Chris Matthews, on Monday’s "Hardball," accused the right wing of achieving an "orgiastic level" of excitement in its rooting against Barack Obama to deliver the Olympics to Chicago. Matthews, joined by the Chicago Tribune’s Clarence Page and CNSNews.com’s very own Terry Jeffrey, opened his show by declaring that the "Right roots against America," as seen in the following opening: 

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Anti-American? Let’s play Hardball! Good evening, I’m Chris Matthews in Washington. Leading off tonight, the right roots against America. Remember how Republicans questioned Democrats' patriotism during the Bush years? How you were either with Bush or with the terrorists? So what do we make of the glee some prominent Republicans felt when Chicago and President Obama lost its Olympic bid. It's one thing to argue politics and policy, what's good and what's bad for America, that's what we do right here on "Hardball." It's another thing to root for America to fail....Here is a conservative group getting the news from, about the Olympic bid this Friday. Let's listen. [audio available here]

Story Continues Below Ad ↓

(Clip of people cheering)

MATTHEWS: Well there they are clapping. In fact we missed a clapping scene there. Continued in that line, they seem to be enjoying the news that Obama, the President and Chicago and the United States had failed in its Olympic bid to Rio De Janeiro. Anyway a Weekly Standard blog, that's the right wing or neo-con Weekly Standard, their blog went out right after Chicago was passed over. And the original headline on their blog was "Chicago Loses! Chicago Loses!" And included this news bulletin: "Cheers erupt at Weekly Standard world headquarters." Well there you have it. There's more along this line. We're gonna have Rush Limbaugh along that line in a couple of minutes but that's the beginning of this conversation. What is it, Terry, that seems to excite, almost to an orgiastic level, the right about the failure of America to get the Olympic bid last? Is this that, they're just rooting for any failure of Obama?

For his part Jeffrey responded that conservatives were merely, "happy about," Obama’s "hubris" being shot down a bit. 

However Matthews continued with his theme that the right wing is rooting against the country as he turned to blasting Rush Limbaugh, who he accused of "wallowing" in America’s failure as he chortled, "In fact he was wallowing it. Good word for him. Here we go. Here's Rush Limbaugh wallowing in the news that Chicago had failed to get the Olympic bid." Then Matthews, a little later in the segment, returned to bashing Limbaugh for saying he hopes Obama fails, and asked Jeffrey if the "goal here that anything where there's a contest, a chance to prove a success, whether it's ideological, whether it's ideological, whether it's pro-American or, or political or partisan, any chance for Barack Obama to fail, you're side is gonna root for?"

Finally Matthews offered a defense of Obama as he blamed the Republicans for all the Wall Street problems as he declared Obama was merely the "fire bridage," trying to put out the fire the GOP started as he declared: "And I refuse not to take sides between the fire brigade and the fire. He's the fire brigade, your side was the fire."

The following exchanges were aired on the October 5, edition of "Hardball":

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Leading off tonight, the right roots against America. Remember how Republicans questioned Democrats' patriotism during the Bush years? How you were either with Bush or with the terrorists? So what do we make of the glee some prominent Republicans felt when Chicago and President OBama lost its Olympic bid. It's one thing to argue politics and policy, what's good and what's bad for America, that's what we do right here on "Hardball." It's another thing to root for America to fail.

...

MATTHEWS: Here is a conservative group getting the news from, about the Olympic bid this Friday. Let's listen.

(Clip of people cheering)

MATTHEWS: Well there they are clapping. In fact we missed a clapping scene there. Continued in that line, they seem to be enjoying the news that Obama, the President and Chicago and the United States had failed in its Olympic bid to Rio De Janeiro. Anyway a Weekly Standard blog, that's the right wing or neo-con Weekly Standard, their blog went out right after Chicago was passed over. And the original headline on their blog was "Chicago Loses! Chicago Loses!" And included this news bulletin: "Cheers erupt at Weekly Standard world headquarters." Well there you have it. There's more along this line. We're gonna have Rush Limbaugh along that line in a couple of minutes but that's the beginning of this conversation. What is it, Terry, that seems to excite, almost to an orgiastic level, the right about the failure of America to get the Olympic bid last? Is this that, they're just rooting for any failure of Obama?

TERRY JEFFREY, CNSNEWS.COM: I don't think the city of Chicago getting the Olympics is synonymous with a vital national interest of the United States? I mean you can be from Chicago, not want the Olympics come to Chicago. I think what you saw conservatives happy about there is they saw hubris brought low. There is something disproportionate about the President of the United States, at a time when he's not making up his mind about how we're gonna change our strategy in Afghanistan and whether we're gonna reinforce the forces there as General McChrystal wants, flying off to Copenhagen to try and lobby the International Olympic Committee on whether a single city in the United States is gonna get games six, six years, eight years from now. So I think, I think that what people were reacting to was what they see as the hubris of President Obama being brought down.

