Hardball

Hardball anchor Chris Matthews, who routinely smears his political opponents as racist, on Monday lectured an African American minister who opposes gay marriage, "I hope you evolve." The host patronizingly added, "I'm just teasing." [See video below. MP3 audio here.] How would he (or MSNBC for that matter) react if a conservative said such a thing to a black leader? Matthews interviewed…

MSNBC's Chris Matthews is featured in a new "Lean Forward" promo spot [embedded below page break; MP3 audio here] quoting his "hero" Winston Churchill as having asked "Then what are we fighting for?" when his finance minister suggested that the government's budget for the arts would have to cut to aid Britain's war effort.  Matthews used that story as a warning to conservatives that the nation'…

On Sunday's NBC Meet the Press, American Conservative Union president Al Cardenas squared off against a group of left-wing pundits on the subject of President Obama announcing his support for gay marriage. The liberal bloc of guests included MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews, California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, and Washington Post columnists Jonathan Capehart and Kathleen Parker. […

President Obama once again flipflopped on his position regarding same-sex marriage Wednesday, and his adoring media couldn't be more pleased. On MSNBC, Hardball's Chris Matthews actually called for "gay men and women who now work for the election of Republican members of Congress, Senators, and [Mitt] Romney himself...to stand up, walk in the direction of their bosses and candidates, and ask…

Minutes after Barack Obama came out for gay marriage, Wednesday, Chris Matthews appeared on MSNBC to compare opponents of such unions to "wolves" and to link them to supporters of slavery. Warning of political danger to the President, Matthews spewed, "The dens are opening. The gates are opening of wolves coming out for this, the Karl Roves." After describing liberalism as the force that…

It's becoming clearer and clearer that the time has come for MSNBC's Chris Matthews to retire. On Tuesday's Hardball, despite virtually every intelligent person in this country knowing that Ford was the lone American car company to not accept a bailout in 2009, Matthews actually claimed President Obama "bet on" the auto giant (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Last August, Politico revealed that the Obama campaign intended to make Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney "a sort of political Gordon Gekko" if he won the nomination. Right out of that playbook, MSNBC's Chris Matthews on Monday compared Romney to the financial villain of the '80s movie classic "Wall Street" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Is MSNBC's Chris Matthews stupid, dishonest, or both? On Friday's Hardball, the host actually said of today's report from the Department of Labor, "The unemployment rate did drop to 8.1 percent, the lowest rate since President Obama took office" (video follows with transcribe highlights and commentary):

MSNBC on Thursday again featured Ron Reagan to trade on the legacy of his father, trashing  the Republican Party as a "haven for bigots." The liberal son of the former president appeared on Hardball to slime the GOP and Mitt Romney for discriminating against gays. Matthews tossed Reagan a softball, complimenting his "Republican family" for not discriminating against gays. The son of a…

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother. I have to wonder how the St. Crispin's Day speech by Henry V as written by William Shakespeare would sound if read from a teleprompter. The reason for this strange speculation is that Chris Matthews yesterday on Hardball compared President Obama's speech to the troops in Afghanistan to…

NBC's Chuck Todd on Tuesday, moments before President Obama addressed the nation from Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, compared the assassination of Osama bin Laden one year ago to VE and VJ Days marking the end of World War II. The following was actually said by NBC's Chief White House correspondent on MSNBC's Hardball (video follows with transcript and commentary):

"There is no slur against conservatives that's off the table" for the so-called journalists at MSNBC, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity last night. The Media Research Center president made that remark after viewing a clip of Hardball host Chris Matthews calling the GOP the "Grand Wizard crowd," a not-so-thinly veiled suggestion that conservatives are violent racists. What's…

NewsBusters reported Monday that MSNBC's Chris Matthews got into a heated exchange with former Republican Party chairman Michael Steele when he called the GOP the "Grand Wizard crowd" and Mitt Romney a "flat-earther." Fox News's Bill O'Reilly started his program Tuesday by saying the Hardball host's comments were "simply madness" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Washington Post political writer Chris Cillizza definitively declared on Tuesday's Hardball that for the 2012 race, Barack Obama is "cool" and Mitt Romney is "not cool." Host Chris Matthews, trying to prove his hipness, wondered aloud, "Can you dig it?" Fellow Post writer Nia-Malika Henderson then attempted to explain what the "kids" these days are saying. After a clip of Obama on the Jimmy…