The Trials and Tribulations of Chris Matthews

As a fellow Holy Cross graduate, it pains me each and every time I hear/see/read about the latest ridiculous statement made by Chris Matthews. Ever since Barack Obama began his campaign for the presidency, it seems that Mr. Matthews has decided to completely shed any journalistic integrity that he may have formerly possessed. Instead, Matthews has, with great success, become nothing more than an unhinged, partisan hack.

Now, you might ask, why am I spending time picking apart Chris Matthews when he's on the same network as Keith Olbermann, who, when compared to Matthews, takes "partisan hack" (or downright delusional) to a whole new level? Yes, it's true that Olbermann makes Chris Matthews look like a sensible, intelligent moderate. But that's only because Olbermann is a demagogic hate-monger who is so blinded by Leftist ideology that he's incapable of stringing two coherent sentences together.

Unlike Olbermann, who was (and inexplicably still doubles as) a useless sportscaster, Matthews received his undergraduate liberal arts education from the same place I did, a place that I hold in extremely high regard. Chris Matthews should know better.

Here's a brief list of just four of the most asinine remarks that Mr. Matthews has made within the last two years, just off of the top of my head, in no particular order, along with my brief responses (special thanks to the Hot-Air archive, which had some of the video clips so that I was able to transcribe the statements word for word):

- 1) This now-infamous remark after one of candidate Obama's campaign speeches: "The feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama's speech...my, I felt this thrill going up my leg."

...Phew, I'm glad you didn't tell us just how far up your leg that "thrill" extended, Mr. Matthews...But seriously...people expect a newscaster to offer an analysis of a campaign speech that is critical, thoughtful, and insightful. Instead, Chris Matthews engaged in outright, unapologetic fawning over his preferred candidate's supposed rhetorical prowess. I don't remember Bill O'Reilly breathlessly claiming that one of John McCain's stump speeches (granted, they weren't very exciting, but STILL) made his heart race or gave him goosebumps. That's because Bill O'Reilly is a talented newscaster, a true professional, and Matthews is a hack.

- 2) Chris's reaction to the news that Parker Griffith, a Democratic Representative from Alabama, was switching to the Republican Party: "Are you building the right kind of Republican Party, are you building a party off the discards of the Democrats, are you gonna keep building your party with Dixiecrats, ex-Democrats who think the Democratic Party's too mainstream? Since the '60s you've built a political party, the party of Lincoln has become the party of the, I don't know, probably the party of the Confederacy."

...Oh my, where to begin? Matthews makes it seem as if this is standard operating procedure for the Republican Party, but help me out here: can anyone name more than a few Democrats who switched parties in the past decade? Of course not- but Matthews believes that's how the Republican Party is being "built." By the way, Chris, if that was true...wouldn't the GOP be a lot more to your liking? After all, the Democrats who cross-over are obviously not hard-core right-wingers, or else they'd never have been Democrats in the first place.
...Then Matthews says the converts to the GOP switch parties because the Democrats are "too mainstream"- but the whole reason elected officials switch parties is to desperately try to save their own asses. Why would a politician trying to get re-elected move AWAY from the "mainstream"?
...Finally, and this is the most laughable part: the idea that the GOP is now the party of the Confederacy. Um, Mr. Matthews, Republicans don't just win in the deep South, as any electoral map makes clear. In fact, Matthews made these remarks shortly after New Jersey elected a Republican to its governorship (and before a Republican won Ted Kennedy's former Senate seat in Massachusetts...maybe Chris is singing a different tune now? Nah, doubt it.)

-3) His take on the Tea Party movement that has become such a force in American politics over the past several months- here's the exchange between Matthews and Daily Beast contributor Mark McKinnon (transcript/video clip at http://www.mrc.org/biasalert/2010/20100105064552.aspx):

CHRIS MATTHEWS: So who will lead the tea-baggers? Will it be Rick Perry down in Texas? Will it be Michele Bachman out in Minnesota? Will it be Sarah Palin? You first Mark [McKinnon] it's your idea. The tea-baggers are an interesting group to watch. They're not far right. They're probably center-right, in fact some centrists. But they're generally, I think, Republican voters. Right? Is that fair to say? They vote Republican?

...

MATTHEWS: And they're monochromatic right?

MARK MCKINNON, THE DAILY BEAST: Well I don't know that they're monochromatic?

MATTHEWS: They're not? Every picture I see shows them to be.

MCKINNON: Well there's a lot of people out there that cuts across a lot of demographics who feel disenfranchised.

MATTHEWS: But not that other demographic.

MCKINNON: The other demographic?

MATTHEWS: Meaning they're all white. All of them, every single one of them is white.

MCKINNON: I think that's, I think that's a fair characterization, predominately.

MATTHEWS: Yeah well what's that about?

...Ok, Matthews is actually on correct at the beginning, when he states that the protesters are not far-right wackos, but predominantly center-right types. Kudos to him on that score. Although, it's ridiculous that someone like Matthews continues to toss around the term "tea-bagger," when he must know by now that teabagging is a lewd and inappropriate sexual reference. The fact that a useless, vapid ignoramus like Olbermann keeps repeating teabagger as he smirks at the camera is one thing, but Matthews ought to know better.
...Onward, though, to the crux of the matter: his obsessive focus on the skin color of the tea partiers, a point Matthews has tried to make time and again in order to paint the "tea-baggers" as nativists or racists. It doesn't take much research (isn't that what journalists/newscasters, even opinion-based ones like Matthews, are supposed to do?) to uncover the presence of black tea partiers, to name just one racial "demographic," which is the one that the close-minded Matthews is focused on. After all, Michael Steele is the CHAIRMAN OF THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE (!), he's black (gasp!!), and he's openly supportive of the Tea Party Movement (whaaaaaat!?!?!?). Other examples abound, if one is willing to spend a minute or two looking around and doing some research...which someone as committed to hackery as Matthews is simply doesn't have the time for.

4) His response to President Obama's State of the Union speech last week: "It's interesting. He is post-racial, by all appearances. You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour."

...WOW. Alright. First off, this is Matthews openly admitting his obsession with skin color- the implication here, of course, being that before the State of the Union and after it, Chris Matthews sees Barack Obama as a black man, not just as the President of the United States, or a politician, or an American, or just another member of the human race. Which explains his related fixation with the skin color of tea partiers too- Chris Matthews pays attention to the color of people's skin always, EXCEPT for when a black man gives an eloquent, intelligent, presidential address.
...In this case, he forgot the speaker was black- meaning exactly what? That it's surprising that a black person could deliver an eloquent, intelligent speech? That it's shocking that a black person could actually be president? Matthews's remark is condescending and absurd, and that's being charitable. Most tea-partiers and other opponents of President Obama's liberal/progressive agenda don't care that the man pushing the agenda happens to be black. They object to the policies, the continued expansion of government, the specter of higher taxes and burdensome regulations that will stifle economic growth in the long-term, infringe upon our liberties, and reduce America to a big government, European-style welfare state. But Chris Matthews simply can't get past skin color. It begs the question: who is the real racist here? It's the 21st century, most of us are ready, willing, and eager to leave skin color behind in our quest for a color-blind society, and it's folks like Matthews who perpetuate the racial divide. Irony, anyone?

Chris Matthews has had a tough couple of years, although his trials and tribulations have no doubt been mitigated by the below-the-belt tingles and thrills he experiences each time that he hears Barack Obama start speaking- at which point he immediately forgets that Barack is black until he finishes speaking.

Bravo, Chris. Keep up the great work.