Leading off the Wednesday edition of MSNBC’s The Last Word, host Lawrence O’Donnell gave his best Chris Matthews “thrill up my leg” impression as he went overboard smiling and giggling over how the debate “went so well” for Hillary Clinton and “so perfectly that, at times, it was as if she had planned the whole thing” down to the questions and her chief opponent in socialist Bernie Sanders.
With the on-screen headline entitled “[t]he perfection of the Hillary Clinton campaign,” O’Donnell kicked off the 10-minute love note with this short introduction before the show’s usual, one-minute-plus music video compilation: “It is hard to imagine how Hillary Clinton could have had a better night last night. It was as if she planned it all.”
The liberal MSNBC host beamed with pride as he proclaimed that the CNN debate “went so well for Hillary Clinton, so perfectly that, at times, it was as if she had planned the whole thing, everything, I mean everything from who would be standing beside her on that stage to who the Republican front-runner would be.”
Rhetorically asking viewers what was the former secretary of state’s “biggest problem before this campaign season got started,” O’Donnell selected not Benghazi, her e-mails, or Clinton Foundation scandals, but instead this: “Her big problem was a big number. This number – 73. Polling in 2014 showed Hillary Clinton with 73 percent support among Democrats and the problem with such a big number like that is that it made her nomination inevitable and inevitable is boring.”
Correctly surmising that the race for the Democratic nominations was heading toward “a coronation” which “no one wanted,” O’Donnell argued that Clinton “knew she needed Democratic primary opponents” so she determined that Sanders would be the most beneficial opponent because:
She wanted someone more liberal than she is in the race so she could appear more moderate to general election voters. She didn't want to face a cool, hip, young liberal like Barack Obama again. She wanted to face someone who could be caricatured, someone who even Anderson Cooper could write an attack ad against off the top of his head.
O’Donnell pressed pause on his latest foaming tribute to a member of the Democratic Party to toot the horn of Sanders, their mutual love of socialism, and his obsession with a 2009 Newsweek cover story that argued “[w]e’re all socialists now” (a magazine article he’s mentioned on his program four times in as many months):
The way we temper capitalism is with small and sometimes large doses in socialism. For example, since pure free market in capitalism would lead to tragic outcomes in the health care marketplace, we have introduced heavy regulation to temper the cruelty of free market capitalism in the health care sector. Bernie Sanders might be the only American politician who understood this Newsweek cover story six years ago: “We are all socialists now.” Meaning we all accept and depend on certain amounts of socialism in our government, but Bernie Sanders is the only American politician brave enough or unwise enough depending on your perspective to actually admit that. That word, socialist, which is completely misunderstood by most Americans, is part of what makes Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton's ideal challenger.
O’Donnell also thanked Sanders for being seven years older than the 67-year-old Clinton and thus “the perfect challenger” by creating a scenario in which, supposedly, “no one knew who was going to win that debate, so the outcome was that much more exciting for pundits and headline writers who have almost unanimously and breathlessly given the win to the candidate who was supposed to be the boring, inevitable nominee just a few months ago.”
Instead, he ruled that: “[L]ast night was never boring and never in trouble, even when the debate exposed the biggest problem that Hillary Clinton has ever had with liberal voters – her vote to authorize the Iraq war.”
Following more harmonious and unhinged praise for Clinton, The West Wing producer and writer admitted someone like him could not have possibly scripted it any better:
Hillary Clinton didn't plan that moment and didn't arrange the seating plan on this year's Republican clown car with Donald Trump and Ben Carson in the front. She couldn't have planned all of that. No one could, it is just too perfect. It's better than what any political fiction writer could come up with. Hillary Clinton didn't plan all of that, she just got lucky, and that's the kind of luck that wins the White House.
In making a brief observation about this heartfelt endorsement, this writer couldn’t help but ponder whether this marks the launch of a campaign by O’Donnell to recapture the Puppy Love Award at the 2016 Media Research Center Dishonor Awards following his victory in the category at the 2015 gala on October 8.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on October 14 can be found below.
MSNBC’s The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell
October 14, 2015
10:00 p.m. Eastern
LAWRENCE O’DONNELL: It is hard to imagine how Hillary Clinton could have had a better night last night. It was as if she planned it all.
(.....)
