Chris Matthews Show Meter Question: Is the Anti-Obama Venom Unavoidable or Partly a Result of His Mistakes
By Heather Monday Sep 14, 2009 9:00am
Chris Matthews was off this week with Norah O'Donnell filling in so there is one good thing I can say about this week's show. None of the guests were interrupted or talked over. That said, check out this ridiculous "Matthews Meter" question. And six of their panelists thought the venom was partly Obama's fault, including Howard Fineman.
Once again driftglass nails this one in his post Sunday Morning Comin' Down -- "The Tell-Tweety Heart" (warning, not safe for work):
Epilogue:
While six of the "journalists" who make up the "Matthew's Meter" say, yes, the anti-Obama hatred was unavoidable, six say Obama partly brought it on himself.
Fineman: He didn’t talk to Main Street. He needs to spend every minute of every day constantly reassure crazy people on the Right that he doesn’t want to abort Sarah Palin's baby and shoot grandma in the head or turn Murrica into a Franco-Islamic Communist Caliphate. This is perhaps unfair, but after all, he is Black.
Jokeline: I was at some town meetings this summer, most recently in Arkansas. And this is an awful lot about race. And not just because of Obama’s name or skin color. If you’re working class white, you’re seeing Latinos and Asians.
driftglass: And bears. Oh my.
But why is this coming up now during a health care debate?
Jokeline: Because they’re being egged on by demagogues in the Republican Party. By Boss Rush Limbaugh. And I call him The Boss, because there is not a single, Republican elected official who is willing to call him out on his lies.
Cooper: Because there are a lot of White people – particularly in the South – who have just lost their s#%t over a Black man being President.
Fineman: Let me repeat it in case I was not condescending enough the first time – this White House needs to constantly kiss wingnut ass every way they can think of. Maybe it’s unfair, but after all, he is Black. Also he was forced to behave like a filthy, filthy Liberal to save the economy from crashing and burning, and the doublewide trailer crowd who his policies probably saved from living in refrigerator boxes and begging for nickels on freeway overpasses will never forgive him for it.
There's lots more at driftie's place. Go on over there and check out the entire post. I don't want to give too much of it away to spoil the fun, but I thought it was priceless.
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The drop in the polls can be traced to what I at least think of Obama's mishandling of the debate over healthcare reform.
The venom however is purely visceral and has nothing to do with anything he has or will do. He's a black liberal president. There's no stopping the venom. It started before he was even president, there for it has nothing to do with what he's done.
..but with a "D" after his name, the venom would be injected no matter what.
Partially true, but his blackness adds an extra depth and intensity. There was not a 400% increase in threats on the president when Clinton was elected.
I was raised a hard-core Christian right republican, and I can say that right-wing hatred for liberals runs far deeper than hatred for other races. That isn't to say that many aren't also racist or that race issues don't factor into their intense hatred for liberals. It's only to say that whether the president is black, white or green doesn't matter so much as where he/she lies on the political spectrum.
My family HATED Carter and they HATED Clinton (they still talk about Hillarycare), and don't forget the over-the-top anti-Hillary movie that came out during the 2008 election. These guys are using the same playbook they used to undermine previous democratic presidents. Also, it's worth noting that right-wingers (who aren't especially known for their feminist views)were all fired up about the prospect of a *woman* president; and most of them LOVED Thatcher. Also, there was a significant number of right-wingers who wanted Colin Powell to run against Clinton in 1996 rather than Dole.
So no, I don't think it's all about race. It's way bigger than that. It is part of a much deeper culture war in America that dates back at least to the 60s.
about who really owns the Big 6 Insurance Companies:
WALL STREET IS BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR DOCTOR NOW.
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/st...
Wall Street Banks hold these percentages of shares in Health Insurance giants and are increasing shares by the tens of millions
United 77.32%
WellPoint 79.04%
Aetna 79.45%
CIGNA Corp. 68.71%
Coventry Health 82.25%
Health Net Inc. 79.37%
Wall Street is the enemy. Can we afford another bailout for these people and their bonus structure and their congressional sponors!
Teabaggers: Their hearts are in the right place but their minds have been corrupted by Glenda, et al.
I and I'm sure others here have been objecting to the machinations of our corrupted govt. for decades (since I was like 16 years old and Vietnam was full throttle). Now the teabaggers show up like this shit all started 8 months ago, thinking they have ID'd the problem.
Welcome to the party, teabaggers. Why do you think folks like me resent you so much? Not that you actually THINK to begin with. You are so hopped up on Fox hate that your eyes are bleeding and you want to shoot anyone that suggests solution that don't fit your I, me, mine philosophy, concocted by the plutocracy and spoon fed to you 24/7 by the so called (another lie) liberal MSM.
"teabaggers: Their hearts are in the right place..."
Are you serious?
No. Just a moment of charity. There are many evil persons in that group. Still can't stand them.
I think their hearts are in their wallets, covered in lint, next to their WalMart credit card, behind the picture of the hot chick who wouldn't sleep with them if they were clean, rich and had tattoos.
wingnut un-informed crazies...What was said from the stage was totally different than the vitriol from pockets on the ground...
