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Chris Matthews seemed a tad bit concerned about his man Barack Obama, on Thursday's Hardball, as the MSNBC host feared that the President was "too cool for his nasty, heated" enemies like Rush Limbaugh. Matthews -- who announced he is on Day 9 of his so far fruitless search for a Republican to appear on his show to slam the talk radio host -- worried that Obama wasn't getting angry enough at his critics.

Matthews, who admitted he has a "heart for this guy" even went as far to ask his guest, Newsweek's Jonathan Alter, "is it still possible that he could find greatness as president?" Alter tried to assuage Matthews' fears by assuring him that Obama can "absolutely" achieve that greatness and claimed he had "a reasonably good chance of getting into that first rank of American presidents."  [audio available here]

The following is a full transcript of the interview segment as it was aired on the May 20 edition of Hardball: 

NBC's Meredith Vieira, on Tuesday's Today show, in a segment breaking down today's primary races with Newt Gingrich, cited a possible Rand Paul win over Trey Grayson in the GOP Kentucky Senate primary fight as an example of the Tea Party's strength and actually wondered if that was a cause of concern for the GOP. Vieira pressed the former Speaker of the House: "If Rand Paul wins, that's good news for the Tea Party movement but is it good news for the Republicans come November?" For his part Gingrich responded it was good news for the GOP in that the Tea Party adds "drive" and a "toughness that the Republican Party needs."

Also during her interview with Gingrich, who was on to plug his new book To Save America, Vieira plucked out an admittedly over-the-top quote made by Gingrich as she questioned: "Can you honestly compare what's going on with the Democrats to Nazi Germany?" However this line of questioning revealed a double standard at NBC News, as Vieira's colleague Andrea Mitchell, back on the May 3 NBC Nightly News, wasn't bothered by Saturday Night Live's Seth Myers calling Arizonans Nazis, even going as far to highlight his exchange with Jon Stewart:

Last week an agitated Chris Matthews tried to hold Dick Cheney accountable for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and this week Matthews is demanding action from President Obama, as the Hardball host pushed the President to nationalize the oil industry to solve the problem. On Monday's Hardball a visibly angry Matthews demanded Obama go after BP: "Why doesn't the President go in there, nationalize an industry and get the job done for the people?" and pointed out that in China they would have a much harsher response to BP: "They execute people for this. Major industrial leaders that commit crimes like this." 

Matthews even took aim at the entire capitalist system, as over video of the oil slick, he sarcastically mocked: "Everybody says 'Capitalism is great. Unbridled free enterprise is great.' Look at it! This is great, isn't it?!" [audio available here]

The following Matthews outbursts were aired on the May 17 edition of Hardball:

During a segment where the Today cast celebrated the fifth anniversary of YouTube, in which they highlighted such clips as the Numa Numa Kid and other faves, Meredith Vieira, on Monday's show, threw an unexpected cheap shot at former Senator George Allen's way. Noting how YouTube has launched careers of those like Justin Beiber, Vieira -- right before a clip of Allen making his "macaca" quip -- went on to dig that it has also "sunk them." Vieira failed to point out what really drove the hits to the Allen video were the Democratic Party of Virginia and all of its enablers in the liberal media like NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC and of course the Washington Post. [audio available here]

The following excerpt was aired on the May 17 Today show:

If Jonathan Alter's interview segment, on Friday's Today show with NBC's Meredith Vieira, is any indication of what to expect from his new book on the Obama presidency, readers should not look forward to an insightful, hard-hitting treatment of the President as the Newsweek columnist praised Obama as not "a phony" who has a "psychological health to him." On to plug his book, The Promise, Alter -- after being cued up by Vieira to explain why Obama's approval ratings remain "strong" in a new NBC News poll -- boiled it down to his bringing an "authenticity" and "thoughtfulness" to his presidency.

ALTER: He just doesn't seem like a phony and the people who deal with him every day feel this way. He's got a kind of psychological health to him and even if you don't like what he's doing, and I try to assess where he's succeeded and where he's failed, you have to respect the man. He, he brings a thoughtfulness to the process. And he does try to drill down into these decisions.

Alter also cited Obama's pick of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court as an example of him being a "conciliator" that harkens back to his days at Harvard University when he brought "liberals and conservatives together."

