Chris Matthews got off one of the all-time whoppers on this evening's Hardball. Seeking to explain why the Clintons have managed to stay together while the Gores haven't, Matthews claimed that Bill and Hillary are " committed to the core not to making money but to public life itself." H/t NB reader Ray R.
Is Chris simply clueless, or was he intentionally propagating a misperception of the lucre-hound Clintons, who as of more than two years ago had already raked in more than . . $100 million? Can't believe the number? Don't believe me. Believe . . . NPR .
As video rolled of the Clintons and Gores from their famous 1992 post-convention bus trip that propelled them to victory, John Harris of Politico opined . . .
JOHN HARRIS: Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton always did have a shared project which was the Clinton brand and their ambitions on the national stage. Even at the most difficult periods between them they had that shared bond. I think in the Gores case, both of them had some degree of ambivalence about public life. And I definitely think that was true of Tipper, who sometimes did wilt under the public spotlight. I have seen her --If Only You Knew Al Like Lois Knows Al: Lois Romano of the Washington Post kept alive the proud MSM tradition of claiming that even the biggest Dem bores are really laff riots behind the scenes: "privately he was a different man. Funny but rigid." Funny but rigid? Kind of like Andrew Dice Clay?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: You're so smart, Harris. That is so smart. Bill and Hillary are committed to public policy as their primary aim in life. They are good at it. They're good at the politics; they're good at the policy, they're wonks to the core. And they're committed to the core, not to making money but public life itself.
