Was it just a slip of the tongue, or did Josephine "Josie" Hearn of Politico just let her liberal slip show? On this evening's "Tucker," she sure seemed to wax enthusiastic over a positive poll result for Hillary.
Norah O'Donnell subbed for Tucker Carlson on his MSNBC show this evening, and talk turned to the latest LA Times|Bloomberg poll, which put Hillary at 48%, with Obama at 17% and Edwards trailing with 13%. Norah invited Hearn to comment.
NORAH O'DONNELL: Josie, it just shows she's continuing her wide margin on just about every demographic, right?
JOSIE HEARN: Yeah, and I think the most exciting thing, or interesting thing, about this poll is that two-thirds now view her health-care plan, the failure of her '94 health-care plan, as being an asset to her. I think this is a triumph for the campaign, they've turned this failure into an asset. I mean, would you do that in other situations? Would you say, well, Bush's failures in Iraq, you know, that means he's really well-equipped to handle the next foreign policy problem? It doesn't transfer, but somehow the campaign has been able to that, and it's been remarkable, and it's really helped her a lot in using that legacy from the White House as a strength.
The positive poll result on Hillarycare was "exciting"? Now I suppose it's possible that Hearn simply made an unfortunate choice of words, and she clearly seemed to realize that she had goofed, amending her remark to substitute "interesting." But let's test that assumption. Those of you who are reading this who are not, shall we say, huge Hillary fans: what are the odds that in reacting to a positive poll result for Clinton, you would, even mistakenly, ever describe it as "exciting"?
Aside: Here at NewsBusters, we would never engage in guilt by association. But I do note that Hearn is an alum of Williams College, a distinction she shares with a certain . . . Mika Brzezinski.
Update -- Hearn Finds Republicans Less Authentic Than Dems
A bit later, the panel was raking Rudy, a yellow-dog Yankee fan, over the coals for announcing that he's rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series. The presumption was that he is pandering to New Hampshire voters. When NBC News political director Chuck Todd suggested that the lack of authenticity among both Dems and Republicans could incite a third-party candidacy, Josie jumped in.
HEARN: Especially the Republicans have a problem with authenticity because they're all trying to move more to the right. A lot of them are moderates or have been moderates in the recent past.
Say what? Dems aren't shifting positions, too? Like Hillary who was famously known to dislike the military as First Lady now trying to position herself as a hawk? Or Obama, trying to position himself for the South Carolina primary, going into a church and announcing "we’re going to keep on praising together. I am confident that we can create a Kingdom right here on Earth." Or Edwards, who ran for senator from North Carolina as a moderate but now has moved far left? Or Kucinich, who used to be pro-life but became pro-choice when he developed presidential ambitions? Need I go on?
If anyone has a problem with authenticity, it might just be Hearn, trying to present herself as an authentically unbiased reporter.