The following is the full interview as it was aired on the May 14 Today show:

Chris Matthews simply can't get Dick Cheney out of his mind. On Tuesday's Hardball, the MSNBC host once again attempted to pin the blame of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on the former vice president, a theory he first broached last week, as he sinisterly questioned "What role did Dick Cheney play in all of this?" Matthews, going after one of his favorite punching bags, brought on Democratic Congressman John Garamendi and an attorney suing BP, Mike Papantonio, to prosecute his case as he accused Cheney and Halliburton of weakening regulations, which in turn led to the oil spill. Matthews even went as far to liken government in the Bush/Cheney years as reminiscent of "a third world banana republic." [audio available here]

MATTHEWS: And I look at this situation, the President of the United States is allowed to have a vice president who in many ways looks more powerful than he does. And Dick Cheney, of his own volition, says, "I'm bringing all the oil industry tycoons into the office with me. Absolute secrecy. We're gonna set energy policy for a democratic country." We're supposed to be a democracy. Yet the policies made in the secrecy of the White House, no press allowed, no records kept. Absolute secrecy. And then we find out that these guys at Halliburton, one of these companies, in fact the company that paid him $34 million into the vice presidency, has gotten their pick of the regulators to regulate Halliburton. How do we stop this?! It seems like a third-world banana republic would do it this way. 

The following teaser and exchanges were aired on the May 11 Hardball:

A desperate-sounding Chris Matthews, on Tuesday's Hardball, put out a call to a Republican, any Republican, to come on his airwaves to denounce Rush Limbaugh as a liar. At the top of the show the MSNBC host issued the following challenge:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: And out on a Limbaugh! We're issuing a challenge tonight and every night to elected Republicans. Come on Hardball please sir and madam and tell us you disagree with Rush on anything! Tell us you've had it with his distortions, his misrepresentations, his outright falsehoods. We invite you to tell us he's not the leader of the Republican Party. It's our standing offer. Come on Hardball and tell us Rush isn't telling the truth. 

Later on in the program Matthews, in a segment full of cheap shots and out-of-context analysis, invited on Eric Burns from Media Matters and David Corn of Mother Jones to examine the conservative talk radio host's "ramblings," as Burns declared "most of what comes out of his mouth is a lie," and Corn implied Limbaugh was inciting violence against Obama as he decried the radio giant for being "full of untruths and lies and it's hateful...he's confirming perhaps the worst impulses that people might have, towards the Obama administration." [extended video clip here] [abbreviated audio available here] [extended audio clip here]

Throughout the show Matthews, repeatedly requested Republicans to come on his program to denounce Limbaugh as he charged: "I wonder if the Republican Party is not just in bed with Rush. They're under the covers."

The following teaser and full segment were aired on the May 11 edition of Hardball:

In what may be a sign of the media's confidence that Elena Kagan will be easily confirmed to the Supreme Court, NBC's Matt Lauer, on Tuesday's Today show, didn't feel the need to sell Kagan to viewers and actually asked somewhat tough questions to Vice President Joe Biden. Lauer even hit Biden from the right when he asked the following: "When we say maybe does she or does she not understand the plight of ordinary people, is that even important? Isn't the job of a Supreme Court justice to understand the Constitution only and interpret it?"

However Lauer returned to liberal form, when questions turned to the oil spill in the Gulf when he pressed: "Given the fact we're facing an environmental and economic disaster here Mr. Vice President, are the President's plans to expand offshore drilling dead in the water?...Are people gonna have an appetite for more drilling after all this?

The following is the full interview with Biden as it was aired on the May 11 Today show:

Fox News Channel's Craig Rivera, on Sunday's Geraldo At Large, in a shipboard interview from the Gulf of Mexico, actually asked a conservationist if the oil spill there was a real world equivalent of the fictional disaster seen in the recent James Cameron blockbuster as he pressed: "Do you see what's happening in the oil industry and offshore drilling comparable or some kind of parallel to, like, the movie Avatar?"

