Chris Matthews appears to have lost that loving feeling for Barack Obama.
On "The Chris Matthews Show" Sunday, the once smitten MSNBCer called some of Obama's recent mistakes "Carteresque":
In the Carter presidency, the optics were not exactly robust, and Ronald Reagan rode that to a big victory in 1980. Is the Obama White House sending some Carteresque signals these days?
These "signals" included bowing to the Emperor of Japan, getting nothing on his trip to China, and deciding to try terrorists in New York City.
Potentially as surprising as Matthews bringing these issues up was the Washington Post's Anne Kornblut and David Ignatius agreeing with him (video embedded below the fold with transcript):
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Welcome back. The word these days is optics, visuals, signals. In the Carter presidency, the optics were not exactly robust, and Ronald Reagan rode that to a big victory in 1980. Is the Obama White House sending some Carteresque signals these days? Some see that in the deep bow to the Emperor of Japan, an unforced error say critics. Then there was, there was what happened in China: Obama got nothing in the way of concessions over there in spite of playing the polite visitor. And his effort to speak directly to the Chinese was jammed by the government. Third, that decision to try the terrorists up in that federal court in New York City. Again, nothing that had to be done, and critics say it shows that Obama, his team doesn't understand this is a war we're in. David, that's the question. These optics are everything in a president. Carter used to carry that garment bag over his shoulder. This president is he making mistakes like in China like in Japan?
DAVID IGNATIUS, WASHINGTON POST : I think he is coming across as stiff. He is talking too much sometimes and communicating too little. So the opposite of what we saw during the campaign. Although the decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York apparently was Eric Holder's, it strikes me that it really is a mistake. I mean, there are too many bad things that could happen. There is no reason to have to have done this. And, you know, it's a political feel for decision-making. That wonderful thing you just did about President Johnson's feel for the moment. That's what I think is missing now with this group in the White House. I don't know where it's gone. They certainly had it during the campaign. Maybe they'll get it back. But it's missing now.
MATTHEWS: It's the political touch. You were in China. You just got back. Tell me about that. The president tried to speak to the Chinese people and apparently it was jammed. Tell me about that.
ANNE KORNBLUT, WASHINGTON POST: This was the big moment of the whole trip to Asia in fact, eight days in Asia he was going to speak to Chinese students in Shanghai unfiltered at least in his answers, and in fact the Chinese government, you know, they allowed the event to take place, but it was only shown locally on Shanghai television. People didn't see it. The one piece of news he made in it saying that the internet should be free and people should have access dribbled out to the Chinese public and then started being deleted from all the Chinese websites. So, then, the following day he held a quote unquote press conference with the Chinese President Hu Jintao in which there were no questions and they read statements. Now, this is of course, this is the Chinese, it's their home turf. They were allowed to do what they wanted to. That was the White House's argument. And the White House haggled with them to get it more open.
MATTHEWS: The White House got jammed here. Did they know this was coming, that it wouldn't get to the people?
KORNBLUT: Sure. They knew, previous presidents had been allowed to reach the Chinese public. They knew that it might or might not. It did. But they didn't have to stand there at a press conference, call it a press conference, and not answer questions. And I think they're expect, they may have raised expectations a little for how much they were going to be able to do.
Indeed. Cue "Saturday Night Live."
*****Update: The day after this installment of "The Chris Matthews Show" was taped, Newsweek's Howard Fineman claimed Obama is a lot like Ronald Reagan!
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Wow. Here's hoping this
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 16:24 ET by Chris M-GWow. Here's hoping this isn't Tingles' only departure from his reality.
Not To Worry
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 20:24 ET by countmein5050Matthews was reaching out to warn his love...probably broke his heart to have to come THAT close to finding fault with PERFECTION. And, remember, he declared shortly after the election that HIS job, as he swore to do it, faithfully, was to MAKE SURE this President DID NOT FAIL. When asked, to give him an opportunity to correct himself, if he felt that was HIS JOB or was his job to simply report the news, Chris adamantly repeated his oath...'Yes...Yes it IS MY JOB to make sure this President DOES NOT FAIL'. So, keeping that in mind, don't get too excited that a crack MIGHT have formed based on his earth shattering disclosure (previously unknown only to himself and other concubines of Obama)...HE IS STILL ON THE JOB...to make sure Obama succeeds....WHAT EVER IT TAKES.
Guess his leg quit "tingling"....
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 11:32 ET by Patriot IINow his head is tingling LOL wadda maroon!!
Unfortunately, mathews is
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 16:37 ET by ThisnThatUnfortunately, mathews is doing this only as a warning to obama -- not as a means of informing us that this man is not fit to be president. mathews still desperately wants "his side" to win, even though his main man is nothing more than an empty, socialist shell, easily manipulated by the more serious leftists like soros and ayers. Wake us chris and smell the coffee.
__________
"mmm, mmm, mm. Barrack-Hussain-Øbama↓." - The liberals coolaid drinking song
I don't think it's a warning....
