Wednesday, July 02, 2014

MIDDLE-AGED BELTWAY HACK REPEATEDLY STEALS RIFF FROM AGING BELTWAY HACK

Talking Points Memo directs our attention to a ridiculous bit of thoroughly baseless speculation from allegedly savvy insider journalist Mark Halperin. The speculation took place across several Halperin tweets this afternoon. After telling us that "the person most likely to stop @HillaryClinton from being the next POTUS is @HillaryClinton," Halperin tweeted:

Halperin went on to say that this person is "someone who supports single payer, came out for same-sex marriage long before HRC did, & has deep ties to the enviro movement"; also that this person has lots of campaign experience and ties to wealthy donor networks and...

Oh, stop being such a coquette, Halperin! Who the hell might swoop in and steal Hillary's 2016 thunder?

Oh, bloody hell. What a maroon you are, Halperin.

TPM notes that this isn't the first time Halperin's pulled this stunt:
... Halperin ... also floated the possibility of a John Kerry presidential run late last year.

"Let me just say quickly, if Hillary Clinton doesn't run for president I bet you John Kerry does," Halperin said during a December appearance on MSNBC, leaving his fellow panelists stunned....

"I'm out of politics. I have no plans whatsoever. This is my last stop," Kerry told CNN in February.
But Halperin is just stealing from the hacko di tutti hacki, Bob Woodward. Here was Woodward in August 2005:
Renowned journalist Bob Woodward predicts Dick Cheney will be the Republican Party's presidential nominee in 2008....

Speaking in the Paepcke Auditorium as part of the Aspen Institute's McCloskey Speaker Series, Woodward on Tuesday listed a number of reasons it is "highly likely" President Bush might implore Cheney to seek the Oval Office.

"He would be 67 if he ran and was elected. Reagan was 69. Republicans always like the old warhorse. ... Nixon was 68," said Woodward, best known for exposing the Watergate scandal that led to Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974. "Both parties like to nominate vice presidents. ... Cheney would do it, and I think it's highly likely, so stay tuned."
Just for the record, when Nixon won the presidency in 1968, he was actually 55, not 68. Close enough for millionaire hack work, I guess.

7 comments:

John Taylor said...

Would love to see the GOP run Dick Cheney in 2016.

Unknown said...

Woodward is an embarrassment; he's not even trying anymore. "Nixon was 68..." when he did what? The Frost interviews?
Bernstein was clearly the brains behind that partnership.

Victor said...

Woodward and Halperin - among way too many others - still appear on TV and are invited to write Op-ed, because there's never any consequence for being wrong - no matter how badly or how often - if you're a MSM DC Villager in good standing.

Oy!

Unknown said...

@Victor-It's one thing for Villagers to be wrong all the time; that's a given. But to be so wrong about the man that YOU MADE YOUR ENTIRE CAREER OFF OF is in a completely different realm!
Apparently he never read Bernstein's Watergate stories...

Never Ben Better said...

C'mon, people -- you get yourself played in a movie as a hero by Robert Redford, and you're set for life. Who's gonna nitpick a Robert Fercrissakes Redford hero?

Unknown said...

@NeverBenBetter-Point taken. Redford has more brains in his pinkie than Woodward has in his entire body.
Hearing Woodward speak on television makes me wonder whether he was dropped on his head as a child. Mr. Bag O'Hammers, himself!

Phil Perspective said...

When did Al Gore start supporting single-payer health care?