After Steiner theorized: "It certainly could be," Rivera then made the following hard transition to an interview with Avatar star Sigourney Weaver: "Although the fight Sigourney Weaver and director James Cameron are waging to protect the rights of the indigenous people of the Amazon from a huge hydroelectric plant is a world away from the situation in the gulf oil spill, the principle is the same - protecting the planet from those interested in only quick profits." Rivera then aired a clip of Weaver boasting that Avatar showed the world "how concerned people are about our planet." [video below the fold]

The following is an excerpt from the Craig Rivera piece as it was aired on the May 9 edition of Geraldo At Large:

When was the last time any one used a typewriter? Well on Friday's Today show, in talking with CNBC's Jim Cramer and Maria Bartiromo, in what has to be a classic out of touch moment, Lauer flashed back to the '70s when he asked if yesterday's market drop was caused by someone hitting the "wrong key on a typewriter." Later on, after perhaps being informed by his producer that no one is using an IBM Selectric any more, Lauer used the more updated terminology of "keyboard." [video below the fold] [audio available here]

The following exchange was aired on the May 7 Today show:

Chris Matthews got into such a tizzy about Republicans criticizing Barack Obama on his terror policy that he flew off the handle, on Thursday's Hardball, as he yelled at his GOP guest: "What's your problem with the guy? Why do you keep bitching?!" During a segment with regular panelists, Democratic strategist Steve McMahon and Republican strategist Todd Harris, the MSNBC host directed, what seemed to be a pent-up frustration about the GOP at Harris, for his party's questioning of "one of the smartest presidents we've ever had." [audio available here] [video below the fold]

The following outburst was aired on the May 6 edition of Hardball:

The Dick Cheney obsessed Chris Matthews, on Wednesday's Hardball, served up a softball to liberal Democratic Congressman Ed Markey as he pondered if the former vice president could, in any way, be blamed for the BP oil spill. Matthews, who it seems can't go a week without mentioning Cheney, even though he's no longer in office, questioned Markey if the oil spill occurred because of lax oversight by Cheney-installed regulators as he asked: "To what extent is the current regulatory regime, that governs people like BP, in place because of the previous administration, which was run by Cheney, based upon the Halliburton lifestyle that he came from?" [audio available here]

The following exchange was aired on the May 5 edition of Hardball:

Chris Matthews, on Tuesday's Hardball, brought on two former CIA officials to discuss the latest terror attack, and the MSNBC host agreed with Tyler Drumheller that the most recent attacker was motivated by his house being foreclosed on and also agreed with Robert Baer who feared another attack could lead to "The Tea Party being strengthened" which could lead to "people blaming the White House for a situation it didn't create." Baer also hit Matthews' sweet spot of talking points when he went on to warn that the last successful terror attack "got us into a war in Iraq we didn't need to be in." [audio available here] 

ROBERT BAER, FORMER CIA FIELD OFFICER: But what I'm really afraid, Chris, is the next time one of these guys are going to get through. And what's it gonna do to this country? It's gonna rip it apart. Because people are gonna be looking for quick, immediate answers.

MATTHEWS: How so?

BAER: You know, they're gonna, they're gonna look, you know, crack down on, you know, who knows where it's gonna to end up? You're gonna see the Tea Party being, you know, being strengthened. You're gonna see people blaming the White House for a situation it didn't create. 

MATTHEWS: Yeah.

BAER: It could affect the, you know it could affect the United States for a long time. Look, it got us into a war in Iraq we didn't need to be in...

MATTHEWS: Yeah well I agree.

The following exchange was aired on the May 4 edition of Hardball:

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Kent State shootings, and over the weekend Chris Matthews and his liberal cronies, on his syndicated The Chris Matthews Show, previewed the event as they reminisced about where they were at the time. Their memories reflect how anti-war they were back then and how that moment shaped them into the libs they are today as Matthews revealed the likes of his guests, like Newsweek's Howard Fineman and CNN's Gloria Borger, as students, were "editorializing against the war."

In his teasers for the segment Matthews set the table by claiming Kent State marked the time when "The sweetness of the anti-war movement turned sour" and "in the eyes of many the government lost moral authority." While the Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page was actually serving in the Army at the time, the other panelists had already begun their journey towards becoming elite members of the liberal media as Howard Fineman remembered the day this way:

Barack Obama's performance at the Washington Correspondent's Dinner drew rave reviews from the Today show cast on Monday, as everyone agreed with Al Roker's assessment that the President was "on fire." While Today co-anchor was impressed by Obama's "fantastic timing" NBC's Norah O'Donnell, in her story filed for Today, praised Obama, even at the expense of fellow NBC employee Jay Leno: "After the President's comedic tour de force Tonight Show host Jay Leno had a hard act to follow."

In the 10:00am hour Kathie Lee Gifford called Obama "brilliant" and Hoda Kotb, also taking a shot at her NBC colleague noted: "Keep in mind Jay Leno was on the stage, as was Obama, and the funniest person in the room was definitely the President."

