During Tuesday night's edition of Hardball on MSNBC, liberal host Chris Matthews vented his exasperation regarding the many Democratic candidates running across the country in this year's election who are distancing themselves from the unpopular current occupant of the White House.
“It's like Obama's got Ebola,” he said, referring to the deadly disease that originated in West Africa and has spread to the United States and other nations around the world.
Matthews made the comment while discussing the upcoming election with NBC senior political reporter Perry Bacon and liberal commentator Ron Reagan.
The host stated that the Democratic National Committee is running “a pretty impressive ad” in black newspapers to energize voters by calling on them to “Get His Back;" in other words, "step up for him, stand up for president Obama.”
He then showed brief clips of Republican “trackers” asking Democratic senators Michelle Nunn in Georgia and Mark Begich of Alaska if they would admit to voting for Obama in 2008 and 2012. Neither responded to this example of on-the-street “ambush journalism.”
“That's the way people walk past guys who are trying to get a buck or a quarter from somebody,” Matthews stated with delight. “It's like walking right past the guy.”
However, Bacon noted, the Democrats “don't want to be caught -- I think it's a big thing -- they don't want to be caught on video, as if it's like a dangerous thing and a bad thing.”
Matthews then asked: “Because?”
“They don't want to be caught on camera because it will turn into an ad,” Bacon replied. “I think this is a silly concern in my mind. Of course Michelle Nunn voted for the Democratic president!”
“It's like Obama's got Ebola,” the host claimed. “You don't want to be -- I wasn't near him, I didn't touch.”
“I don't think he's worried at the White House,” Bacon responded. “I think he gets it. I'm told he tells candidates in red states, 'Do what you got to do.'”
“He's got a thicker skin than I do,” Matthews stated. “I'll tell you that.”
“Exactly,” Bacon agreed.
Earlier in the segment, Matthews asked:
What do you think it's like being the president right now, when you hear the people that you have been consorting with politically, Ron, for -- ever since you have been in public life, not a long time for him, but all of a sudden, they're all denying him?
It's like being a father of a teenage daughter. You get used to that. So, he's got two teenage daughters. When you go in public with Sasha and Malia, I know what it's going to be like for him. Like, 'Dad, do you have to walk so close to me? Do you have to act like you're my father? Can't you keep a little distance? What are you doing here? Disappear.'
“That's what fathers know when they have teenage daughters,” he added.
“That's right,” Reagan agreed.
“You would think that Obama had showed up … at the school dance wearing pajamas and a bathrobe,” the liberal host continued.
“I never did that, but thank you,” Matthews stated. “I was told you got to drop your daughter off two blocks away from the party. And if there's a party at your house, don't even come out and watch while they're dancing.”
As NewsBusters previously reported, the Hardball host isn't shy about sharing his liberal Democratic philosophy.
On August 20, Matthews stated that he was taken aback by Obama's reaction to the beheading of freelance journalist James Foley.
“I don't know why he used the word 'justice;' it's not appropriate here,” the irate MSNBC host stated. “This is an attack on our country; we have to react to it.”
Just one week later, Matthews joined Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings and Democratic pollster Margie Omero to find a strategy that would take advantage of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, for the midterm elections.
Then in mid-September, the liberal host warned that air strikes on ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) would only lead to more violence. And just one day later, he stated that he remained “a skeptic” about Obama's policy in dealing with the volatile situation in the Middle East.
After all the scandals and miscues Obama has been involved with since his re-election in 2012, Matthews shouldn't be surprised that Democratic candidates avoid him like the plague. Hopefully, this tactic will remain intact when the new Congress convenes in January.
