JOE SCARBOROUGH’S STOCKHOLM SYNDROME: Scott Johnson of Power Line on Scarborough and the company he keeps at MSNBC, clearly setting the stage for the long-awaited Scarborough/Reynolds 2016 showdown:

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough hangs around with a bad crowd at MSNBC, and it has had the predictable Stockholm Syndrome effect, as David Brooks’s tenure at the New York Time has had on him. In the infamous video below, Scarborough histrionically condemns Mitt Romney based on a misleading account of the Romney/Ryan campaign appearance outside Dayton last week. The Blaze picked it up here.

“I think Joe Scarborough is less a perpetrator than a victim in this matter,” Johnson adds. “He is a victim of MSNBC’s own shoddy partisanship and propaganda. He hangs around with a bad crowd. He wants to be liked.”

Joe may want to be liked by more than just the immediate gang at MSNBC. Knowing the Obama White House is watching your show — and ready to pounce with an email or two helpfully suggesting “corrections” while a segment is on the air also has a way of focusing the mind…