Hardball

It's going to be a long, hot campaign . . . Yesterday, Politico reported that the Obama strategy is to "destroy" or "kill" his perceived chief 2012 rival, Mitt Romney.  The Obamaoids are no doubt counting on close collaboration with their friends in the MSM.

Today we were treated to the kind of shameless smear that the left surely has in store.  On his MSNBC show this evening, Chris Matthews flatly stated that Rush Limbaugh . . . wants to end the integration of the public schools and armed forces. View video after the jump.

Is the "thrill" gone? Chris Matthews' despair over the faltering presidency of Barack Obama increased on Wednesday as the Hardball anchor compared the Democrat to George W. Bush. 

An angry Matthews brought up Obama's June 13 comment that, regarding the stimulus, "shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected." The MSNBC anchor railed, "That reminded me of Dubya, who was out to lunch on the war in Iraq, saying he couldn't find the WMD and thinking that's funny."

[See video below. MP3 audio here.]

At the top of Wednesday's NBC Today, co-host Matt Lauer declared: "President Obama faces new criticism from members of his own party, is he doing enough to manage the [economic] crisis?...Should he, for example, demand that Congress cut short its summer vacation to address the situation?" In the segment that followed, the headline on screen read: "Dems Urge Obama to Get Tough With GOP & Congress."

Chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd explained that "there are a lot of Democrats out there that believe this is a leadership test for President Obama....And many Democrats are increasingly upset about the way the President negotiates with Republicans." A sound bite was included from left-wing Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank fretting: "The Democratic base is as furious as they've been at any point in the last 16 years....they can't challenge Barack Obama because that would hand the presidency to the Republicans."

Liberal bias is rampant among the media, but there is no more tangible example of it than in how the media treat Conservative women. The most recent cover of Newsweek features a very wide-eyed Michele Bachmann, looking surprised and unattractive. Perhaps more disturbing is the caption Newsweek placed below the presidential candidate's photo: "Queen of Rage."

Bachmann, an attractive 55 year-old mother of five, is a three term member of the House of Representatives, constitutional conservative and prominent voice of the Tea Party movement. But if you get your information from liberals or the mainstream media, you might know her as 'crazy,' a "zombie" a"phony-ass broad" and a "skank."

The primary argument conservatives made against presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008 was that he lacked the proper experience and qualifications for the most important job on the planet.

On Tuesday, Huffington Post's Howard Fineman, one of the many liberal media members that helped get the woefully lacking junior senator from Illinois into the White House, said on MSNBC's "Hardball," Obama "should have spent more time on the Chicago Board of Aldermen than at the University of Chicago" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

A clearly worried Chris Matthews on Monday fretted that a 'coy' Barack Obama is being "too cute by half" in his handling of the economy. Matthews lamented the fact that in his press conference, the President didn't exclaim, "Tax the freakin' rich!"

Talking to former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Matthews proclaimed what Obama should have said. After agreeing to "some" cuts, the Hardball host wished the Commander in Chief had announced to Congress: "Now, I want you to do your part and tax the freakin' rich! Now, are you going to do it or not?' He didn't go that far. I think he was being coy, cute, too clever by half..."

[See video below. MP3 audio here.]

The solution to our raging unemployment rate is so simple, I'm kicking myself for not thinking of it before.   Luckily, Chris Matthews did.  The government simply needs to spend more money!  Because, as "everyone knows, as we studied in school," government spending creates jobs!

Matthews, just as wacky on the weekend Hardball as he is in his Mon.-Fri. version, went on a two-segment rant this morning, pleading for higher government spending on the theory that government can put people back to work across the country.

First Jim Cramer and then Bob Shrum were only too happy to agree.  The supposedly capitalist Cramer went so far as to suggest that government, and not small business, is the engine that drives the economy.

Matthews closed by claiming that the private sector isn't working to create jobs, and thus government must do so, darkly warning that otherwise "you're going to have an unstable society."

View video after the jump.

Chris Matthews on Thursday claimed Franklin Delano Roosevelt saved capitalism in the 1930s.

This deliciously came during a "Hardball" segment wherein he mocked the intelligence of Tea Party members saying they "need to read history, and especially Michele Bachmann" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

In the wake of liberal disappointment over December's budget agreement and this week's debt ceiling deal - both not including tax hikes - there's been a lot of squabbling from far-left media members about Barack Obama betraying them.