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 17:31 ET by motherbeltI think it's just a blip. After all, even in the best of marriages, one spouse drives the other one up a wall once in a while.
My bet is that he'll stew for a day and then go right back to his usual.
MSNBC and SNL, do you think
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 16:40 ET by ApacheMSNBC and SNL, do you think GE is shooting across the bow since it looks like Cap and tax is dead and healthcare is in big trouble? It's not that they are suddenly willing to take on "The One" but rather GE isn't getting what it paid for and wants Obama to get a taste of the result.
Very astute observation
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 00:10 ET by nadadhimmiVery astute observation Apache. Reminds me of the scene in "Used Cars" where the car dealer says: "This country's going to hell, I remember when you bought a politician and the sonofabitch stayed bought". The press should look out though, they may wind up as did Jake Lingle. A chicago newspaperman that got hit by Capones gang. Obama and his buddies are aware of it I'm sure.
you've lost that tingly feelin'
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 16:47 ET by spepperDah-dump... Dah-dump... Dah-dump... Dah dum-dum-dum
You've lost that tingly feelin'.....
Whoa that tingly feelin'.......
You've lost that tingly feelin', now it's gone, gone, gone........
spepper.. How
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 17:15 ET by bigtimerspepper..
How fitting....I love it...can hear it being sung as well.
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
spepper, you beat me to
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 23:19 ET by offthedeependspepper, you beat me to it...
...and the Righteous
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 23:22 ET by bigtimer...and the Righteous Brothers would have done a memorable job on that as well.
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
A Tingles spurned
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 17:00 ET by SickofLibsHe's just all bitchy lately because he wasn't invited to the secret summit at the WH, and Olbermann and Maddow were. Are we hearing any of this from them? No.
Try and get your numbers back above a Ronco infommercial, Tingles, and you may once again be invited behind the bleachers someday.
House of cards
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 17:25 ET by jdlybrandAnd when the House of Cards finally falls, they'll be slapin' each other on the back, tellin' us all...we told you so! Idiots.
"What a revoltin' development this is!"
Chester Riley
Wow...the msm worms are
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 17:59 ET by bigtimerWow...the msm worms are finally turning...
For now.
'Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea'~Breitbart
Matthews is pathetic as always....
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 18:05 ET by superconBut what about David Ignatius...?
"Although the decision to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in New York
apparently was Eric Holder's, it strikes me that it really is a
mistake." He cannot be so foolish as to believe what he just said. Holder is Obama's rubber stamp and just like everyone else who works for Obama he does what he is told. It is such an obvious lie that it I'm surprised you couldn't hear the camera man burst out laughing.
" if Republicans are able to stop Barack Obama on health care, 'it will be his Waterloo, it will break him...." -Sen. Jim DeMint
This is just the beginning
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 18:26 ET by Captain RepusThis is just the beginning as the Obammy legions begin to get buyers remorse.
These morons are co-conspirators in getting this empty-suited socialist/Marxist into our White House and they will not be able to cover up their responsibility in getting us into this failed attempt to destroy everything this nation stands for.
Journalism in this country has been discredited and possibly destroyed for at least a generation by these self-serving lemmings.
The Curse of Carter
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 18:27 ET by evilcontractorIt's pretty bad when even the liberal advocates make the carter connection. It sucks for us for having to endure this crap for another 3 years. Just think, 3 more years of being lectured to by "lttle jimmy".....
www.coastaldecorations.com
Chrissy Tinkle will NEVER
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 19:28 ET by rockyracoonChrissy Tinkle will NEVER lose his mancrush on 0bumble. He is the Eleanor Clift to 0dumbo what she was to Klintern, a grade AAA apologist.
Facts are like kryptonite to the liberal.
How to solve the KSM trial problem.
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 20:09 ET by CO2MakerChris the Wide Mouth Frog has given us a clue how to solve the problem (or as he put it in a tennis metaphor, "an unforced error") of giving the prisoners in Guantanamo a trial:
Fly the prisoners up in a Sea Stallion helicopter, which is what Jimmah did to rescue the hostages in Iran. Let one of the helicopters crash into the Atlantic, and, oh woe, it's the one with the prisoners. Quel dommage. Its maintenance wasn't well maintained, apparently. The other helicopter can rescue the crew and guards from the first one, but, alas, the prisoners didn't make it. Quel dommage, part deux.
Who'd a thunk Chris would show us the way?
No way
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 20:41 ET by DaMamaHas Matthews lost that lovin' feeling?
I guess tingles down the leg don't make for a lasting relationship.
Men - take note on that for future reference!
Perhaps Biden had it right, only missed on the timing...
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 21:56 ET by Gary HallJoe Biden - last Oct:
"It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."
Speaking of Carter - other than leaving an economic disaster.. his last year or so in office was all about being tested:
Fortunately, Ronald Reagan is elected.
