re joking?
October 2nd, 2009 at 11:07 pm
Nothing pleasant about this liberal hack.
October 3rd, 2009 at 12:44 am
Rachael Maddow can make a kid who accidentally throws a baseball over a neighbors fence sound like a criminal. She thinks she’s clever but she’s just a jerk. Her ratings are really bad…. more people probably saw the attack video here than watched it on her show..
Pawlenty should have taken note when Maddow told him that he was the only Republican she could get to come on the show.
October 3rd, 2009 at 1:35 am
BTW: Who wrote Pawlenty’s Wikipedia page…It puts him in a bad light by shedding a pretty harsh and critical spin on his Governorship. Is this normal?
October 3rd, 2009 at 2:17 am
** RE: Pawlenty’s MinnesotaCare …If Wikipedia is right about the health care in Minnesota under Pawlenty, it took a lot of guts for him to go after Romney’s MassCare plan. In all those interviews he did, there wasn’t one interviewer who called him on his MinnesotaCare failures….That’s FOX for you, fair and balanced.
October 3rd, 2009 at 3:07 am
I’ve been pointing out for months that T/Paw should be careful in criticising anyone else over health care.
October 3rd, 2009 at 3:43 am
‘Top Line’ Book Corner: Frank Luntz’s “What Americans Really Want … Really”
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/10/top-line-book-corner-frank-luntzs-what-americans-really-want-really-.html
The What Americans Really Want … Really Survey Results
http://a.abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/survey_results.pdf
October 3rd, 2009 at 3:51 am
12: Heath:
How is that not going to come back to haunt him. He has to be smarter than that.
October 3rd, 2009 at 4:02 am
if Pawlenty wants to become McCain redux in terms of sucking up the MSM he will not gain any traction. The next election cycle will not be favorable to those Republicans who continue to suck up to talking heads or media anchors.
The people are just too angry to put up with the same nonsense they saw in McCain.
October 3rd, 2009 at 7:57 am
ikv,
Why, because he cut the government health care rolls? You do realize that’s something a majority of conservatives- non-Romney supporters- cheer? Right…? Conservatives support efforts to reform health care and get more Americans health care. They don’t, by and large, support efforts to expand government health care rolls. They want market reforms. Ergo, the overwhelming opposition among conservatives to Romneycare, or Obama’s national Romneycare.
October 3rd, 2009 at 8:33 am
Pawlenty is going absolutely nowhere, IMHO. Only Palin has a shot at Obama, IMHO.
October 3rd, 2009 at 10:39 am
After watching Obama’s speeches for six years, listening to Obama talk about himself, viewing his ever growing ego, the American voters will be ready for a more humble, not so gifted speaker. Pawlenty has a real good chance at winning because he will come across as matter of fact, humble, and willing to listen to the people.
October 3rd, 2009 at 5:57 pm
If you can’t take the hits from the left leaning media, perhaps you don’t need to be in the race?
October 3rd, 2009 at 6:00 pm
17 I would vote for Pawlent over Palin (whom I would NEVER vote for even if the earth was coming to the end, and she was the second comming).
The only one with a shot at Obama is the one with brains and experience. Umm. That is not Palin, on both counts.