On Wednesday, AOL Huffington Post editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell that nobody believes the President's top priority is jobs - it's getting reelected (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Chris Matthews took his hateful attacks on conservatives to a new level, Wednesday, smearing the Tea Party as "southern" "secessionists" who want to "kill" Obama. The Hardball host quickly amended, "politically." 

After guest Howard Fineman suggested Republicans have opposed the President from the start, the Hardball anchor retorted, "What? 'We hate you, want to kill you–'  politically." 

[See video below. MP3 audio here.]

If the economy stagnates or falters in the coming months, it seems a metaphysical certitude Obama-loving media will do everything in their power to blame it on Tuesday's debt ceiling agreement rather than any of the other factors already in play.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews gave us a foreshadowing of such deception on "Hardball" when he blamed Tuesday's stock market collapse on the newly-signed legislation rather than the bad economic data announced in the morning (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Chris Matthews doesn't seem to be running out of violent imagery to use in his smears against the Republican Party. On Tuesday, the Hardball host bombarded the GOP, comparing them to "muggers" who assaulted Barack Obama during the debt limit standoff.

Explaining his current metaphor, Matthews slammed, "What we saw, what I saw at least, was one guy with a knife and the other trying to avoid being cut. It was a thug attacking a victim. It was a mugging." He acidly added, "Now, the good news...is that the victim did get through it."

At the conclusion of a fractious national debate about the debt ceiling, a truly marvelous moment occurred Monday when Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) returned to the House floor after being shot in the head almost seven months ago.

Apparently unable to control himself, the sadly getting more and more disgraceful Chris Matthews chose to mar the emotional homecoming by connecting her shooting to the Tea Party and "the violent level of the right-wing" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Chris Matthews' infatuation with John McCain has returned. The day after the Republican senator bashed his own party, knocking "Hobbit" Tea Partiers, the Hardball anchor on Thursday lauded him as "great" and even suggested McCain as a MSNBC guest host: "...He can substitute for me some night with that kind of talk!"

The former GOP presidential nominee criticized 2010 Senate candidates Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle. Quoting from a Wall Street Journal editorial, McCain recited possible debt ceiling scenarios: "Then Democrats would have no choice but to pass a balanced budget amendment and reform entitlements and the Tea Party Hobbits could return to Middle Earth having defeated Mordor."

[See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Just how totally out of touch is MSNBC's Chris Matthews?

At the beginning of Wednesday's "Hardball," he said the actor who famously rode the bomb at the end of the classic film "Dr. Strangelove" was "Sam" Pickens (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Chris Matthews Tuesday exposed his own debt ceiling hypocrisy without realizing it.

As he absurdly asked his "Hardball" guests why America isn't having a "big debate" about what the federal government should pay for - like that's not what's happening at the moment! - he relayed how his parents balanced their household budget, but never once said anything about raising revenues. It was all about what they could afford (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Chris Matthews appears to have a serious case of Fox News envy.

In a special installment of "The Last Word" following Barack Obama's debt ceiling address to the nation Monday, the "Hardball" host said, "I thought the President used a couple of words we’re familiar with: 'Fair and balanced.' It was like a Fox commercial" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Barack Obama might give Chris Matthews a thrill up his leg, but the bromance MSNBC's "Hardball" host has with former President Bill Clinton knows no bounds.

On Monday's program, Matthews finished by nominating Clinton as Secretary of the Treasury, "Because in many ways it’s a life saver" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman on Monday berated Tea Partiers for engineering a "slow motion succession" in relation to the budget impasse in Congress.

Appearing with Hardball host Chris Matthews, Fineman summarized the conservative position this way: "This is an ending of the social compact. This is two, three generations worth of agreement about Social Security, about Medicare, about the role of the federal government. The Tea Party people are saying, we want to secede from that society."

In an interview, MSNBC president Phil Griffin made some rather strange characterizations of his network, insisting that it "come[s] from a progressive stance" while it is simultaneously "not ideologically driven."

Those two concepts would seem contradictory in the minds of most people--but not to Griffin, who seems to believe that his staff of "smart people" who "do their research" is up to the task.

