New York Times columnist Paul Krugman clowned it up on Tuesday by suggesting that the “pink pussy hats” of the Women’s March in January “should be the symbol of our delivery from evil.” Just put a pussy hat on the Statue of Liberty and call it a day! His column was titled “America Is Not Yet Lost.”

Early this year the commentator David Frum warned that the slide into authoritarianism would be unstoppable “if people retreat into private life, if critics grow quieter, if cynicism becomes endemic.” But so far that hasn’t happened.

What we’ve seen instead is the emergence of a highly energized resistance. That resistance made itself visible literally the day after Trump took office, with the huge women’s marches that took place on Jan. 21, dwarfing the thin crowds at the inauguration. If American democracy survives this terrible episode, I vote that we make pink pussy hats the symbol of our delivery from evil.

At least Krugman wasn’t silly enough to call David Frum a “conservative.”

Like a capital-D Democrat, Krugman warned that Evil would prevail as long as Republicans held majority power: “Let’s be clear: America as we know it is still in mortal danger. Republicans still control all the levers of federal power, and never in the course of our nation’s history have we been ruled by people less trustworthy….as long as Republicans control Congress, constitutional checks and balances are effectively a dead letter.” So Democrats will have to vote them out.

Krugman began by proclaiming Trump is just as horrible as expected:

Donald Trump has been every bit as horrible as one might have expected; he continues, day after day, to prove himself utterly unfit for office, morally and intellectually. And the Republican Party — including so-called moderates — turns out, if anything, to be even worse than one might have expected.

This is a bit comical….since conservative Twitter recalled what Crystal Ball Krugman originally expected after Trump emerged victorious was that the stock market would never recover:

It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover?

Frankly, I find it hard to care much, even though this is my specialty. The disaster for America and the world has so many aspects that the economic ramifications are way down my list of things to fear.

Still, I guess people want an answer: If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.

In another baffling display of disconnect, CBS News blamed President Trump’s low poll numbers on Trump voters being pro-ObamaCare.

During the December 27 CBS This Morning, National Correspondent Chip Reid announced that Trump’s push to repeal ObamaCare “could hurt many of his own supporters.”

Reid turned to Slate’s Jamelle Bouie (also a CBS News political analyst). “I do think this is dangerous game for the president,” Bouie said. “One of his single largest drops in popularity came in March, after congressional Republicans began moving ahead with ObamaCare repeal.” As a reminder to people unfamiliar with Bouie, he’s the political analyst who wrote back in November that it was “abhorrent” and “perverse” to suggest that Trump voters were “good” people.

The segment also pointed to the number of ObamaCare sign-ups this year in red states, seeming to imply that these sign-ups showed support for the program by Trump voters. “According to one respected analyst, 62% of this year’s ObamaCare enrollees live in states that President Trump won in 2016,” Reid reported. Reid also quoted Bouie as saying that “the big surprise is that red states are signing up faster than blue states.”

The “respected analyst” Chip Reid is referring to is likely The Associated Press, which recently released a report on government data which “found that 7.3 million of the 8.8 million consumers signed up so far for next year come from states Trump won in the 2016 presidential election.” However, there is no indication in the data of how many of these people were Trump supporters, or how many signed up simply to avoid paying the penalty for not having insurance.

Trump’s opposition to ObamaCare certainly polls low – among journalists. According to the MRC’s extensive Bias by the Minute project, in the first 80 days of the Trump presidency (from January 20 to April 9), the effort to repeal ObamaCare was the third most covered Trump-related topic by the evening news shows on ABC, CBS and NBC with 152 minutes of coverage. 94 percent of this coverage was negative.

In contrast, on September 15, a Politico-Harvard poll showed that a repeal of ObamaCare topped “GOP voters’ to-do lists.” According to the Politico write up about the poll: “Among Republican respondents, repealing Obamacare was the most critical priority, outpacing other concerns like tax reform (34 percent said that the issue was ‘extremely important’) and building a border wall (28 percent thought it was ‘extremely important’).”

During the Obama administration, ABC, CBS and NBC all repeatedly either failed to report on ObamaCare’s failures or downplayed them.

TRANSCRIPT:

DANA JACOBSON: President Trump on vacation in Florida promises more bipartisanship in the new year. The president tweeted the Republicans and Democrats will come together on a new plan to replace Obamacare. Chip Reid is in West Palm Beach Florida near the President’s Mar-a-Lago resort. Chip, good morning.

CHIP REID: Good morning. President Trump played golf yesterday with Georgia Senator David Perdue, a big proponent of repealing Obamacare. Of course, that’s also a big priority for President Trump next year. But the numbers suggest that could hurt many of his own supporters.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: It ultimately leads to the end of Obamacare. Essentially, I think Obamacare is over.

REID: The president’s prediction of the demise of Obamacare comes as about 8.8 million Americans in 39 states signed up for coverage at Healthcare.gov this fall. That’s down just 4.4% from last year, despite the trump administration pulling advertising and slashing the enrollment period from 90 days to 45.

JAMELLE BOUIE: The fundamental reality on health care is that people want health insurance.

REID: CBS News and Slate political analyst Jamelle Bouie said the big surprise is that red states are signing up faster than blue states.

