Chris Matthews takes his best shot at attempting to turn President Obama into Jimmy Carter. This from the man who said this about George Bush when he decided to play dress up on the aircraft carrier:

MATTHEWS: What's the importance of the president's amazing display of leadership tonight?

[...]

MATTHEWS: What do you make of the actual visual that people will see on TV and probably, as you know, as well as I, will remember a lot longer than words spoken tonight? And that's the president looking very much like a jet, you know, a high-flying jet star. A guy who is a jet pilot. Has been in the past when he was younger, obviously. What does that image mean to the American people, a guy who can actually get into a supersonic plane and actually fly in an unpressurized cabin like an actual jet pilot?

[...]

MATTHEWS: Do you think this role, and I want to talk politically [...], the president deserves everything he's doing tonight in terms of his leadership. He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics. Do you think he is defining the office of the presidency, at least for this time, as basically that of commander in chief? That [...] if you're going to run against him, you'd better be ready to take [that] away from him.

[...]

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, Bob Dornan, you were a congressman all those years. Here's a president who's really nonverbal. He's like Eisenhower. He looks great in a military uniform. He looks great in that cowboy costume he wears when he goes West. I remember him standing at that fence with Colin Powell. Was [that] the best picture in the 2000 campaign?

I guess Obama needs to get himself a cowboy outfit and do some brush clearing or a flight suit and play war hero and maybe Tweety will be impressed.

Transcrict via Nexis Lexis.

MATTHEWS: Welcome back. The word these days is optics, visuals, signals. In the Carter presidency, the optics were not exactly robust. And Ronald Reagan rode that to a big victory in 1980. Is the Obama White House sending some Carter-esque signals these days? Some see that in the deep bow to the emperor of Japan, an unforced error, say the critics. Then there was--there was what happened in China. Obama got nothing in the way of concessions over there despite playing the polite visitor. And his effort to speak directly to the Chinese was jammed by the government. Third, that decision to try the terrorists up in that federal court in New York City. Again, nothing had to be done, and critics say--the critics say it shows that Obama, his team doesn't understand this is a war we're in.

David, that's the question. These optics are everything in a presidency. Carter used to carry that garment bag over his shoulder. This president, is he making mistakes like in China, like in Japan?

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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.

The AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka reminds Norah O'Donnell that without at least a public option there is no reform because the insurance companies have a strangle hold on the market.

From CBS News- Labor Draws a Line in the Sand On Public Option:

Labor leaders drew a line in the sand today, saying a health care reform bill must include three specific elements -- including a government-sponsored health insurance plan, or "public option" -- in order to win their support.

The AFL-CIO outlined its demands for both health care and labor law reforms at a meeting today at which it released a new survey of young workers. The data backs up its progressive agenda and attempts to give it a sense of urgency.

The "Young Workers: A Lost Decade" poll, conducted in July of this year, found that 31 percent of workers under 35 report being uninsured, up from 24 percent 10 years ago. Counter to arguments that young people do not want to pay for insurance, 79 percent of the uninsured said they do not have coverage because they cannot afford it or their employer does not offer it.

"Every day people are drowning from the cost of health care," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said.

Richard Trumka, who will replace Sweeney as president in a couple of weeks, said there are "three absolute musts" for health care: the public option, an employer mandate, and no taxes on employer-provided health care.

"That means we won't support the bill if it doesn't have the public option in it," Trumka said.

From Morning Joe, Pat Buchanan apparently wasn't too happy about Levi Johnston's criticism of his girlfriend Sarah Palin on the Today Show, where he said Palin resigned to cash in on her recent celebrity.

Buchanan: Well, first, with regard to Levi, I think First Dude up there in Alaska, Todd Palin, ought to take Levi down to the creek and hold his head underwater until the thrashing stops.

Mika made sure the audience knew that MSNBC does not advocate any violence against Levi Johnston before the segment was over. Way to stay classy Pat.

Howard Dean does a great job on MSNBC shooting down every Republican talking point on health care reform that Norah O'Donnell throws at him. Here are the questions she asked him.

