Matthews: "It's a hard thing for someone like Barack Obama" to express a "gut sense of Americanism"

[DeepModem Mom]

Media Matters for America: Matthews: "It's a hard thing for someone like Barack Obama" to express a "gut sense of Americanism"

In a June 4 appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Hardball host Chris Matthews criticized Sen. Barack Obama's expression of patriotism, asserting that Obama "thanks America" because he "got certain things from it," rather than, Matthews claimed, "expressing" "that gut sense of Americanism," which, Matthews said, is "a hard thing for someone like Barack Obama, as sophisticated as he is ... to express." Responding to host Joe Scarborough's question on how Obama can connect with "the regular soddy buster guy," Matthews said, "One thing you don't do is you don't do what he does. You don't thank America for giving you what you got." Matthews then likened Obama to a child thanking his parents: "You don't thank them for giving you a nice school and education. You thank them because they're your parents. ... You love your country -- it's called patriotism."

Matthews went on to say: "And that gut sense of Americanism is deeper than the values we share. It's deeper than democracy. It's deeper than opportunity or freedom. It gets down to your sense of connection. And I think ... it's a hard thing for someone like Barack Obama, as sophisticated as he is ... to express that." Again purporting to distinguish Obama from "regular" Americans, Matthews said: "People that don't have anything, including beautiful families and Ivy League degrees, know what they got. They're Americans."

Matthews also asserted that Obama's "background doesn't include that struggling middle-class experience." As Media Matters for America documented in response to similar comments Matthews made the evening before during MSNBC's election coverage, Obama's autobiography, Dreams from My Father (Crown, 1995), contradicts Matthews' statement that Obama's "background doesn't include that struggling middle-class experience."

As Media Matters has also documented, Matthews has a history of purporting to identify actions by or characteristics of Obama that he has suggested demonstrate that he is not a "regular guy," including playing pool, ordering "weird" beverages like orange juice, and his bowling skills....

http://mediamatters.org/items/200806040006?f=h_latest

[2rth2pwr]

1. Orange juice? That is weird.

[tom_paine]

2. Matthews is one giant asshole. It amazes me that he has even briefly

broken with his Bushie Masters.

Of course, as he stated in his book, the man has no rinciples of his own, so he is just swaying with the wind.

Of course, no matter how many people see through Bushie Bullshit, a human garbage sack like Matthews will ALWAYS turn back toarwds his Elitist contemptuous ways.

Ironic, isn't it? The biggest bunch of wealthy, elite toadies since the Court of Louis XIV, and they make their living telling us all what Regular Guys and Gals they all are.

It helps Matthews and the rest to have no shame, to have no conscience. He admitted so in his book.

[opihimoimoi]

3. CM is a POS.....all he does is whine and look for shit

and if its not to be found...they make up shit...

Its called Subtle Framing...sort of stealth brainwashing....

He is part of the RW Cabal intent on dominating the People to their financial advantage.....

[pepperbear]

4. Hey Chris, we've already had a president with that "gut sense of Americanism"

Which one can only assume means "lapel pins and pledges of allegience". We're ready for someone to ditch the empty gestures and question a few things.

Do you mind, Chuckles?

[Berry Cool]

5. Tweety has been making me furious with this "Can Obama prove he's a real American?" argument.

News flash, Tweety: Obama doesn't have to "prove" ANYTHING to ANYBODY. He IS a "real American." Sure, he can get his story out better. But people like you, who keep insisting that somehow he doesn't appreciate America or isn't grateful to it or can't appreciate it because he's too "sophisticated" or because YOU are not aware that he ever struggled in his life...well, if you don't think he is a "real American," that is YOUR ignorance talking.

You're supposed to be a TV political commentator. You're supposed to know better.

Some guy in West Virginia may not, but you're supposed to.

What's your excuse?

[Maryscott OConnor]

11. Giving him a very small benefit of the doubt...

I've been wondering if perhaps he's just missed the fact that his syntax is warped.

In a generous light, one could argue that Matthews is trying to articulate (and failing, oviously) the fact that there are racists out there -- and asking how he can overcome ingrained and possibly unconscious doubts.

But christ is he being hamfisted about it, even if one reads it with that generous interpretation.

[ladjf]

6. Apparently, its a "hard thing" for Mathews to express anything that makes sense.

[riverwalker]

7. I think he means jingoism and xenophobia

which is what some Americans confuse with patriotism.

[OwnedByFerrets]

8. Its a hard thing for Chris Matthews

to go thru one entire segment without saying something stupendously stupid.

[Cha]

9. Just wow..how damn stupid

do you have to be to wonder about shit that doesn't even exist?

[ErinBerin84]

10. last week

Chris Matthews said "He hasn't shown that he can connect with Americans. He doesn't understand their struggles with gas prices and groceries" and Mika said "Don't you think that's really a perception problem though? Do you honestly think that he doesn't understand the struggles people have with gas prices" and Chris said smugly "I haven't seen ANY evidence that he understands it." He also said that Obama was poor and then became rich, with "no in between!" (like the op describes). And of course, described his biography as an "exotic lifestyle".

puke.