The Banter Long Read: I knew going into the 2016 election that the press was going to give Hillary a hard time. If I'd read 2003's What Liberal Bias? before the election, I would have know Hillary was going to lose before she even officially announced.... To continue reading ...read more
Earlier this week, I published a piece for Banter Members arguing that Bill Clinton was likely a rapist and that now was the time for the left to denounce him. I've received a lot of flak for the piece on two fronts, firstly that I attacked a Clinton, and secondly that I ...read more
The Banter Long Read: As hard as it might be to swallow for the left, it is now the time to disavow Bill Clinton and exorcise him from public life. After the wave of naming and shaming high profile celebrities and politicians for their grotesque behavior towards women, there can ...read more
Argue with a conservative long enough and you will inevitably hear one of their favorite talking points: Liberals just want free handouts and should get a job. The insinuation of course is that only conservatives know anything about hard work and earning a living. You'll ...read more
I've never personally met Lenny DeFranco, The Daily Banter's most recent addition to the roster, but from what I can tell, Lenny is a solid writer who, like the rest of us, has been gloriously endowed with the gift of gab. However, I'd like take a little time today to clarify ...read more
Let's get this out of the way first: there is no rational or moral justification for not voting for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump should both become the respective nominees for their parties. So anyone part of the "Bernie of Bust" movement needs to stop reading now. That ...read more
There are many reasons to love Hillary Clinton, and apparently, many reasons not to. Personally, it was one iconic moment that was my first introduction to Hillary, and which instantly made me wish she were running for president, and not her husband. In March of 1992, Hillary ...read more
On Sunday morning, Hillary Clinton had a great opportunity to fix former President Bill Clinton's massive cock-up when he defended Hillary's 1996 use of the term "Superpredators" by accusing activists of defending murderers. She could have said "I've already apologized for a ...read more
This week afforded a great opportunity that was, of course, squandered by the mainstream media, as coverage of the #BlackLivesMatter protesters who disrupted former President Bill Clinton's speech in Philadelphia on Thursday mainly centered around the moments of conflict, when ...read more
Former President Bill Clinton, on Monday, spoke at a rally for Hillary Clinton and appeared to have been deeply critical of the Obama administration's legacy. The explanation for what he meant is pretty straightforward, but there's another more stressful aspect to what he said, ...read more
Donald Trump remained at his own consistent low this week when he released an Instagram video attacking Hillary Clinton and linking her to Bill Cosby, but what you might not have known is that this is a bit of a two-fer for The Donald. The campaign ad-style Instagram video ...read more
On Monday, activists from the Boston chapter of #BlackLivesMatter released, via Good Magazine, video of their private August 11 meeting with Hillary Clinton. The two clips feature activists Julius Jones and Daunasia Yancey confronting the Democratic frontrunner over her support ...read more
Here's something you don't see every day: one of the most powerful men in the country being extorted on live television. Well, maybe. Former Republican Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who is currently on the business end of an FBI probe into $3.5 million in alleged hush ...read more
This speech wasn’t Bibi Netanyahu’s fault. It was Speaker John Boehner’s idea to set up the Israeli prime minister’s address to Congress in retaliation for President Obama’s refusing to strengthen sanctions on Iran. If anything, Netanyahu’s visit says more about the dysfunction ...read more
There's a terrible injustice in the fact that President Clinton is the most popular politician in the world today, while Monica Lewinsky is the cheap punchline to dozens of blow-job jokes. And shame on us all for it. We're nothing more than the villagers from The Scarlet Letter, ...read more
There's a new poll out showing that President Obama is the Worst President Since World War II, a poll which CNN reported on with the not-even-skin-deep shallowness we've come to expect from the mainstream media. The Quinnipiac poll shows that Obama was rated worst by more ...read more
You don't have to watch SportsCenter or even ESPN to have seen quite a few of its classic ads over the years featuring athletes, network personalities, and team mascots in its Bristol, Conn. headquarters. Over the last 20 years or so they've become iconic reminders of who the ...read more
The issue of voting rights is beginning to gain some suction with the mainstream media, a trend that should be encouraged. One idea that should not be encouraged is former President Bill Clinton's suggestion that Social Security cards should have a photo option, in order to ...read more
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has decided to inexplicably invoke Monica Lewinsky as a serious problem for the would-be Hillary Clinton campaign. On a recent Meet the Press appearance Rand Paul said the following about Bill Clinton: “He took advantage of a girl that was 20 years old and ...read more
Happy Friday Jr. Here's what's happening on the interweb: 1. Bill Clinton Didn't Have Sex With Elizabeth Hurley As interesting as story as it would have been to learn that Tom Sizemore was wing-manning the president so that Slicky Willy could do a little foreign relations, ...read more
It's Tuesday people, and you should at this point in the day be rifling through your emails, looking at your agenda and planning the rest of your day. Or you could be reading about some funny/disturbing shit on the internet, which is of course, much more fun. 1. White on ...read more
Andrew Sullivan has this gem from Bill Clinton's debate with George Bush Sr, where the then governor of Arkansas draws a direct contrast between the economic theories of the Republicans and the Democrats. It is painful to watch Bush try to empathize with an audience member's ...read more
