Maddow: Obama 1st Yr 'Most Accomplished in Generation,' Cold Winter Sign of Global Warming

Appearing as a guest on the Thursday, January 7, Late Show with David Letterman on CBS, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow praised President Obama claiming that "he’s kind of quietly put together the most legislatively accomplished first year of any President in a generation," right after she referred to Obama’s "opposition" like Sarah Palin and the Tea Party activists as being "crazy." Maddow went on to credit Obama with preventing a Great Depression:

He did the bailout thing, while being wildly unpopular, does appear to have stopped the financial industry from disappearing, we do still have an economy, you know, it’s not the best one, but we have one. And to sort of saved us from going into the Great Depression was the thing he didn’t ever plan on having to do, but he actually did it...

Also did the giant stimulus, which even conservatives are starting to admit now worked. And if he gets health care signed, that’s something that, what, six, seven presidents have tried to do, and nobody’s been able to. So everybody’s slagging him off and saying what a disappointment he’s been while he’s quietly doing everything he wants to do.

After Letterman turned attention to the Climate Summit in Copenhagen and Obama’s failure to make an agreement with countries like China and India, Maddow went on to label another of her favorite conservative targets – Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe – as "crazy." Maddow: "I sort of feel like we’re going to have to lead by example, that if we can’t get a good agreement because crazy people like Jim Inhofe decide what happens in the Senate now, we should just do it, agreement be damned."

The duo rounded up the environmental discussion with Letterman bringing up the unusually cold winter and his temptation to wonder if it contradicts global warming theory, but Maddow insisted that such a cold winter is actually consistent with the theory: "I think global warming probably means extreme weather of all kinds."

Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Thursday, January 7, Late Show with David Letterman on CBS:

RACHEL MADDOW: The most interesting thing about Obama’s first year is how crazy the opposition has gone in reaction to him. And that’s been so exciting – the Sarah Palin, Michael Steele, Tea Party stuff on the right – that I think nobody has noticed that he’s kind of quietly put together the most legislatively accomplished first year of any President in a generation.

DAVID LETTERMAN: Mm-hmm.

MADDOW: He’s done a lot.

LETTERMAN: Certainly done a lot because there was a lot to do. And effectively accomplish things, or just accomplish things?

MADDOW: Well, he did the bailout thing, while being wildly unpopular, does appear to have stopped the financial industry from disappearing, we do still have an economy, you know, it’s not the best one, but we have one. And to sort of saved us from going into the Great Depression was the thing he didn’t ever plan on having to do, but he actually did it, and had to do a lot of politically unpopular things to do.

Also did the giant stimulus, which even conservatives are starting to admit now worked. And if he gets health care signed, that’s something that, what, six, seven presidents have tried to do, and nobody’s been able to. So everybody’s slagging him off and saying what a disappointment he’s been while he’s quietly doing everything he wants to do.

...

After recounting President Obama’s failure to reach an agreement with nations like China and India at the Climate Summit in Copenhagen, she cointinued:

But in terms of the agreement, I sort of feel like we’re going to have to lead by example, that if we can’t get a good agreement because crazy people like Jim Inhofe decide what happens in the Senate now, we should just do it, agreement be damned.

...

LETTERMAN: It’s all crazy, and then we get a bad winter like we’re having now, and then everybody, myself included, thinks, "Well, maybe it’s not so bad." But I think, sadly, it’s misleading.

MADDOW: I think global warming probably means extreme weather of all kinds.