Hopeless Chris Matthews: The Daily Howler posted an excellent
commentary on Saturday about Chris Matthews’
Hardball of 01 May 2003. We didn’t watch the show, but did take a look at the
transcript. It’s truly amazing how Matthews is in thrall to Bush. For those who don’t want to bother reading the lengthy transcript, we present the following quotes by Chris: (emphasis added)
- What’s the importance of the president’s amazing display of leadership tonight?
- And that’s the president looking very much like a jet, you know, a high-flying jet star. A guy who is a jet pilot. Has been in the past when he was younger, obviously. What does that image mean to the American people, a guy who can actually get into a super sonic plane, and actually fly in an unpressurized cabin, like an actual jet pilot?
- He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics.
- ... Bob Dornan. Bob, your joining us. I can’t think of a better guy off the on the panel, a man who has flown those jet fighter. Tell me about what you feel when you see your commander-in-chief in the uniform and equipped to fly a plane like the F-18.
- Here’s a president who’s really non-verbal. He’s like Eisenhower. He looks great in a military uniform. He looks great in that cowboy costume he wears when he goes west. I remember him standing at that fence with Colin Powell. Was the best picture in the 2000 campaign.
- Ann Coulter, you’re the first to speak tonight on the buzz. The president’s performance tonight, redolent of the best of Reagan-what do you think?
- The president there-look at this guy! We’re watching him. He looks like he flew the plane. He only flew it as a passenger, but he’s flown...
- He looks for real. What is about it the commander-in-chief role, the hat that he does wear, that makes him-I mean, he seems like-he didn’t fight in a war, but he looks like he does.
- Look at this guy!
And on MSNBC’s
Countdown with Keith Olberman, there was this by Matthews:
- ... it’s a statement. It’s saying to the Democratic Party or anyone else who wants to challenge this man for a full eight-year presidency, Try to do this. Look at me. Do you really think you’ve got a guy in your casting studio, your casting director can come up with, who can match what I did today?
- Imagine Joe Lieberman in this costume, or even John Kerry. Nobody looks right in the role Bush has set for the presidency-commander-in-chief, medium height, medium build, looks good in a jet pilot’s costume-or uniform, rather-has a certain swagger, not too literary, certainly not too verbal, but a guy who speaks plainly and wins wars.
- ... he is who he is. He didn’t make himself. He didn’t design himself as a softspoken, simple-vocabulary kind of guy. That’s who he is. George W. Bush doesn’t speak in a complicated fashion. He’s a very basic, clear-thinking guy who goes to bed at 9:30 with his wife. He’s not complicated. He’s not a problem. He is George W. Bush. And I think the beauty of the guy’s presidency is it’s so custom-made for him.
- This guy has designed the presidency as the commander-in-chief’s job. And I think, obviously, September 11 has made that possible.
- [OLBERMANN: ... about his experience in the Air National Guard. It did ... bring back that “Boston Globe” report from 2000 that Mr. Bush did not exactly finish that tour with the Texas Air National Guard.] I mean, there’s a hopeless case! Give me a break! Those guys love to begrudge. ... They know what they’re doing, and they have a lot of fun going after this Republican from Texas.
- We’re proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who’s physical, who’s not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who’s president. Women like a guy who’s president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It’s simple.
Howler was too nice in our opinion. What Matthews said was pure crap.
You know, thinking it over, and considering the Michael Savage hire, we now conclude that MSNBC is an explicitly conservative political cable network - like Fox News.
posted by Quiddity at 5/04/2003 09:48:00 PM 