They should be told about this ...
WALL STREET IS BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR DOCTOR NOW.
http://investing.businessweek.com/research/st...
Wall Street Banks hold these percentages of shares in Health Insurance giants and are increasing shares by the tens of millions
United 77.32%
WellPoint 79.04%
Aetna 79.45%
CIGNA Corp. 68.71%
Coventry Health 82.25%
Health Net Inc. 79.37%
Wall Street is the enemy. Can we afford another bailout for these people and their bonus structure!
What mistakes?
Most of Washington: the president, Congress, and the Supreme Court were on vacation during August, and that's when all the crack-pots came out.
1) Is Obama partly responsible?
2) A concerted effort by the right and corporatists to bring him down?
Bringing his "black" to the WH.
Fineman: ... this White House needs to constantly kiss wingnut ass every way they can think of. Maybe it’s unfair, but after all, he is Black.
Yes, minorities have to kiss white cracker ass big time and cater to people who are barely smart enough to tell the piss pot from their breakfast plate, it's unfair, but hey, we're the chinks and beaners and ones sneaking across the border. We have to respect our white betters.
FUCK YOU, Howard.
that "transcript" is snark, right? Howard didn't actually say that but he may as well have.
I see that now, but it is not clear, especially when filed under VideoCafe.
My sentiment remains unchanged.
which has a lot more there than what's promoted, is filed under Video Cafe on the main site. I don't disagree with your sentiment of Fineman either, but wanted to make sure no one thought that was a direct quote.
..would make a great host on Meet the Press. Just in case NBC wants to get rid of David.
they should let them co-host it. It would be the most glorious waste of time ever presented on the idiot box.
Was the lynching of the black guy unavoidable, or the result of his mistakes?
Wow, just wow... I didn't think Mr. Matthews and his show could get any more disingenuous. But I see that indeed they can.
one of our Las Vegas Review Journal polls. "Do you hate the Democrats or do you just hate their policies?" They then proceed to poll 10 people that they rounded up at the Republican county meeting and obtain amazing results. Disingenuous bullshit.
http://www.uclick.com/client/nyt/bs/
0 out of 12: the number of matthews' meter participants that i care to know the opinion of
political astrologists tossing opinionated darts that may or may not resonate with some of the viewers. personally, i would place more weight with the astrologists, but not as much as the reagans.
that Driftglass stopped being a regular contributor here at C&L. Satirists of his quality are hard to come by.
But the part about "the doublewide trailer crowd who his policies probably saved from living in refrigerator boxes and begging for nickels on freeway overpasses will never forgive him for it." is right on.
that said, I find Fineman easier to take than a lot of his associates and he does make a salient point here concerning Obama's aggravating desire to work with the nutbags.
quick edit:assuming this drifty snark was based on an actual transcript that is...
I saw the CM show yesterday and what Fineman said was not that far from the satire here. When I heard it what came to my mind is that he was suggesting the President not get too uppity and kiss some republican asses ASAP.
Maybe Fineman—that names seems almost oxymoronic in this context—would have Obama giving out shoe shines to help the self-esteem of the crazies.
I suppose you could say that it is owing to his mistakes if you count his being a Democrat and Black as mistakes.
...or even earlier!
But, "his fault"??? That's like blaming the lifeguard for your missing limb when you survived a shark attack.
It's pretty clear that health care insurance reform isn't going to work unless whatever final bill goes to President Obama for his signature covers ALL the methods to regulate, methods to streamline and prevent waste, methods to fund, and methods to serve the folks who need affordable health care insurance coverage and from that, preventative and effective health care.
The Republicans know that, so their goal is to cripple the various drafts of the bill so what is presented to the President is a flawed, incomplete package, which stands to fail.
The President won't sign a flawed package, so the Republicans will achieve their goal, which is to delay, delay, delay, so that the lobbying can continue and expensive ads can become more entrenched, and more of the public can remain confused and angry.
Just in time for the 2010 election cycle...
Even when he is off, right? This is a joke.
That said, howver, i don't believe on blind faith the way my sister believes her religion. i question and sometimes come to the same conclusion as she and sometimes not. therefore, with obama, yes, his failing popularity is due IN PART to his lack of good judgement. i see him very much as acquiescing too much to the right. He took rom emanual into his cabinet for exactly that reason. he was way too buddy-buddy with the conservative element until they slapped him once too often upside the head and he finally came out with his speech on no compromise on his health care reform bill. He has been too wishy-washy in his stance on important issues rather than forthright. didn't we vote him in on a platform on ending this stupid war. yet, the troops are still there, and he still acts like bush light. he really needs to turn it on before he loses all of us.
i will continuet to support him as long as he stands up for the principles which he so eloquently espouses in his rhetoric
it is legitimate, despite the source.
Is the Anti-Obama Venom Unavoidable or Partly a Result of His Mistakes ? That is an absolutely stupid question . The scum bag and dumb ass right are rabid dogs , period .
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