Chris Matthews' "pimping of Obama has reached an astonishing level." Why?

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh111307.shtml

JUST AS IT EVER WAS! Eight years ago, just like today, Matthews was picking your candidate

AN ASTONISHING WORLD: As we told you last week, we’re now seeing a remarkable display of propaganda each evening on Hardball. Chris Matthews is trying to pick your nominee for you—just as he tried to do eight years ago—and the pimping of Obama has reached an astonishing level. Last night, Matthews clowned through his entire program, starting with a remarkable interview with Obama aide David Axelrod. But here’s the way the NBC “journalist” started, right at the top of the program:

MATTHEWS (11/12/07) Can Barack really do it?

Can he catch and pass front-runner Hillary?

Can he be the hero he promised to be?

Let’s play Hardball!

On Hardball, catching and passing Hillary Clinton now explicitly makes you a hero. After the intro music died, Matthews continued his pimping:

MATTHEWS (continuing directly): Good evening, I’m Chris Matthews. Welcome to Hardball.

Tonight, the Barack boom!

Just a few years ago, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama was an unknown name in politics

Today, let’s face it—he’s the head-liner of the Democratic field.

Matthews continued this way all through the hour. He trashed Democrats in a string of remarkable ways; he shaped his praise of Obama around the notion that only Obama will tell us the truth about the problems with Social Security.

We live in a deeply disordered world, when a multimillionaire plutocrat crackpot like Matthews can drive our discourse in this way—with barely a peep from our liberal organs, whose editors love to guest on his program. We’ll look at that problem all this week (see below). Tomorrow, we’ll likely offer more excerpts from last night’s remarkable program.

But make no mistake: The Team That Welch Built is trying hard to select your nominee for you (again). They’re reciting old RNC scripts as they do. This is an astonishing world.

lots more...

it just reinforces my feeling that he's the wrong choice.

"BTW, his brother lost...lol."


Obnoxiousness runs in the Matthew family.

seriously.

I doubt it.

Can I see any transcript of that?

crowning her the winner.

I think Romney is very likley to be the GOP nominee that doesn't mean I think he is good.

which you were too lazy to provide.

Lazy? Look up your own shit.

Matthews thinks he's an expert in political prediction and that was why he predicted Hillary would win the primary.

Matthews is a slobbering jerk and he's really good in kicking candidates to the curb when they slip up.

There's nothing to admire in Matthews or in some of the talking heads he caters to. He revels in seedy gossip and loves to make people squirm when he has the upper hand. When he doesn't have the advantage or feels intimidated in any way he folds like a lawn chair.

Just wait, Obama will make a mistake and if he does Matthews will be all over him like a cheap suit.

He wanted a Hillary/Giuliani "subway series." Now that he liked Obama's speech and performance, as it reminded him of Kennedy and MLK, people are complaining about him? Why no complaints about Matthews until very recently?

except the last one, not pointing out ANY of her inconsistencies, etc. That's a fact.

You must have missed the "Hillary claps too much!" or "Hillary is a fraud for being a Yankee fan!" or "Her voice is just like chalk on the chalkboard!" rants.

but when she gave the answer that she'd have to alternate between which team she'd cheer for he called her on it. The clapping thing he just started saying about a week ago. The voice thing, yes, but that was all. He said when she raised her voice it sounded harsh or whatever.

he despises her, he can't hide it and barely tries anymore. He acknowledges she's the frontrunner and runs a pretty good campaign, but that's as far as he goes. I can't believe other people don't see this--he hates her more than Freepers do.

Chris Matthews has been beating up on Hillary Clinton for years. Even when he has no choice but to compliment her on her obvious political skills, his comments are backhanded and petty.

He's hard on Obama and is getting snarkier every day with regard to him. But I don't see how any rational observer can claim that Matthews has been easy on Clinton or that he has failed to point out her inconsistencies - that's just about all he does.

September 7, 2007

"Up next, our HARDBALL round table and the 2008 spouse factor. Michelle Obama is something else. What`s she going after her husband for? Shouldn`t she be going after Hillary?"

September 26, 2007
"Is Hillary Clinton unbeatable, or is her shoveling in of campaign cash exposing her to her enemies? Let`s play Hardball."

September 27, 2007
"In Hillary land, the front-running candidate refused to say, when asked in last night`s debate, if the public ought to know who`s giving big bucks to her husband`s presidential library."

"Do you think Hillary Clinton has a notion, much less a vision, of what to do in Iraq?"

October 1, 2007
"And our big story tonight focuses tightly on that very question. Has Hillary Clinton peaked too soon? Last week, Clinton was the A-list newsmaker on the Sunday political talk shows. Then she dominated at the Democratic debate at Dartmouth College. But now the frontrunner is under new pressure. Is the political landscape shifting under Hillary? A new "Newsweek" poll shows Barack Obama now beating Hillary in Iowa among likely caucus attenders. Is the Clinton campaign strategy of branding Hillary as inevitable backfiring? More on this in a moment."