As NewsBusters previously reported, MSNBC contributor Michael Smerconish on Thursday, while substitute hosting for Chris Matthews on "Hardball," actually floated the absurd conspiracy theory that Rupert Murdoch had staged the pie throwing event during his hearing before Parliament Tuesday in order to distract from his testimony.

On Saturday's "Fox News Watch," Jim Pinkerton referenced this piece (video follows with transcript and commentary):

The media's attention on Rupert Murdoch and the British hacking scandal hit a new low Thursday.

Filling in for MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Michael Smerconish finished "Hardball" with a segment floating the conspiracy theory that Rupert Murdoch staged Tuesday's Parliamentary pie throwing incident to distract everyone's attention from his testimony (video follows with transcript and commentary):

On Wednesday's Hardball, Chris Matthews took a clip from a 24 year-old Ronald Reagan press conference and disingenuously passed it off as the Republican's take on "raising taxes to deal with the ballooning deficit."

Matthew's version was out of context and video from October 22, 1987 proves it. [See below for video. MP3 audio here.]

After playing a snippet of Reagan that had nothing to do with taxes, Matthews touted, "That was, of course, the great Ronald Reagan in his own words back in October of 1987 about raising taxes to deal with the ballooning deficit."

As NewsBusters previously reported, Chris Matthews on Wednesday lied about Ronald Reagan's position on taxes in a "Hardball" segment insinuating the late President would oppose the current Republican stance on the debt ceiling.

When Salon editor Joan Walsh said Obama "is actually the Reagan figure here," former RNC chairman Michael Steele bust out laughing (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Hardball host Chris Matthews on Wednesday lied about Ronald Reagan's position on taxes in order to justify his bizarre assertion that the late President would consider the current Republican stance on the debt ceiling to be "economic terrorism."

Matthews, who did no fact checking, played a clip provided by the Congressional Progressive Caucus from a  September 26 1987 Reagan radio address. In the brief snippet, Reagan was heard asserting that the "United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations."

The left-wing anchor disingenuously spun the famous Republican's words as a future warning against GOP "terrorists": "There he is saying these brinkmanship this trickery around the time of a deadline just to get your way, is sort of economic terrorism." Listening to more at the address, however, debunks Matthews' Democratic talking points.

At least five MSNBC anchors since Tuesday have promoted a cherry-picked House Democratic Caucus video that distorts President Ronald Reagan's position on the debt ceiling, inaccurately asserting that President Barack Obama is more in line with Reagan than the Republicans.

If any of the anchors had played the entirety of Reagan's 1987 radio address, instead of giving free air time to the Democratic Party's deceptively edited spot, they would have heard Reagan articulate a position on the debt ceiling almost identical to House Republicans' and nearly opposite Obama's: "You don't need more taxes to balance the budget. Congress needs the discipline to stop spending more, and that can be done with the passage of a constitutional amendment to balance the budget." Lo and behold, the House passed a plan last night, "cut, cap, and balance," that contained both spending cuts and a balanced budget amendment.

A compilation video of MSNBC anchors misrepresenting Reagan is below the page break:

Tucker Carlson on Tuesday said, "Very few people have done more to divide the country than Chris Matthews."

Such occurred on Fox's "Hannity" show as the Great American Panel discussed the "Hardball" host's deplorable interview with Congressman Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) earlier in the day (video follows with transcript and commentary):

As NewsBusters previously reported, Chris Matthews had quite a heated debate with Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) on Tuesday's "Hardball."

Amidst a series of ridiculous questions asked of the Congressman, possibly the most absurd was, "If we have a crisis in August [as a result of not raising the debt ceiling], will you resign?" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan got into quite a heated debate on Monday's "Hardball."

At issue was the battle of the debt ceiling with Matthews calling Tea Partiers opposed to raising it "crazy protesters" and telling his guest, "You want to join" them (video follows with transcript and commentary):

A desperate sounding Chris Matthews, on Thursday's Hardball, began his show by handing out the direct line to Congress as he urged his viewers to stand up against the "Tea Party members" and their "stay-at-home blogging cheerleaders."

Matthews warned his audience that these "blogging cheerleaders" and their GOP Representatives were all too willing to "embrace" economic "calamity" to show how "dedicated they were to not raising the debt ceiling."

(video after the jump)