Such was revealed during a "Hardball" discussion with MSNBC political analyst Pat Buchanan and the Washington Post's Eugene Robinson.
After playing a clip of Obama telling Oprah Winfrey that he would give himself a B-plus for his performance, Robinson not surprisingly agreed with the President, while Buchanan countered with a C-plus.
Matthews followed, "OK, so that averages out to a B. OK, that`s probably what most people would say."
Really? Is that why the most recent Gallup poll found only 47 percent approving the job Obama is doing, a new low for him?
Not surprisingly, Matthews didn't bring up this inconvenient truth (video embedded below the fold with transcript, h/t Story Balloon):
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Welcome back to HARDBALL.
It`s report card time. It`s the end of the year. And Oprah Winfrey asked President Obama to grade -- she`s pretty good at this. She asked him to grade himself on his first year of president. Here`s that back and forth being Oprah and the president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY, HOST, "THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW": What grade would you give yourself for this year?
OBAMA: Good solid B-plus.
(CROSSTALK)
WINFREY: So, B-plus? What could you have done better?
OBAMA: Well, B-plus because of the things that are undone.
WINFREY: OK.
OBAMA: Health care is not yet signed. If I get health care passed, I will -- we tip into A-minus.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS: Wow.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: So, does the president deserve an A, a B-plus or not?
Eugene Robinson is the "Washington Post" columnist and an MSNBC political analyst. And Pat Buchanan is an MSNBC political analyst.
So, let`s go by what`s happened already, not by what might happen.
First of all, talk a little bit about the economy and how you would see the president`s performance qualitatively before I get to the grades.
EUGENE ROBINSON, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.
On the economy, I think you have to ask where were we when he took office and where are we now? When he took office, we at least believed we were at the precipice, that we could be falling into not just the worst recession since the Great Depression, but in fact another Great Depression.
MATTHEWS: Yes.
ROBINSON: We`re not in a Great Depression. So, I think he should get fairly strong marks for keeping disaster from happening to the economy.
MATTHEWS: OK. Fairly strong marks for averting the great -- second Great Depression.
Pat, your qualitative notion on the economy, how he`s done?
PAT BUCHANAN, MSNBC POLITICAL ANALYST: He has inherited a tough situation, but it`s gotten far worse. You got 10 percent unemployment, rather than 7 percent. One-fourth of all mortgages are in arrears -- 10 percent of them are under water. Middle America is suffering like the devil. The stimulus package didn`t work as predicted and promised. But he did inherit a tough situation.
MATTHEWS: OK. Grade on the economy?
ROBINSON: I gave him a B-plus on economy.
MATTHEWS: B-plus.
Pat, grade on the economy?
BUCHANAN: Professor Robinson grades on a high curve. I will give him a C-plus, Chris.
MATTHEWS: Well, you are a Jesuit-trained person.
(LAUGHTER)
MATTHEWS: Let`s go to the health care issue. Again, your qualitative thoughts -- the narrative, rather, right now.
ROBINSON: My narrative on health care is that this has been an ugly, messy, still incomplete process. But...
MATTHEWS: You`re not going to give him an incomplete, are you?
ROBINSON: No, I`m not. And I was tempted to.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBINSON: But I`m not, because he has actually brought us closer to health care reform, I really do believe that, than any president before him has managed to do.
And when you actually look at what we think is almost certain to be in a final bill once they finally get it out, I think there are really quite significant reforms. I think we will look back on this as a very significant piece of legislation.
And Clinton tried to do it all the way back to Harry Truman tried to do it. They didn`t get this close.
BUCHANAN: Oh, Chris, look, Lyndon Johnson would have had this done. He has been disengaged.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Why didn`t he do it?
BUCHANAN: I don`t know why Obama...
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Why didn`t Lyndon Johnson do it?
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: He...
(CROSSTALK)
BUCHANAN: Well, I`m talking about Lyndon Johnson went from Medicare and Medicaid and Voting Rights. He rammed this stuff through. He would have Republicans, dragged them over. This would have been done before the tea party town -- before the town hall things.
I think he`s been unengaged in this. Frankly, it`s Pelosi`s bill in the House and Harry`s bill in the Senate, if he gets it.
MATTHEWS: Wow. Your grade on health care?
ROBINSON: Professor Buchanan and I really disagree on this one. I gave him an A-minus.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Pat, a grade on health care.
BUCHANAN: I wish I studied under Professor Robinson.
(LAUGHTER)
BUCHANAN: I`m going to give him a C on health care.
MATTHEWS: OK.
You start on Afghanistan. What do you think of his performance first?
BUCHANAN: I think his -- I don`t give him high grades, for this reason. He went to his -- first, he did take three months to decide. But instead of saying, look, we have got to get out of there, or, look, this is so critical we have got to win this thing, he split the difference.