CLARENCE PAGE, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: I've been around a long time Chris. The first time I've seen Americans cheering over America not getting the Olympics. These aren't the Chicago Olympics. Those uniforms don't say "Chicago," they say, "USA." And that's what you usually hear. You know that kind of mass disappointment. This episode kind of reminds me, Terry, of the first O.J. Simpson verdict when you had the split screen with people cheering on one side, and, and crying on the other.

MATTHEWS: Yeah.

PAGE: You know this is that kind of a contrast here.

MATTHEWS: Well let's take a look. Do we have Rush Limbaugh? Can we show him reacting to this thing on Friday. He was quite in a dither over this. In fact he was wallowing it. Good word for him. Here we go. Here's Rush Limbaugh wallowing in the news that Chicago had failed to get the Olympic bid. This is Friday.

(Begin clip)

RUSH LIMBAUGH: The world has rejected Obama! Chicago, the least number of votes. First elimination in the round of voting for the Olympics in 2016. Barack Hussein Obama mmm-mmm-mmm, Barack Hussein Obama mmm-mmm-mmm had been running around the world, for nine months, telling everybody how much our country sucks. Why would anybody award the Olympics to such a crappy place as the United States of America?

(End clip)

MATTHEWS: Terry Jeffrey for the defense.

JEFFREY: Well you know what, I think Rush-

MATTHEWS: You think that was good for the country, to have that, that set performance right there?

JEFFREY: I think, I think Rush makes an excellent point. I think one thing that-, no, I do. And I think one thing, what he's pointing to and I think it's something Americans ought to be very worried about with President Obama right now. Is his going off to Copenhagen to lobby to get the Olympics for his home town and failing to get it, shows a serious lack of prudence Chris. And, and Rush made the point, this guy is gonna negotiate with the Iranians? Right now the guy is trying to negotiate with the Iranians to stop a nuclear program that's probably headed toward the Iranians getting a nuclear weapon. Yet this guy cannot even predict what the International Olympic Committee is going to do, when he shows up and talks to them face-to-face. You know, yes that should be ridiculed in forums like talk radio. And Rush did an excellent job in pointing to the vulnerability we have, with this guy in the White House.

MATTHEWS: I'm restraining myself go ahead.

PAGE: Well good for you Chris. Very well. The IOC is hardly comparable to, to nuclear negotiations. Which by the way-

JEFFREY: Exactly! That's the point.

PAGE: -went remarkably well last week, but that news was overshadowed because Americans care more about the Olympics right now, God Bless us. You know we are lucky we can afford to do that. But the, the fact of the matter is that, that Obama went off as quickly as he could and came back as quickly as he could and that's probably part of the reason why the IOC wasn't more impressed because he didn't spend more time there.

MATTHEWS: You know I think, I think he probably knew that there were a lot of the voters in the Olympic committee who thought it's time for the Southern Hemisphere to have a shot.

PAGE: Definitely.

MATTHEWS: African and Latin-American countries, people who aren't white, have a shot at it. They're tired of the same old countries getting it. He probably knew that. I think he knew also that it was his job, coming out of Chicago to try at least. If Ronald Reagan had gone over and tried to get the Olympics for Los Angeles and it failed would you guys be rooting, would you be cheering that Reagan had failed? If Rudy Giuliani had rooted for New York, like he always does, and appropriately so, if he had tried to get it for New York would you be making a problem?

...

MATTHEWS: Let's take a look at Rush Limbaugh, earlier this year, talking about what his view is, the way he looks at the presidency of Barack Obama on his radio show.

(Begin clip)

RUSH LIMBAUGH: So I'm thinking of replying to the guy. So, I'll, I'll send you a response, but I don't need 400 words, I need four. I hope he fails.

(End clip)

MATTHEWS: What do we make of that? Just fails, period?...You don't sense, that on the right --- well maybe I'm asking the wrong person to agree with this – that there is a goal here, that anything where there's a contest, a chance to prove a success, whether it's ideological, whether it's ideological, whether it's pro-American or, or political or partisan, any chance for Barack Obama to fail, you're side is gonna root for? Him to fail, wherever it is. He must fail at any moment. Whether it's health care, whether it's the Olympics, whatever it is, you will cheer if he fails. Are you denying that now?...Isn't it true that the evidence of this past week is, wherever he attempts to do something you guys want him to stumble?

...

MATTHEWS: Most of this began last fall under George Bush. The bringing in of Hank Paulson from Goldman-Sachs, the whole works. The whole downfall of Wall Street, the attempt to bail out Wall Street, the banking industry, the failure of General Motors and those industries began long before Barack Obama came into office. He came in to clean up the mess. And I refuse not to take sides between the fire brigade and the fire. He's the fire brigade, your side was the fire.

—Geoffrey Dickens is the senior news analyst at the Media Research Center.