The following is the full O'Donnell story followed by the Today cast's reaction as they were aired on the May 3 Today show:

Both Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist appeared live on Friday's Today show, and both received the same question by NBC's Meredith Vieira, was Crist's departure from the GOP just another example of the Republicans being "intolerant" to moderates? In addition to advancing that liberal view of the Florida Senate race, Vieira also questioned if Rubio was being "manipulated" by the Tea Party, as seen in the following exchange: 

MEREDITH VIEIRA: Do you feel you're being manipulated at all by the Tea Party? Because they're the ones that have sort of helped boost your numbers. You've become their darling.

MARCO RUBIO: Absolutely not. Well you know what? The Tea Party is just a collection of every day Americans, most of whom have never participated in politics before, who are tired of the direction of this country and want their voices heard. This is not a professional political movement. In fact, it's only a year old but I think it's been a good thing for American politics to see people get involved and have their voices heard. I'm proud of the, of the support they've given me. [audio availabe here]

Before that exchange Vieira threw out the "GOP is too intolerant" line, first to Crist:

NBC's Matt Lauer, on Wednesday's Today show, previewed a segment about an FTC campaign to urge teachers to warn their tween-aged students about the evils of marketing, (something apparently parents are ill-equipped to do themselves) as he alerted viewers: "Plus the barrage of ads our kids see every day and what's being done to protect them from the urge to buy, buy, buy!" Amusingly that teaser, over a video clip of an Apple Jacks ad featuring animated characters, came right before the Today show broke for an actual cereal commercial featuring -- you guessed it -- animated characters.

Later on in the segment Lauer confessed he worries because his own kids are in the targeted age range of the advertisers and fretted to his guest, the FTC's David Kladeck, about their lack of regulation: "Real quickly, if possible, in some ways are you throwing in the towel here saying, 'We can no longer regulate the ads, we simply have to try and deal with them because we know they're going to be out there no matter what?'" To which Kladeck responded that a little something called the First Amendment got in the way of any sort of ad ban.

The following teasers and segment were aired on the April 28 Today show:

On Wednesday's Today show, NBC's Matt Lauer invited on Democratic Senator Carl Levin and Republican Senator Susan Collins to have what was, ostensibly, a bipartisan discussion about the Goldman Sachs hearings, but the Today co-anchor tilted the balance of that discussion when he accused the Republicans of trying to have it both ways by claiming they wanted to fix the problems on Wall Street, but kept blocking debate. Lauer even asked Levin, with Collins standing right beside him, "I don't mean this as a personal comment but Senator Levin, it sounds a bit schizophrenic to me. Does it sound that way to you?" [audio available here]

The following segment was aired on the April 28 Today show:

Chris Matthews spent an entire segment of Monday's Hardball sucking up to director James Cameron as the MSNBC host prodded the "Avatar" director to trash those in the "right wing media" who deny global warming, like Glenn Beck, as "very dangerous to this country." Cameron, who was on to plug the DVD version (coming soon to a landfill near you) of his pro-greenie fantasy flick, warned the Earth was being imperiled by not only the United States but also a rising middle class in places like India and China, and urged viewers to combat the "professional deniers" like Beck who are thwarting his fight against the "clear and present danger" of climate change. [audio available here]

CHRIS MATTHEWS: I'm worried about the media though. Because now we have a right wing media available. That if you feel like, if you're a business guy for example or a business woman and you want to have a good excuse, a good dodge not to do anything, well you listen to someone on the right like Beck who's willing to come in and say, "Oh you don't have to do anything. These guys are a bunch of tree huggers forget about it."

JAMES CAMERON: Right. Yeah.

MATTHEWS: What do you think of Beck's power in that direction, to give people a big excuse slip not to do anything?