And when presidents do that, I don`t think it shows real leadership. It wasn`t Eisenhower going one way or it wasn`t frankly some other president going another way.
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: What would you have done?
BUCHANAN: I think when I came in, I would have looked at it and said, this is not doable; let`s get out. I would not have put the 21,000 troops in.
MATTHEWS: What do you think about the -- Afghanistan?
ROBINSON: I thought Afghanistan -- you remember those problems in math where you had to show your work?
MATTHEWS: Yes.
ROBINSON: I like the work that I see he did. He just didn`t come up with the answer on my answer sheet, which is basically the same as the answer on Pat`s answer sheet.
MATTHEWS: So you gave him --
ROBINSON: I give him -- the points I give him on this are points for -- number one, adding the troops early in the year, when the general said we`ve been waiting the better part of a year; this whole thing is falling apart. He had to do something. I think it was the right thing to do to put in the first 21,000 troops.
I think it was right then to stop the momentum of the whole process, to have this long sort of examination of what we should be doing. I just don`t like the answer he reached.
MATTHEWS: You gave him a C-plus.
BUCHANAN: So did I.
ROBINSON: So did I.
MATTHEWS: What does that tell you? You`re the same as him on Afghanistan.
BUCHANAN: I think -- Look, I don`t --
MATTHEWS: It tells me that neither one of you guys like the policy, ironically.
BUCHANAN: I would understand if he went one way or another, Chris. But he took a long time to decide and then just split the difference.
MATTHEWS: You mean 30 rather than 40?
BUCHANAN: Yes, and instead rather going one way here, one way there.
MATTHEWS: Let`s go to overall score. Eugene Robinson, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the "Washington Post," and many other papers, scores of other papers, I should say, or hundred; overall grade, B-plus.
ROBINSON: Overall B-plus. I think we will look back, again, on this as a very successful first year of a presidency, under extraordinarily difficult circumstances.
BUCHANAN: Difficult circumstances, but I don`t see any success. He got a stimulus package, didn`t get cap and trade. There`s no foreign policy success here. I think he did a good speech at Cairo. No follow-up in the Middle East. It has not been successful if you fall from 68 percent to 48 percent.
MATTHEWS: What grade did you give him?
BUCHANAN: I`m going to give him a c-plus.
MATTHEWS: Let`s do what the president did. You say B-Plus. You say C-Plus. OK, so that averages out to a B. OK, that`s probably what most people would say.
(CROSS TALK)
MATTHEWS: If between now and New Year`s, or between now and the State of the Union, Pat, he gets health care through -- if he gets health care through, do you want to adjust your scores?
BUCHANAN: Yeah, upward. I would give him a B, because I don`t think his --
MATTHEWS: B? And what would you do, Gene?
ROBINSON: I would probably go up to A-minus.
MATTHEWS: You might get a B-plus out of this guy. You know what? You guys may be anticipating -- or rather he was anticipating we were going to end up. But I think this health care thing is still up in the air, as we go to Christmas. Hanukkah already.
BUCHANAN: Is it really his?
ROBINSON: If you`re president --
BUCHANAN: Look at Reid. Look at Pelosi. He`s sitting there watching them. Why didn`t he bring them down there. They could have gotten a deal, Chris, in September. After that town hall stuff --
MATTHEWS: Pat, this thing goes down, you`re going to give him loss, aren`t you? Oh, come on. You would give him the loss, but you don`t want to give him the win.
BUCHANAN: I`d say he hung back.
MATTHEWS: You wouldn`t give him the loss, your magazine, your writings? You wouldn`t say he --
BUCHANAN: I would go back to a C-minus.
ROBINSON: If you`re going to give him the wash, you got to give him the plus.
MATTHEWS: You`ve got to be consistent, one way or the other. That`s my judgment. These gentlemen have agree that it`s somewhere around a B right now. It could be up as high as a B-plus. Given the nature of some of the candidates here, an extraordinarily, but good showing by the president.
Thank you, Gene Robinson. Thank you, Pat Buchanan. I think it`s interesting you both agree that the Afghanistan policy is the most problematic, the biggest problem we`re into as a country. I`m as troubled as you guys are.
For a little sanity, here's what Gallup reported exactly one week before Matthews claimed most people would give Obama a B:
Barack Obama's presidential job approval rating is 47% in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update, a new low for his administration to date. His approval rating has been below 50% for much of the time since mid-November, but briefly rose to 52% last week after he announced his new Afghanistan policy. [...]
In the new Dec. 4-6 Gallup Daily results, Obama's approval rating is 14% among Republicans, 42% among independents, and 83% among Democrats.
So, if only 14 percent and 42 percent of Republicans and Independents respectively think Obama is doing a good job, is it even REMOTELY possible that most Americans would give him a B?
