Matthews on Today show: "fair comparisons" of Iraq to Vietnam

You know the MSM figure a story has legs when they create a logo for it, and sure enough Today opened its segment with a natty little logo of an American solider, an Iraqi flag, and the emblazoned question: "Iraq – the new Vietnam?”

In to answer the question was that paragon of objectivity Chris Matthews – former aide to Dem House Speaker Tip O’Neill.

There’s nothing Dems like better than a renegade Republican, and Chuck Hagel has been filling that role nicely. Lauer opened with this quote from Hagel: “The reason I don’t think more troops are the answer right now is that we’re past that stage right now. We’re locked into a bogged-down problem not dissimilar to Vietnam.”

Matthews agreed with Lauer’s suggestion that Hagel’s statement was a problem for the President. “He’s not just a Republican. The Senator from Nebraska is from a red state, very much the heartland of America, an extremely Republican state.” Enough already, Chris. We get it: Nebraska ain’t New York.

Continued Matthews: “We’re not talking about Yoko Ono here or Jane Fonda. We’re talking about a guy from the Midwest, a Republican, who served his country and now thinks he sees echoes of a war he himself fought in himself.”

As to the question of the day, Matthews found two “fair comparisons” with Vietnam.

The first: “everybody says we can’t bug out. We can’t cut and run.”

Well, Chris, when we did cut and run from Vietnam, the Communists imposed a brutal dictatorship from which the country still hasn’t emerged more than 30 years later, killing perhaps one million Vietnamese in the process, with another two million slaughtered in Cambodia. Sounds like the anti-cut and run crowd had a point, doesn't it?.

Next, opined Matthews: " there’s also another phrase from Vietnam that comes to mind: ‘no light at the end of the tunnel.' This sense of murkiness, when is it ever going to end?”

Speaking of murkiness, Matthews ended with this murky musical allusion: “It seems like we’re going to be hearing Dusty Springfield - the chopper blades again.”

Dusty Springfield? Or was it Buffalo Springfield? Doesn’t matter, we get the point, Chris:

The image the MSM would most like to have in time for Hillary! ’08? Americans being evacuated from the roof of the embassy in Baghdad.

Finkelstein has degrees from Cornell University and Harvard Law School.He lives in Ithaca, NY where he hosts "Right Angle," a local political talk show. Finkelstein specializes in exposing liberal bias at NBC's Today Show.