Matthews: Romney's a 'Dangerous' Unthinking Puppet for Neo-Cons, Religious Right and Grover Norquist

MSNBC's Chris Matthews is clearly scared to death Barack Obama won't be reelected in November.

On Monday's Hardball, the host upped the attacks on Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ending his program with a hate-filled monologue about how the former governor of Massachusetts is a "dangerous," unthinking puppet controlled by neo-cons, the religious right, and Grover Norquist (video follows with transcript and commentary):

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with this Romney character. I don’t think Romney cares all that much about the presidency except that he wants it. If he weren’t running, you think he’d be watching this show or any other show on politics? Forget about it. Mitt cares about three things: his faith, his family, his business. Right now, his business is running for president. That’s why he’s interested in the presidency. It’s his business to be interested.

I guess Matthews forgot that Romney's been running for president since 2007. That's a long time for a type A, extremely successful business person to be going after something he doesn't care about.

But I digress:

MATTHEWS: Listen to him answer questions. If the interviewer doesn’t ask the most obvious thing, something that Mitt’s briefers have been over and over with him, he seems stunned. He doesn’t have an answer. Why? Because he never thought of that one. Fact is he hasn’t thought about many things outside his zone of interest which again includes his faith, his family, his business.

Really? So what was he thinking about when he was the governor of Massachusetts for four years? Or when he ran the Olympics in 2002?

Seems Romney's "zone of interest" goes well beyond faith, family, and business.

On the other hand, what would be so wrong with someone being exclusively interested in those three important things? Seems to me America would be a far better country if more people had such lofty priorities.

But I once again digress:

MATTHEWS: And this is the most dangerous thing about this guy. Since he doesn’t have a foreign policy, he buys the foreign policies of the powers that be. So he sings the song of his neo-con so-called advisers. What they really are of course are people who advocate a point of view: the need for a new war with each new Republican president. And they need someone in the White House to push it for them. They need a president who speaks their language. So, they write his speeches. They want war with Iran? They just put that in the next speech.

This, as I said, is the dangerous part. We’ve had experience with a president who came to office with an empty head on foreign policy, and bought the entire neo-con pitch hook, line, and sinker. The result was the one war in this country’s history that truly deserves a dunce cap.

It's interesting that Matthews criticized Romney's so-called advisers for wanting to start wars when Obama increased our nation's presence in Afghanistan, approved military action in Libya, has increased the number of armed drone strikes in Pakistan, has continued with CIA renditions, and has kept Guantanamo Bay open.

Such a militaristic foreign policy only seems to bother the dovish Matthews when a Republican's in the White House.

But I once again digress:

MATTHEWS: Mitt won’t say a word about taxes that Grover Norquist might disapprove. He won't approve any deal that cuts spending that Grover won’t say okay to. That doesn’t make Mitt a leader. It makes him Grover’s Rover. Grover says, “Fetch,” Mitt fetches. Grover says, “Beg,” Mitt begs.

Same with the religious right. Mitt won’t say a word the Pat Robertson-Franklin Graham crowd hasn’t approved for his political prayer book. There he was down at Liberty University getting an honorary degree. Now I didn’t know they gave honorary degrees for pandering.

The scariest thing about Mitt Romney is that he really is open for bids. He’s sold his soul to every right-wing faction that’s out there: the neo-cons on foreign policy; the religious right on social policy; Grover on the tax issue.

Why have a brain if you don’t have to think? With this crowd around, his only job is to do exactly what he’s told. He’s done just that. Listen closely. Tell me if you’ve ever, ever heard Mitt Romney say something that’s not pluperfect, right-wing talking points, the exact words the pressure groups are telling him to say.

This guy isn’t a candidate. He’s a speaker system.

"Tell me if you’ve ever, ever heard Mitt Romney say something that’s not pluperfect, right-wing talking points, the exact words the pressure groups are telling him to say."

Well, how about "gaffes" Matthews and the liberal media savaged the Republican candidate for such as: "I like to be able to fire people"; "I'm not concerned about the very poor"; offering to bet Rick Perry $10,000 during a debate; "[My wife] drives a couple of Cadillacs," and; "I get speaker's fees from time to time, but not very much."

Were those all "pluperfect, right-wing talking points?"

Obviously not, but Matthews and all of the Obama-loving media are afraid, and it's beginning to show. The economy isn't going to rescue their Messiah, and it's looking more and more possible Romney can win this thing.

As NewsBusters has been correctly predicting, with Romney's rise in the polls, the attacks from Obama's minions in the press are becoming more virulent and absurd.

Look a little closer, and you'll notice that Matthews was actually following the Obama campaign playbook New York magazine's John Heilemann wrote about in May:

Though the Obamans certainly hit John McCain hard four years ago—running more negative ads than any campaign in history—what they intend to do to Romney is more savage. They will pummel him for being a vulture-vampire capitalist at Bain Capital. They will pound him for being a miserable failure as the governor of Massachusetts. They will mash him for being a water-carrier for Paul Ryan’s Social Darwinist fiscal program. They will maul him for being a combination of Jerry Falwell, Joe Arpaio, and John Galt on a range of issues that strike deep chords with the Obama coalition.

It's not at all surprising to see the Hardball host carrying this ball for the man that gives him a thrill up his leg despite the organization he works for having the unmitigated audacity to call itself a "news network."

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— Noel Sheppard (@NoelSheppard) June 9, 2012