NBC's Matt Lauer, on Monday's Today show, confronted Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio with a cartoon that depicted a man being arrested for buying nachos, as the Today co-anchor pressed Arpaio about that state's enforcement of illegal immigration laws: "Are you worried that it affects the image of your state?" Throughout the interview Lauer peppered the sheriff with questions about "racial profiling" and "civil rights violations" and questioned if the new policy will "distract law enforcement" and "take valuable resources away from cracking down on more serious crimes." [audio available here]

The following is a complete transcript of the segment at it was aired on the April 26 Today show:

Comic legend and liberal activist Chevy Chase was invited on Thursday's Today show to promote his NBC comedy "Community" and advocate for environmentalism on this Earth Day, as he told viewers he'll be emceing a charity auction to benefit liberal greenie groups like the NRDC. In the process of noting some of the items to be auctioned off at the Christie's event, including a golf outing with Bill Clinton, Chase revealed none other than Today co-anchor Matt Lauer offered his own donation - a guided tour of the Today set. [audio available here]

The following exchange was aired on the April 22 Today show:

CNBC's John Harwood, in an interview aired on Thursday's Today show, pressed Barack Obama about the need to regulate Wall Street as he questioned the President if Americans needed to view them in the same way they view Big Tobacco as "companies whose core activities are harmful to the country?" Obama declined to make the comparison to the tobacco companies, but went on to insist Wall Street needed new rules to protect against "excess." [audio available here]

JOHN HARWOOD: Should average Americans think about big Wall Street institutions the way that some have come to think about tobacco companies, that is, companies whose core activities are harmful to the country? 

BARACK OBAMA: No. We have to have a thriving financial sector. But, we also have to have basic rules of the road in place to make sure that investors, consumers, shareholders, the economy as a whole, are protected against excess. We have gotten into one of those places where we need to update those rules of the road, and if we do so, not only is that good for the economy, not only does it protect consumers and investors, it's also good for the financial sector.

Chris Matthews -- who was offended by Rush Limbaugh calling the Obama administration the "regime"-- claimed the Republicans were engaged in a "Stalinesque" purge. On Tuesday's Hardball Matthews charged that conservatives challenging moderates within the Republican Party (like Marco Rubio versus Charlie Crist in Florida) was akin to Joseph Stalin's violent purges in the 1930s, as he teased an upcoming segment this way: "Coming up what happens to Republicans who don't march to the right wing tune? Well they're getting purged. This is Stalinesque, this stuff." 

Later on in the segment Matthews claimed the GOP was engaging in something "particularly nasty" in "pruning itself" and warned Republicans risked losing "sophisticated" voters in the suburbs if it continued to turn towards "Palin-ism and gun-toters."

The following Matthews quotes were aired on the April 20 edition of Hardball:

A new Pew poll that shows just 22 percent of respondents trust the government was actually covered by NBC Nightly News on Monday night but for some reason NBC's Today show didn't find that news interesting as they failed to report on the results. However, on Tuesday's Today, they did find a Pew poll they did like, their results on teen texting, as Today co-anchor Ann Curry relayed: "The study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project says that texting is now the main way that teens communicate."

On last evening's Nightly news Savannah Guthrie, at the tail end of another report, noted that "just 22 percent say they trust Washington" and "feel that the government regulates free enterprise too much." However Guthie also pointed out "they would like to see more regulation of Wall Street." At least Nightly News covered the poll, something Today couldn't be bothered about.

The following excerpts are from the April 19 NBC Nightly News and then April 20 Today show:

A visibly perturbed Jay Barbree, during MSNBC live coverage on Thursday, called out Barack Obama for making cuts in NASA that could result, as he claimed, in 9,000 employees losing their jobs even though during the campaign, as the long time NBC correspondent reported, the President "told 15,000 workers here at the Space Center that if they would vote for him, that he would protect their jobs." This sent MSNBC live anchor Alex Witt immediately into administration defense mode as she asserted: "I will say on behalf of the Obama administration, they contend that 2500 new jobs will be created."

The following exchange was aired during MSNBC's live April 15 coverage at around 12pm Eastern:

ALEX WITT: Right now on MSNBC, President Obama gets ready to head to NASA to try to build support for his efforts to revamp the nation's space program. Although the international space station will remain active, plans to send astronauts back to the moon are being scrubbed for now and that is dividing, not only Congress, but also some of the few people who have actually stepped foot on the lunar surface. Let's bring in NBC's Jay Barbree who's live for us at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. Jay, good day to you.

NBC's Andrea Mitchell, on Thursday's Today show, delivered a snarky piece about Sarah Palin "making millions on books" and "highly paid speeches"going as far to portray the former Republican Alaskan governor as a diva who demands a Lear jet and "bendable straws" for her water bottles at appearances.

However Mitchell was singing a different tune back in 2001 when a former Democratic officeholder, in this case Bill Clinton, cashed in, as she hailed on the August 7, 2001 NBC Nightly News: "The self-declared 'Comeback Kid,' a hero to his new office neighbors in Harlem, now breaking a world record, signing the biggest non-fiction book deal in history, bigger than the Pope's. Bigger than Hillary Clinton's. Sources say as much as $12 million."

