Mark Halperin’s comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable. We apologize to the President, The White House and all of our viewers. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air. Therefore, Mark will be suspended indefinitely from his role as an analyst.

– MSNBC, in an official statement

I completely agree with everything in MSNBC’s statement about my remark. I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate. Again, I want to offer a heartfelt and profound apology to the President, to my MSNBC colleagues, and to the viewers. My remark was unacceptable, and I deeply regret it.

– Mark Halperin, pundit and regular contributor to MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”

I thought he was a dick yesterday.

– Mark Halperin, in the original, on-air comment about Pres. Obama that got him suspended from “Morning Joe.” Halperin’s comment was made after full preparation, according to a transcript and video of the show, and was not in any way a slip of the tongue.

USA Today’s Susan Page is a straight-shooter, one of those reporters who generally puts the lie to Republican dogma that the establishment media is in the bag for Democrats and liberals. But in an appearance on MSNBC’s “Hardball” yesterday, her review of the launch of Michele Bachmann’s presidential bid suggests that Page has been inside [...]

33

Number of presidential nomination campaigns by sitting members of the U.S. House since 1912, counting Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) announcement of her presidential candidacy. None of these campaigns has yet resulted in a presidential win or even their party’s presidential nomination, according to Smart Politics.

Is Michelle Bachmann dumb or just plain lazy?
It ain’t clear if she’s really savvy or spacy.
When citing Iowa’s son,
She got the wrong one —
Not the cowboy, but serial killer JOHN WAYNE Gacy.

54%

Of New York voters back the new law allowing same-sex marriage, including 70% of voters under 35, according to a new Quinnipiac poll.

I sure hope that no one breaks into my office this time.

— Former Sen. George McGovern (D-SD), quoted by the Washington Post, on his law firm moving to the Watergate.

I hate to be a stickler for reality, but when the Declaration of Independence was signed, John Quincy Adams was a nine-year-old boy. To say he was ‘actively involved’ in the Revolutionary War era is awfully silly. Wouldn’t Bachmann be better off simply acknowledging she misspoke?

— Steve Benen, writing in the Washington Monthly about Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) refusal to concede to ABC News that she made a mistake calling John Quincy Adams a “Founding Father” of the United States. Instead, she insisted she was right and claimed the future American president was a “young boy but he was actively involved” in the American Revolution.

I think clearly what this demonstrates is that the president of the United States is afraid of my candidacy. He fears me.

— Rep. Michele Bachmann, in an interview on Fox News, suggesting the Obama campaign’s attack against her campaign launch is evidence of their trepidation.

1 point

Increase in the average IQ of a country’s intellectual elite — the smartest 5% of its population — raises the country’s per capita gross domestic product by an average of $468, according to an analysis of IQ scores from 90 nations by Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany and University College London.