Shockingly Petty: News Corp. Outlets Attack Obama Over Paper Clip

by Todd Gregory

In the annals of mindless partisan sniping, this may place at the top.

This morning, Fox & Friends joined the New York Post in attacking President Obama for using a paper clip. Read that again: They attacked Obama for using a paper clip.

The Post's story today on Obama's jobs bill is headlined "O gives jobs 'clip' service; $447B 'tax hike' plan bound by chintzy fastener," and its first two paragraphs attack Obama for his choice of document fasteners:

President Obama's plan to reverse the nation's staggering jobless rate is held together with a paper clip!

"Here it is," Obama said, waving a copy of his jobs plan during a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden yesterday, an enormous paper clip binding the pages together.

Witness the madness:

The accompanying photo's caption reads, "President Obama, joined by VP Joe Biden, yesterday wields a copy of his jobs plan - with a giant paper clip."

Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy repeated this attack at the top of the show today -- right down to using the word "chintzy" -- while the on-screen graphic read "Obama's 'Clip' Service":

DOOCY: Meanwhile, come and get your copy. President Obama's jobs bill, hot off the presses -- at Kinko's? Hundreds of billions in tax hikes and new spending bound together with a chintzy clip. Look at that thing.

BRIAN KILMEADE (co-host): Right.

DOOCY: What's that about?

KILMEADE: We've never had the word "chintzy" in the cold open before.

GRETCHEN CARLSON (co-host): We're in a recession.

So, the question here is, what would these right-wing outlets prefer? That Obama use a more costly way to hold together a sheaf of papers, like a bound copy of the bill?

Wouldn't that constitute the always-hated government waste?

In all seriousness, this nicely illustrates the right-wing media's willingness to attack Obama over literally anything, including his use of a paper clip.