October 26, 2007
"What`s with her clapping? Why is she always clapping? There we see her -- I don`t know any -- is this a Chinese thing? What is this clapping? She doesn`t clap like you do at a movie you like or something. She claps when she meets people. She claps -- is that Tom Friedman? I mean, she claps when she stands at a luncheon. What is all the clapping about?

November 6, 2007

MATTHEWS: I don`t know. I know that she sympathizes with -- well, there she is clapping again. I don`t whether she is clapping -- would somebody please tell me why she claps every time she goes somewhere?

CAPEHART: Maybe she`s responding to the crowd.

MATTHEWS: She`s clapping for them.

MASON: We should clap more.

MATTHEWS: No, I think it`s bizarre behavior. Anyway, I think it has something to do with -- men don`t know what to do with their hands. I guess she`s like us. Anyway, we`ll be right back with more of the round table. I want an answer, why is she clapping. Matt, please. Tell me. Why does she clap all the time?

And that's just a few from the last month and a half.

I personally think the guy is nuts, but he certainly can't be accused of going easy on Hillary Clinton.

unobstructed to the Nomination. How boring! We better
make a horse race out of this. Let's push Obama. Next
they will be back pushing HRC if they get Obama going well.

Common Sense tells you that HRC did stumble but not as
badly as the geese portray it.

HRC is still the front runner. The gaggle are bored.

Happens every election. They only know how to do HorseRace
Politics.

they bow down to the queen and say nothing that would upset her majesty.
Maybe they are tired of Hillary's threats to obey the queen.

and I didn't see any of her supporters complaining about him then!

I remember him fawning over her debate performances, but the Hillary supporters weren't complaining then! Hey - it's politics. We have to beat each other up, kill the messenger, act like all journalists are unbiased and act outraged when the bias goes against us. For example, Keith Olbermann is anything but unbiased, but he's one of us, so - yea Keith. It's politics.

Exactly right. And you're right about Keith, too, and I still love him.

Funny how that didn't invoke sniveling.

Obama has had an excellent couple weeks, pundit tongue-wagging worthy excellent.

And no complaints about Matthews THEN! The facts are the facts. Obama has been doing great these past weeks, and for the news people NOT to point it out would be crazy.

He didn't say that. Did he. :grr:

What a :dunce: .

Knucklehead Matthews has put his foot in his mouth so many times, he should get flavored socks.

The author of the article did.

And stop being so hyper.

The powerful ones like Hillary he hates and the other ones he treats like dim bats. The way he was almost orgasmic on Thompson and now on Obama, it leads me to think that he's a closet gay.

I remember the pre-debate in Philly when he kept harping on what Obama should do to bring Hillary down. Is this what now passes for objective journalism in this country? What happened to the likes of Walter Cronkite?

and the all but certain nominee?

And the BO supporters do the same thing.

wasn't fawning over Hillary. He has never liked her or Bill and flails the Clintons on a regular basis.

There wasn't much he could say until she wasn't "perfect" in the last debate. That gave Matthews his chance to pick her apart without making his inner hostility apparent, to some people.

Now, everything said about Hillary is blown out of proportion and she is skewered on a daily basis. The gossip eminating from his program is palpable.

This should be obvious to anyone who has watched him in action, like I have, for a number of years.

but since the campaign kicked into gear, he has been gushing over Hillary's campaign and debates in that same icky, cloying man-crush kind of way that he exhibits.

It wasn't until Obama's SNL cameo followed by his speech at the JJ dinner followed by his appearance on MTP followed by glowing reviews did Tweety start giving Obama props.

(Edited to add that the above is the way I read it fwiw.)

And Tweety is always pleased to deliver a sucker-punch to any of the Democratic candidates exploiting whatever the latest gossip floats to the surface. He's not a friend to Democrats and, quite frankly, I'm wondering what happened to his man-crush on Giuliani.

:eyes:

But now that you mention it, I think I will start referring to his supporters as "BO supporters". Thanks. :)

for (gasp)HUSSEIN and bringing THAT up ( the muslim middle name), for some reason, is EEEVILL to Obama supporters.

what variation of initials for his fucking name does NOT offend you?

because she doesn't seem to mind that. But I do try not to disparage any candidates to the point where I'm calling names or acting childish. Is Obama that hard to spell out? It's only 2 more letters than his initials, I'd think you could handle that. But if not, have a ball!

That's why he takes this so seriously...

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/10/25/267781/index.htm

Coincidentiall, I found the information in an article that mocks Gore for not having friends. Somerby is very good.

I imagine Obama lights his fire. :)

IMO ... Matthews has been selling Clinton for a long time now. Maybe he was TRYING to look more open minded by mentioning Obama? (He couldn't even manage to carry the charade out completely and had to mention 3 different times how he thought Clinton still had the nomination w/ no prob.)

How can this surprise you??? Next week it will probably be Biden, then Edwards.

They are out to make a story; it's the way the market works. Usually, they take something with a bit of truth and run with it.

It's true Obama's on fire. :-)

You have a handy cliche for every occasion.