Chris Matthews on Friday said that Hosni Mubarak's exit from Egypt and the jubilation now happening in Tahrir Square took Barack Obama to have happen.
As soon as he said it on the 5 p.m. installment of MSNBC's "Hardball," the host quipped, "His critics will probably say, 'Yeah, we knew this was coming'” (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: You know, gentlemen, I’m a little bit jubilant right now, a little bit frisky so I’ll say something that will bother people. But if you have, a lot of the people in this country think the President of the United States is Muslim, which he’s not, he’s Christian. They think he’s foreign born, which he’s not, he’s American born. But they have this attitude about him, the people on the right a lot of them, right? And here he is, and he comes into office, and this jubilant situation in Eqypt, with the first time in our lives we get to see people from the Arab world in a very positive democratic setting. Not as terrorists or not as people fighting Israel, or whatever. Not mouthing epithets against the West, but people like us.
DAVID CORN, MOTHER JONES: Right, celebrating.
CORN: (Laughs) Well, I mean..
MATTHEWS: His critics will probably say, “Yeah, we knew this was coming.”
Not just his critics, Chris, but yours as well.
Exactly what has Obama done in this region prior to the protests beginning to make this happen?
Maybe more importantly, Matthews seems to be fogetting the marvelous images that we saw in Iraq in the previous decade when citizens of that nation participated in free elections for the first time in their lives proudly displaying purple ink-stained fingers.
Weren't pictures like this "the Arab world in a very positive democratic setting?"
How quickly shills like Matthews forget when the agenda is to help a president they adore get re-elected.
One can only hope that God forbid Egypt does end up being taken over by a radical Islamic theocracy the same folks giving Obama credit now will blame him then.
But don't hold your breath.
It'll be George W. Bush's fault if that happens.