Both Republicans and Democrats view health care as a top priority for Congress and President Trump, making it a central issue in the upcoming midterm elections. The Congressional Budget Office projects that repealing the Individual Mandate will leave about 13 million more people without coverage by 2027. And, according to one respected analyst, 62% of this year’s Obamacare enrollees live in states that President Trump won in 2016.

JAMELLE BOUIE: I do think this is dangerous game for the president. One of his single largest drops in popularity came in March, after congressional Republicans began moving ahead with Obamacare repeal.

REID: In addition to his tweet on health care, the president also sent out a tweet on the Russia investigation, in which he referred to the FBI as tainted. He also sent out a tweet about his tax cuts predicting they would boost jobs and the stock market increase next year. Bianna?

After not caring about President Obama’s golf habit for eight years, CNN suddenly finds it imperative for a functioning democracy for them to document every stroke of President Trump’s outings at his courses. During CNN Newsroom on Wednesday, fill-in host Don Lemon and reporter Dan Merica were losing their minds over someone parking a box truck to block a gap in some hedges CNN was using to peep on the President.

The network’s mouth foaming outrage began on Tuesday when political reporter Manu Raju gloated on Twitter that part of Trump’s round of golf was “captured by CNN cameras.” Raju’s description of his colleagues “capturing” video of Trump sounded more like they were trying to film a nature documentary or hunting Bigfoot rather than doing serious reporting. CNN’s escapades in the bushes marked them for widespread ridicule on social media.

Come Wednesday, someone who CNN couldn’t identify parked a white box truck in front of the “breach” in the shrubs, and for CNN the world looked bleak. “So Dan, you’re in West Palm Beach [, Florida], you’re traveling with the President, understand he played another round of golf today. CNN got video of the President playing golf for the last few days. But I understand something different happened today. What was it,” Lemon asked Merica is a hushed and serious tone.

After explaining how CNN’s job was to document the President’s daily activates and complaining about how the White House doesn’t always tell them what he’s doing, Merica whined about the box truck and claimed it was a part of some “larger” issue:

Today, a big white box truck parked in front trying to obscure our shot of President Trump golfing. Now it may seem trivial, but it is important to give video as the President does these things on a daily basis. And goes to something that is larger, the President and the White House have tried to obscure the fact that President Trump golfs on a regular basis.

Merica droned on about how Trump had golfed 87 times since taking office despite criticizing President Obama for golfing a lot. He also reported how CNN pestered “the White House, to the Secret Service, and to the sheriff’s office down here to confirm was this their truck…”

“I believe the word is hypocrisy, Dan, hypocrisy because he criticized the former president so much,” Lemon pompously declared before getting combative with the network’s critics. “And for those who may be criticizing CNN, we have video of every president playing golf, President Bush video of him, President Obama playing golf…”

But Lemon was right, the word was hypocrisy, or more specifically CNN’s hypocrisy. When Obama was gallivanting around to go golfing, CNN didn’t find it noteworthy at all. Even when Obama rushed off to play golf after ISIS released video of journalist James Foley being beheaded, the network wasn’t really aghast. On CNN New Day, Bloomberg reporter and CNN commentator Margaret Talev huffed at criticism saying: “The man wants to go out for a few hours and be left alone.”

Transcript below:

<<< Please support MRC’s NewsBusters team with a tax-deductible contribution today. >>>

CNN Newsroom
December 27, 2017
2:29:46 PM Eastern

DON LEMON: So Dan, you’re in West Palm Beach [, Florida], you’re traveling with the President, understand he played another round of golf today. CNN got video of the President playing golf for the last few days. But I understand something different happened today. What was it?

DAN MERICA: You know, our job down here is to cover the President to tell our viewers what is he doing on daily basis. Over the last few days, we’ve gotten video of the President golfing at his nearby golf club here in West Palm Beach. There is a break in the hedges really. The President doesn’t really and his staff doesn’t tell us when he is golfing. And we have taken to going outside the golf course and filming him as he golfs through the break in hedges near the club.

Today, a big white box truck parked in front trying to obscure our shot of President Trump golfing. Now it may seem trivial, but it is important to give video as the President does these things on a daily basis. And goes to something that is larger, the President and the White House have tried to obscure the fact that President Trump golfs on a regular basis.

According to our count, he has visited one of his golf courses 87 times as President. This is a man who ran for president, who criticized Barack Obama regularly golfing during his presidency. But that criticism hasn’t continued into the Trump presidency. President Trump has regularly visited these golf courses that he owns. And White House aides have been hesitant to ever confirm that he is golfing. And this box truck and the video that we have is another example of the White House trying to obscure. We ‘ve reached out to the White House, to the Secret Service, and to the sheriff’s office down here to confirm was this their truck we haven’t gotten many responses back so far, Don.

LEMON: I believe the word is hypocrisy, Dan, hypocrisy because he criticized the former president so much. And for those who may be criticizing CNN, we have video of every president playing golf, President Bush video of him, President Obama playing golf, as Dan Merica said that’s what we do, we are there to report and show the American people what the president does every day.

Oh look, there is President Obama playing golf. There is no difference. Imagine that. We got video of President Obama playing golf. And it’s not just President Trump. Hmm. It’s not a conspiracy Dan, I thought it was.

(…)