Fast forward to Thursday's Today show, and Mitchell painted Palin as a hypocrite for getting rid of her state-funded luxury jet back in Alaska, since she is now requesting a Lear jet for an appearance at the cash-strapped Cal State-Stanislaus University. However, as Mitchell herself pointed out, albeit at the end of the piece, Palin's speech at the campus is being paid by private funds and will, according to the university's president, raise money for the school.

ANDREA MITCHELL: And since the campaign, she has made some changes herself. Remember this?

SARAH PALIN: We got rid of a few things in the governor's office that I just didn't think our citizens should be paying for. Like that luxury jet. It was a little bit over the top.

MITCHELL: A year-and-a-half later, the hockey mom from Wasilla is Palin Inc. making millions on books, a new TV series for Discovery - "Sarah Palin's Alaska." A lucrative contract with Fox News and highly paid speeches. But a speech she's been hired to give at Cal State - Stanislaus, one of 23 California campuses drowning in red ink, is causing a furor. That's because students found a copy of Palin's contract for the black tie event in a trash bin.

Bill Maher and Chris Matthews, on Wednesday's Hardball, denigrated Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann as merely "attractive" women with very little smarts with the HBO host even going as far to use a vulgar euphemism to describe them as he claimed: "They're attractive especially to the Republican Party, which is not known as a party that really does well with the opposite sex. Usually they're doughy white men and I think they look on Michele Bachmann and, and Sarah Palin, as you know, M.I.L.Fs and I agree, they're Morons I'd Like to Forget."

That remark even drew an "Oh my God" from the Hardball host but Matthews, just moments earlier, slammed Palin for faking intelligence: "When she gives a prepared speech from her stump she's talking about the Crimea, she's talking about the Ukraine, about Chechnya. She's got opinions about Iran. It's absolutely world wide the areas she's touching on. My only belief is she's got neo-cons scribbling all this stuff in crayon for her and she's reading it out like she knows what she's talking about but if you ask her one question she doesn't know any answer. So I am a little bit puzzled but I'm not really."

The following is the fuller exchange as it was aired on the April 14 Hardball:

Chris Matthews is becoming a master of the odd analogy. In the past Matthews has compared favorites of the left like Bill Clinton to Jesus and Barack Obama to God and those on the right like Rush Limbaugh to a walrus and Dick Cheney to the Hussein brothers. Well on Tuesday's Hardball, Matthews added another strange comparison to his collection as he claimed former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin reminded him of the extravagant pianist Liberace. During his "Sideshow" segment Matthews cited $12 million as his "Big Number" of the night, claiming that is what the former Alaskan governor has earned since leaving office, which caused Matthews to blurt: "As they used to say of Liberace...another person who took some licks for over the-top-behavior he laughed all the way to the bank."

The following Matthews dig at Palin's expense was aired on the April 13 edition of Hardball:

At the conclusion of a program that included Chris Matthews inviting on Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen to compare the Tea Party to the KKK, the Hardball host finished his Thursday episode with a "Let Me Finish" rant where he questioned if Abraham Lincoln would even be a Republican today and wondered if the GOP would even "like him?" Matthews even went as far to ask his audience "who do you think represents the spirit of Lincoln in today's politics," Obama or the GOP?

The following teaser and final commentary were aired on the April 8 edition of Hardball:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: When we return which party would Abraham Lincoln join today? Would he still be a Republican after all the talk about state's rights and honoring the Confederacy? Would they like him? You're watching Hardball! It's choosing up sides time for Abraham Lincoln. Only on MSNBC.

Thanks to James Cameron's "Avatar," environmentalists have a whole new way to preach to audiences about their over consumption. Invited on Wednesday's Today show to showcase endangered species, Sea World and Busch Garden's animal ambassador Julie Scardina played on the guilt of viewers as she asked the Today cast if they had seen Avatar and warned them: "You know our world is as amazing and incredible and unique as Pandora and yet a lot of people don't realize it's being destroyed in the same way." As Scardina played with a gibbon NBC's Ann Curry prompted Scardina: "Why is this gibbon's habitat so endangered?" which allowed Scardina to rail against logging, development and "consumption" in general.

The following exchange was aired on the April 7 Today show: