See Ya, Dick

Well when you're wrong, you're wrong. And not only was Dick Morris (way) wrong about the 2012 Presidential election, I was wrong about how he had nothing to lose by being a pandering assclown.

My blogpost on October 31, 2012, titled Horserace Handicappers: Double Standard Edition misread the election prediction business. Not completely, I was right that Nate Silver's reputation was on the line and that his models were based on science and almost certainly correct. But I also said that Dick Morris had nothing to lose by forecasting a Romney landslide, that he'd be back at the same racket.

Lo and behold there were consequences, Dick Morris was exiled from Fox News shortly after the election. Even the author of Here Come The Black Helicopters was too outlandish for the demographic.

Last night's video montage of Morris's greatest hits on The Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell diminishes the significance of the move by FNC. With the ousting of Morris and Sarah Palin, Fox will be looking (theoretically) for a more moderate approach.

Lets look who's out there:

Even though Scott Brown is kind of a dolt, he has some appeal and isn't off the rails. His popularity is reasonably high, especially higher than if he were to lose a special election this spring.

I think the cable news outlets should be in a bidding war for Gary Johnson, the 2012 Libertarian candidate for President. His views are conservative and small-government enough to reflect the will of the audience, or to offer contrast. Yet, he still will go off the party line on a number of issues. He's got a mind of his own, which makes for good TV.

Then there's Chris Christie. Maybe his ambition hasn't allowed him to step aside to be a 7-figure talking head, but it's clear he can opine in any forum. It would be easy for him to step aside as Governor of NJ (think something innocuous like "health reasons"). He is capable of throwing bombs at either party if that's what Fox is now going for.

But let's not forget that Morris's second career begins this evening on Piers Morgan Tonight, when the Columbia grad and former Clinton advisor becomes the most refined guest on that show since every gun nut came out of the woodwork after Newtown.

Let's see if Morris tries a new approach, or continues to spout senselessness. I'm sure there's a contract waiting for him somewhere.

The News Cycle Perpetuating Itself

I can understand the constant feeding frenzy of the cable "news" networks during the run-up to the Presidential election. But the election is over, and the networks have found a formula to keep their audiences all day long. Remember when Crossfire was a 30-minute show and not a way of life?

The news, itself, doesn't do it for the American TV consumers any longer. Unless they're invested in it. Hate guns? We got a show for you. Hate Obama? We got a network for you. Want an out-of-context soundbite mash-up to back up your own views? Just stay tuned.

We root for political sides now like we root for our sports teams, and down-the-middle news reporting is now extinct. Not that it's not practiced, but because so few believe that the reporting entity is without bias. With all the black helicopters out there and such.

There is only one thing that can derail the cycle, a salacious sports scandal. The Secret Service sex romp in Colombia and the Petraeus affair are a drop in the bucket compared to Tonya Harding, OJ Simpson, Tiger Woods, Jerry Sandusky, or Manti Te'o.

As Clay Travis headlined on OutkickTheCoverage.com, the Te'o story is the kind of thing that breaks the internet, and causes the whale to show up on Twitter because it's overloaded.

A sports scandal brings both political sides together and takes over the 24-hour cycle. Even on MSNBC's (smartly named) The Cycle, they led with the Te'o fake, dead girlfriend (or is it dead, fake girlfriend?) story. They even had Tom Scocca on, Deadspin.com's managing editor who broke the story.

While we spend the next day or two figuring out exactly how the Te'o situation all went down - as if we ever really will - the cable news networks will move back to partisan fights and rhetoric.

And that all comes from sports, since you can't like Alabama and still respect Auburn. And 24-hour sports radio preceded 24-hour cable news.

Better Late Than Never: David Axelrod Does Real Time

Bill Maher's second post-election show, the "season finale" before going on a two month hiatus, was loaded with big-time guests. He had Michael Moore and David Frum on the panel, and a late visit from Eric Idle. But the feather in the cap for Maher was Obama's Senior Strategist David Axelrod.

This was significant since Axelrod had been booked to do the show back in March but canceled. The no-show wasn't because of Maher, but rather because of Rush Limbaugh. Follow this logic:

In early March, Rush Limbaugh made the infamous nasty and vicious remarks about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke. It became a big media blow-up, which ultimately became political. Conservatives didn't defend Limbaugh's comments, though many (like Mitt Romney) wouldn't denounce them.

And then, since the pendulum had to swing back, the Conservative Entertainment Complex found a false equivalent in Bill Maher. Fox News and others began pulling the most incendiary and offensive clips throughout the history of Maher's program. But here are the main differences between the two:

1) Bill Maher's audience knows he's joking. While many who agree with his politics are offended by his "potty mouth" and vile innuendo, nobody takes his laugh lines too seriously.

But Limbaugh's audience thinks he is the gospel. If he uses off-color characterizations, the ditto-heads are all-in, whether Limbaugh is serious or not. And I tend to think he's not serious.

In fact, I believe that Rush Limbaugh voted for Obama (twice). There's no money in playing the opposition if your audience is the party in power.

2) Bill Maher offers different points of view. While Real Time with Bill Maher is certainly liberally biased, he welcomes opposing views onto the show, and gives them some room.

In 2012, a presidential election year, Maher has a vast array of prominent conservative voices on his panel:

Grover Norquist
Darrell Issa
Ann Coulter
Jack Kingston
Reihan Salam
S.E. Cupp
David Frum

Can you imagine Rush Limbaugh hosting Bernie Sanders, Rachel Maddow, or Paul Krugman?

3) In Bill Maher's own words, "At least I know I'm an asshole." And that is the Mason-Dixon line.

Axelrod, being the strategist that he is, decided that being a lightning rod for the right wing would not be the prudent course in the heat of a reelection campaign. So after the election was over and the goal had been attained, Axelrod and his mustache showed up on location in Hollywood.

You rarely see him as anything other than a talking head, so I was thrown off at how tall and gangly he was. But as always he was professorial, and measured. For the first time, I recognized he was a separated-at-birth twin.

Axelrod's long-awaited appearance on Real Time wasn't particularly psychological. He was polite when Maher tried to corner him on Obama's loath for both Romney and McCain. And when Maher brought up his connection to the campaigns he won for black candidates, calling him "the Robert DeNiro of politics," Axelrod laughed it off saying he just had "good taste" and that Obama is a "great guy." Strategist, indeed.