Steve Kornacki
Weiner defends an old race-baiting flier: 'It was just quoting from The New York Times'
When Jennifer Fermino from the Daily News asked what in the flier was true, Weiner said, "It was just quoting from the New York Times. The flier's available. You can take a look at it." More
Anthony Weiner's racially divisive attack, and apology, unearthed and broadcasted
This weekend, MSNBC's Steve Kornacki took another look at a professionally crucial episode in Anthony Weiner's past, producing a piece of literature Weiner distributed in his 1991 Council race which helped him capitalize on racial tension from the Crown Heights riots to win. More
MSNBC welcomes Weiner back, with some caveats
Anthony Weiner's rise from a young back-bencher with a debatable legislative record to a national icon for fighting progressives coincided, not coincidentally, with the rise in partisan cable news. More
(1)The return, again, of Anthony Weiner's 'Dinkins / Jackson agenda' flier
The key point of this Steve Kornacki segment about a racially inflammatory flier Anthony Weiner sent out against a rival in a 1991 City Council race is that it is more revealing than Weiner's twitter transgressions. More
(1)Is Anthony Weiner past the punchline phase yet?
A conversation with "Up" host and Salon writer Steve Kornacki about the pre-candidacy of Anthony Weiner. More
(1)On MSNBC's Steve Kornacki project
Steve Kornacki feels pretty lucky right now—lucky to have his own weekend show on MSNBC, though in fact he's worked hard to get to this point in his career—but especially lucky to be inheriting a show from Chris Hayes. More
MSNBC's Steve Kornacki will take over Chris Hayes' Sunday slot
Salon political writer, co-host of MSNBC's weekday afternoon program "The Cycle," sometime Capital contributor and Salon staff writer Steve Kornacki will get his own Sunday show. More
(2)What's the point of being Speaker Boehner?
Steve Kornacki: I still think he's safe for now, and that the real question is how much longer he's willing to put up with living the life of a powerless House speaker. More
(1)Mitt Romney and the Republicans' white guy problem
The simplest explanation of what happened to Mitt Romney, more compelling than the storm and the ground game and Nate Silver and Chris Christie and the up-ticking economy and "47 percent," even though all of those things mattered, is that there aren't enough voters now who like the agenda that the Republican Party sent Romney into the general to sell. More
F.A.Q.: Who's happiest about the Paul Ryan pick?
Steve Kornacki: Doubt there's much let-up on Bain. My sense is they see a natural link between that and the Ryan budget that they'll want to exploit. The idea is: these are exactly the kinds of governing priorities that a profits-crazed corporate raider who lives a pampered top-1 percent lifestyle free from the pain of the Great Recession would have. If anything, I'd say they think the Ryan stuff fleshes out the Romney narrative they're pushing. More
F.A.Q.: Why did Mitt Romney go to war with Britain?
Steve Kornacki: In Poland ... I dunno, he has a penchant for making awkward small talk and cracking weird jokes when he's forced into informal conversations. Maybe they're just telling him to avoid trying to make any good-natured Polish jokes. More
F.A.Q.: What do we know about the presidential race after Wisconsin that we didn't know before?
The way Walker approached collective bargaining, the ideological and political motives were obvious. He wanted to sap unions of their electoral clout and delegitimize then. Cuomo's being tough with unions, but he also communicates with them and frames what he's doing as purely budget-driven. He's signaling a basic level of respect that Walker never did, and obviously he gets some benefit of the doubt just from his party label. More
(2)Between Christine Quinn and Hilary Rosen, an unusually loud week for quiet SKD Knickerbocker
The normally understated and highly influential New York consulting firm, SKD Knickerbocker, whose current and former clients include Barack Obama, Andrew Cuomo, Michael Bloomberg, and the Democratic National Committee, was at the center of two new stories this week. More
(7)F.A.Q.: How much more complicated does Rush Limbaugh make it to be the Republican nominee?
Steve Kornacki: The broader issue here is that Rush is a perfect stand-in for the entire Obama-era Republican Party base—a restive, purity-obsessed and fanatically anti-Obama group that Romney is a poor stylistic match for. And they're watching him like a hawk. That's the difference between how the G.O.P. base has responded to Obama and how it's responded to previous Democratic presidents. More
F.A.Q.: What does the good scenario for Mitt Romney look like at this point?
Steve Kornacki: I don't think we're seeing a preview of the fall at all, in that in a Romney/Obama general there won't be a meaningful financial disparity, the attack ads will come in roughly equal numbers and intensity from each side, and the effect will be a wash—I doubt the ads will win or lose the election. Mainly, each candidate will be spending on them to prevent the other one from gaining an advantage. And I think that's true even if the pro-Romney super PAC ends up with, say, tens of millions more than Obama's. As long as each side reaches a basic threshold, my sense is there's not going to be a direct relationship between how many more dollars one raises and how many more votes that candidate gets. More