Welcome to this week's edition of The Daily Banter Mailbag! Today, Bob, Ben and Chez discuss the vice presidential debate; their ultimate Vegas president; and Food Porn! The questions: 1) What a performance!!! Ryan looked like a 15 year old in there against a very statesman ...read more
By Robert Parry: Mitt Romney’s debate team reportedly has armed the Republican presidential nominee with a list of “zingers” designed to deflate President Barack Obama in Wednesday’s first presidential debate, a tactic employed by other presidential candidates but one that ...read more
A bit late posting today as I've been traveling, but wanted to weigh in on Bill Clinton's speech last night at the Democratic convention. As cynical as I am about politics, there's always a part of me that respects the all time greats - the politicians with a God given talent ...read more
The Daily Banter Headline Grab (via Yahoo News!): CHARLOTTE -- Former President Bill Clinton, once a political foe of President Barack Obama, made a strong case that he's one of the nominee's best surrogates Wednesday, especially when it comes to bringing independents into the ...read more
By Bob Cesca: You can tell it's August in a general election year because Republican A-listers are jumping through Flaming Hoops of Crazy in order to be considered for the job of wingnut red meat chucker for the next four years. Take Newt Gingrich for example. Since he ...read more
By Chez Pazienza: I'm probably going to sound like the stereotypical old guy in the room here, but bear with me. The first time I voted for president was in 1992 and, like many my age at the time, I voted for Bill Clinton. The reason should be obvious to anyone who lived ...read more
By Bob Cesca: Yesterday I wrote a column with the headline The Biggest Mitt Romney Lie (So Far). I specifically covered my ass with the parenthetical qualifier "so far" knowing that he'd one-up himself with another cynical whopper of a lie very, very soon. I had no idea it ...read more
By Bob Cesca: For the last couple of days, I've been totally obsessed with recent polls that confirm the correlation between the American people and the townspeople of Springfield on The Simpsons. I'm not breaking any news with that comparison since the legendary cartoon show ...read more
Welcome to this week's edition of The Daily Banter Mailbag! This week Bob, Ben and Chez discuss the use of the filibuster, respond to gibberish emails, review 'Prometheus' and talk about the smearing of public sector unions. The questions!: Bob, I'd love to know how many ...read more
By Bob Cesca: The new cover of Newsweek contains a photo of the president with a rainbow-colored halo over his head and the text: "The First Gay President." I get the joke. President Clinton was nicknamed "the first black president," and the Newsweek headline is a variation ...read more
I hate to say this, but Gingrich's evisceration of John King last night on CNN was entirely justified. In response to a question about his treatment of his ex wife (he apparently asked her for an open relationship), Gingrich shot back with the following: I think the ...read more
Oliver Willis on Republicans blatant hypocrisy over the Herman Cain sexual harassment scandal: It is sort of hilarious to watch the same people who quite literally caused a constitutional crisis over half-baked allegations against Bill Clinton now insist that not only is ...read more
Finally! From the Guardian: An 18-year-old law that prevented serving US military personnel from disclosing that they were gay has been formally repealed. At one minute past midnight eastern time (0401 GMT), the controversial don't ask don't tell (DADT) law was abolished after ...read more
Image by david_shankbone via Flickr There are many people who believe Obama is in deep trouble when it comes to the 2012 election. They point to his low approval ratings, a tanking economy and an inability to get anything serious past the Republican congress. While this is ...read more
Image via Wikipedia The revelation that Arnold Schwarzennegger fathered a child with a member of his household staff shouldn't really be surprising. As a Los Angelino, I have heard many, many stories about Arnold's sexual indiscretions, and the only thing shocking is that this ...read more
In a scathing interview with Chris Hedges, Princeton Professor and one time Obama campaigner Cornell West tears into Barack Obama for what he sees as a political and personal betrayal on every conceivable level: "It became very clear to me as the announcements were being made,” ...read more
Read the rest. Moses: Let my people go. Pharaoh: No. Moses: If you don't, you will have to face the wrath of G-- Bill Clinton: Hey, hey! Moses, Pharaoh, listen; I think we can work this out. Moses: We can? Pharaoh: You're right! Bill, you're so right. I'll let the Isrealites ...read more
CNN is reporting that President Clinton is going to North Korea to try and negotiate the release of the journalists they're holding, Laura Ling and Euna Lee of Current TV... ...read more
Republican response to the Democratic president's budget proposal. Now, Republicans and some Democrats in Congress heard the message you sent us last November. You wanted us to cut spending first -- and we had a plan to do just that. It was a good plan. We tried to eliminate the ...read more
I've mostly ignored this because until any cabinet announcements are made there isn't much real news to it. That said, if President Clinton's entanglements are going to make it a pain in the ass, I'd rather they not do it. Secretary of State, especially post-Bush, is an important ...read more
John McCain has excluded President Bush from his campaign to a far more extensive degree than Al Gore with Bill Clinton. And yet, the ironic thing is Clinton would have helped Gore win - and Florida wouldn't have been stolen. ...read more
Republicans drive us into a ditch economically, Democrats bail us out. Hoover leads to... Reagan/Bush leads to... Bush leads to...? ...read more
I'm a little puzzled at some of the reaction I've seen to the news that President Clinton is going to speak at the convention. Was there any thought that he wasn't going to? Whatever lingering bad feeling there may be from the primaries (and I count myself in that group of people ...read more
Interestingly the story uses that quote in the headline, but nowhere in the story does it quote President Clinton directly saying it. In fact it is a quote from "friends". The Daily Telegraph is using National Enquirer rules on this story. ...read more
