Matthews, the former Jimmy Carter speechwriter, offered the following piece of advice to Obama on the February 5 edition of "Hardball":
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Here's my belief. I think presidents have to be clear, they have to make people understand exactly what they're doing. Like when the guy comes to fix something in your house. He has to tell you what he's doing or she's doing. It works that way. You want to know what they're doing down in the basement. You don't just want things to work. You want to know what they're doing in that car. When they give you the bill you want them to tell you what they fixed in the car. Function! He has to explain how the stimulus package works.
If he doesn't do it tonight, he's gotta do it Monday night on television - that press conference. He's got to explain to us how spending almost a billion dollars is gonna turn the economic engine of this country on. And how it's gonna create millions of new jobs. He better show us, or he'll let us down.