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: The Perfection of the Hillary Clinton Campaign]
O’DONNELL: The debate went so well for Hillary Clinton, so perfectly that, at times, it was as if she had planned the whole thing, everything, I mean everything from who would be standing beside her on that stage to who the Republican front-runner would be. Everything. Just – just think about it. What was Hillary Clinton's big problem before this campaign season got started? Her big problem was a big number. This number – 73. Polling in 2014 showed Hillary Clinton with 73 percent support among Democrats and the problem with such a big number like that is that it made her nomination inevitable and inevitable is boring hasn't worked in presidential politics since Dwight Eisenhower. The Democratic presidential nomination looked like it was going to be a coronation and no one wanted that, including Hillary Clinton. She knew she needed Democratic primary opponents. She didn't want it to look like she was just being handed the nomination. She wanted to look like she had to win it and she knew she needed some batting practice. She didn't want the general election debate with the Republican nominee next year to be her first time on a debate stage in eight years. If Hillary Clinton could have picked her main challenger for the Democratic nomination, she would have picked Bernie Sanders in a second. She wanted someone more liberal than she is in the race so she could appear more moderate to general election voters. She didn't want to face a cool, hip, young liberal like Barack Obama again. She wanted to face someone who could be caricatured, someone who even Anderson Cooper could write an attack ad against off the top of his head.
(....)
O’DONNELL: And how do we rein in capitalism? With socialism. The way we temper capitalism is with small and sometimes large doses in socialism. For example, since pure free market in capitalism would lead to tragic outcomes in the health care marketplace, we have introduced heavy regulation to temper the cruelty of free market capitalism in the health care sector. Bernie Sanders might be the only American politician who understood this Newsweek cover story six years ago: “We are all socialists now.” Meaning we all accept and depend on certain amounts of socialism in our government, but Bernie Sanders is the only American politician brave enough or unwise enough depending on your perspective to actually admit that. That word, socialist, which is completely misunderstood by most Americans, is part of what makes Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton's ideal challenger. 50 percent of American voters say they will never vote for a socialist candidate for president. There's something else about Bernie Sanders that is very help to feel Hillary Clinton. When Hillary Clinton lost her first presidential campaign, many pundits said back then that she would be too old to run for president eight years down the road at age 67. 74-year-old Bernie Sanders makes Hillary Clinton look younger by the day. When Bernie Sanders got in the race, he took no support away from Hillary Clinton. Absolutely none. He was the perfect challenger. Bernie's surge in the polls in New Hampshire and Iowa has no doubt worried Hillary Clinton but she has maintained a solid, 20-point lead in national polls and without the Bernie surge, Hillary would not have gotten this headline today. “Clinton crushes it.” The Bernie Sanders surge in the polls and the huge crowds he has been attracting created some real suspense for the first democratic presidential debate. At 8:00 p.m. last night, no one knew who was going to win that debate so the outcome was that much more exciting for pundits and headline writers who have almost unanimously and breathlessly given the win to the candidate who was supposed to be the boring, inevitable nominee just a few months ago and last night was never boring and never in trouble, even when the debate exposed the biggest problem that Hillary Clinton has ever had with liberal voters – her vote to authorize the Iraq war.
(....)
O’DONNELL: It's as if she planned it all, including taking the job of secretary of state so she could have that line ready at that moment that was sure to come in her next presidential debate, but Hillary Clinton couldn't have planned all of this and she couldn't have arranged for the Republicans to have a complete governing ignoramus as their front-runner, a man who offends large voting groups in every speech. A man who voters associate primarily with the word “idiot” when asked for a one-word description of him. A man who, by the way, is two years older than Hillary Clinton. We know that Bill Clinton encouraged Donald Trump to run for president, but we now know that Donald Trump would have run without that encouragement so, no, Hillary Clinton didn't plan the Bernie Sanders candidacy. She didn't talk him to running so she could have batting practice last night. She didn't do that with the other helpful and forgettable supporting cast on the stage, including Jim Webb, oh, so conveniently running to her right, but it all played so perfectly last night that it looked like she did plan it all, especially when in what looked like her difficult moment, she was saved by her ideal challenger Bernie Sanders.
(....)
O’DONNELL: Hillary Clinton didn't plan that moment and didn't arrange the seating plan on this year's Republican clown car with Donald Trump and Ben Carson in the front. She couldn't have planned all of that. No one could, it is just too perfect. It's better than what any political fiction writer could come up with. Hillary Clinton didn't plan all of that, she just got lucky, and that's the kind of luck that wins the White House.