Biden just got his dates wrong, I fear; the world is soon to be tested in so many ways.. and much of it will be because of the weakness of this man.
(;~/ gary
The first three are his to keep
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 22:18 ET by CO2MakerI think he gets a definite pass on Mt. St. Helen's. But if what Bush did stirred up Hasan to shoot the troops in Ft. Hood, then Carter can be held as partly complicit in Lennon's death. JR, the rich, sleazy oil tycoon? Probably a Friend of Dick (Nixon or Cheney)? Serves him right. Bush did that.
He gets no pass on Mt. St.
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 00:16 ET by nadadhimmiHe gets no pass on Mt. St. Helens from me. Carter made ME puke and he did the mountain too. The only thing she knew to do was erupt.
If Bush did Katrina
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 10:15 ET by ahusserThen Carter did Mt. St.Helen's.
"Somehow, I told you so, just doesn't quite say it." Will Smith in 'I, Robot.'
ahusser.. indeed
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 12:28 ET by Gary Hall..indeed.. it makes just about as much sense, does it not? gary
Obviously not, you moron!
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 15:57 ET by CO2MakerThe Shasta Mountain Range isn't chocolate-flavored! It's citrony and minty, or whatever. Chocolate is the flavor Bush hates most, remember? And the disaster of New Orleans was the CoE's fault, not the local Demo-cough-cough politicians' fault who redirected CoE plans instead of letting them reinforce the levees, etc. Now that the levees have failed, those Demo-cough-cough politicians want to reinforce the levies—actually to increase the levies—on the rich, who aren't taxed enough.
LOL-I posted several comments around here about three years ago
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 22:02 ET by R D Helm...that essentially said that if Barack Hussein Obama was to somehow get himself elected POTUS that they would someday wind up blasting Jimmy Earl's toothy grin into Mt. Rushmore, as Obama would make him look just that good.
It took Chrissy three years to figure out that this former community agitator is an incompetent boob?
-Dave
Our elected representatives have failed us.
I can't believe some of you are falling for this..
Sun, 11/22/2009 - 22:18 ET by Paul GJust because Matthews for ONCE says something against 'The Messiah",would be like us saying Ann Coulter is now a dumocrat and hates Bush because she questioned some of what Bush did. Matthews hasn't changed his thinking one iota.
Cateresque
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 00:01 ET by sudmufWell DUH Chris! Ya think?! We told you so!
Can't you just feel the
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 01:43 ET by jdhawkCan't you just feel the love and caring in his voice . . . the tingling in his leg? A socialist propagandists never raises his voice when voicing the littleist tinsyist criti . . . well let's not even call it the "c" word toward a fellow socialist. In fact, slimeball can't even form a declarative sentence. And, he doesn't actually voice anything of substance himself. He merely poses a question to a fellow colleaque. The colleagues response - vague ruminations.
Yet, its is just frightfull to see slimeball chew on the president this way. Doesn't he have any reverance for the OFFICE? My god! What was he thinking?
Well, rest assured and I mean that, it won't happen again - EVER!
Another thing that you will never EVER hear is the opposition - you know the Republicans - criticize bambi, the first stupid liberal, either. In fact, I defy anyone reading this to find one elected official currently holding office that has anything whatsoever bad to say about dufus regading his asinine and embarrassing trip abroad.
Talk about weak sisters . . . No wonder they are pounding the crap out of us with their socialist agenda.
Tingle gone
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 08:52 ET by Blogger Guy00001No more tingle down his leg!
Misdirection play
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 10:08 ET by falconYeah, be careful in reading too much into this. Until we start hearing the same kind of bile and hatred directed from the MSM toward this President that we did toward the last one, we cannot believe anything they say.
In fact, we can't believe anything they say, period.
In 2011, when the new GOP Congress is sworn in, one of their first acts should be to vote on the Articles of Impeachment against one Barack Hussein Obama. And the Senate should conduct a fair and just trial, convicting him of un-Constitutional acts, and removing him from office.
Many would say, hold on, that would make Joe Biden the President. True. But the new Speaker of the House would be a Republican, so we'd have a split ticket. Voila! With Biden's oratorical and cognitive skills, we'd have in essence a de facto GOP Presidency.
So we don't have to wait until 2012.
‘When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.’ - Edmund Burke, 1770
chris's first argument
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 12:55 ET by egutopia44i guess the honeymoon is over for mathews. reality is setting in for liberals that obama may be flawed. as a moderate i am also happy to say moderates are realizing that the president is really liberal!
The Sunday Morning Mathews Bore-athon is on ABC in Boca
Tue, 11/24/2009 - 08:37 ET by daveinbocaI wonder if MSNBC would allow him to make such disrespectful statements while GE is groping and contortingso much to get subsidies for their failing business under underachiever Jeff Immelt.
ABC has a smidgeon of TV journalism left in its bloodstream with Jake Tapper and Chris Ross. NBC is a complete Pravda wannabe.