During the midnight hour of MSNBC coverage of the Democratic National Convention, Chris Matthews and Howard Fineman went after what they viewed as "hate" on the Republican side, with Matthews raising the topic by reciting Bill Clinton's contention that he never felt "hate" for his opponents. A bit earlier, Matthews also managed to bring in a reference to Nazi Germany as he admired Clinton because he "belittled" Republicans. Matthews:
Didn't you like the way he belittled the other side? I like the belittling part, you know, I like, you remember Churchill once said during the cold, frozen winter when the Nazis were losing in Russia, he said, "They didn't do their homework in school. They didn't read that its gets cold in Russia in the wintertime." It's that kind of brilliant, disdainful commentary.
The MSNBC host soon brought up the issue of "hate" in the GOP. After playing a clip of Clinton's speech, Matthews continued:
I don't know where to begin or end on this hate stuff, but I see it on the Republican side. They want photo ID cards for minorities, they want the President to show his papers, they go after welfare, they go after food stamps. They never stop the line of attack that's divisive.
MSNBC political analyst Fineman -- also formerly of Newsweek -- asserted:
This is where the President was trying to slice off a sliver of what used to be the Republican Party. The positive party. And bring it into the Democratic fold again, as he's a master of doing. He divides the other side, he pushes the, in this case, the haters, off into one corner. And, in essence, says they're the ones who aren't the mainstream, we are the mainstream.
