Thanks to a tipster, we get a bigger picture of Mark Halperin with respect to President Obama, and its not pretty. On Thursday, the TIME Magazine Senior Editor and then MSNBC Senior Contributor got on MSNBC’s Morning Joe show to deliberately issue a slur toward President Obama that Halperin apparently thought would be “bleeped” out. It wasn’t.
The result got Halperin suspended from MSNBC. And if yoiu’ve not seen it, the video clip is below, with my commentary on why he did it:
And again, I said Halperin did it because Obama’s black, and Halperin never wanted Obama to be president; now Obama is, and my assertion is Halperin can’t stand the fact, so he lost control when Obama was being assertive at last Wednesday’s press conference. I gave the example of how Mark accused the press of being “pro-Obama” in 2008, and mentioned my dislike for Halperin’s constant negative takes on the then-Senator.
But Halperin calling Obama a “pussy?” I missed that one, probably because it was on Sirius Radio at the time. (Nothing against Sirius Radio, by the way; it’s great.)
According to a press release sent to Adam Reilly, then of the Phoenix.com, Mark Halperin was on Barbara Live, on February 13th, 2008, with Barbara Walters and her co-host Bill Geddie. Halperin was a guest, on to talk about the 2008 presidential campaign at the time. If you recall, that was in the thick of the hotly-contested Democratic Primary, and just about the time that rumors of former-Senator John Edwards’ affair with Rielle Hunter were heating up. Then, Edwards was one of three favorites, with Obama and Hillary Clinton battling for delegates, votes, and money.
This is what Halperin said:
HALPERIN [discussing John Edwards’ potential endorsement of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama]: I can tell you, he’s really skeptical of her ability to be the kind of president he wants. But, he kinda thinks Obama is…he thinks Obama is kind of a pussy…He has real questions about Obama’s toughness, his readiness for the office.
That’s wussy for Halperin to use John Edwards’ as a face for Halperin’s own views, but that’s what Mark did.
What’s all the more galling is that Mark got away with it at the time, presumably because it’s radio and not national television. But, more than that, it signaled a questionable pattern of thinking and expression about the now-President Obama that has been allowed to grow and fester, unchecked until Thursday.
Stay tuned.
Bill Carroll