• Is a public option a stalking horse for this government control?
• Doctors don't support this plan--then proceeds to read a quote that doesn't say doctors are against a public plan.
• Medicare and Medicaid waste money.
• Doctors don't like it because they only get 80% of what they would under private insurance plans.
• How do you stop employers from dropping employees from their coverage?

As Media Matters has reported, this is nothing new for Norah O'Donnell: Hardball for Dean, softball for Allen: MSNBC's O'Donnell echoed Republican attacks, misleading statements

As Think Progress noted, Dean also did a good job of explaining why Kent Conrad's co-op proposal is a really bad idea and won't work:

He’s wrong about this. The co-ops are too small to compete with the big, private insurance companies. They will kill the co-ops completely by undercutting them, using their financial clout to do it. In the small states like mine and like Senator Conrad’s, you’re never gonna get to the 500,000 number signed up in the co-op that you need to in order for them to have any marketing [power].

This is a compromise designed to deal with problems in the Senate. But it doesn’t deal with problems in America. And I think it’s time for the Senate to stop playing politics, do what has to be done. … If the Republicans don’t want to get on board, then we can do this without the Republicans.

We need more voices like Dr. Dean and Sen. Sanders talking honestly about this issue as long as the media is going to continue repeating the Republicans talking points for them.

That great defender of downtrodden white men, Pat Buchanan, was at it again with his "affirmative action" rhetoric on Sonia Sotomayor, but this time he gets tag-teamed by Norah and Lawrence O'Donnell for his idiocracy. Pat just can't believe that President Obama's final four choices for the court were....gasp...all women. The horror!

Buchanan: Look, are you going to let me talk, Lawrence? You got down to four women, not a single white male...all women, and then we're going to pick a Hispanic....

Norah O'Donnell: Did it ever occur to you Pat, that maybe there weren’t any white men who were qualified?

Buchanan: Yes.... No, it did not occur to me. You mean there are no white males qualified? That is an, that would be an act of bigotry to make a statement like that.....

Norah O'Donnell: In the past there have been no women who were qualified.

Buchanan: There certainly have been qualified in the past. I don't doubt there are but probably half of the great lawyers and judges are white males in this country and to rule them all out...why? Because of their sex and because of their race is wrong! I think at least it's affirmative action.

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On MSNBC today, Norah O'Donnell got into a heated debate with Liz Cheney over the torture memos and what role her father had in pushing torture through. The two started shouting down one another, but Norah wouldn't back down from the bullying tactics Republicans for the most part successfully use on cable shows.

Norah brings up the timeline and points out that it was her father who signed on to it earlier than most and wonders if he pushed the OLC to approve these measure. Liz Cheney tries to use the military training program, called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape as a justification that "enhanced methods" aren't really torture because our troops were trained in this manner and it's denigrating to them to say otherwise. Huh? Now, we're against the troops again?

She also uses the yet-to-be-substantiated Republican Talking Point that we got a lot of useful intel from torturing. E-mailer Margaret writes in:

In the first place, how does Liz Cheney know we got valuable information? Did she have the same clearance as the Pres and the VP? Beyond that, her rationale for torture, not being torture, because what we do to our own service people isn't torture, is making my head

L. CHENEY: (W)hat you're doing is reading headlines and talking about direction of lawyers, which is a very different thing. And there's no assertion that that's what went on. The lawyers' opinions were sought in order to make sure that the program that the CIA ran stayed within the law. And the lawyers did a very responsible and professional job of laying out exactly what were the limits of how far we could go. And that is precisely what makes it so damaging that these memos have now been released.

O'DONNELL: Listen to yourself – listen to yourself, Liz, "how far we could go."

L. CHENEY: That's right.

O'DONNELL: How far could we go with detainees? I mean, how far could we... Torture them in order to get information?

L. CHENEY: How far – no. For how many minutes you could ask them certain kind of questions. How many...

(CROSSTALK)

L. CHENEY: I'm sorry, it's very, very important point.

O'DONNELL: It's a very important point.

L. CHENEY: It is a very important point.

O'DONNELL: The Geneva Convention were established...

L. CHENEY: Norah, there is nothing...

O'DONNELL: ... to protect our men and women in the military. So that America would be a beacon in the world so when our men and women are captured overseas that they would not be tortured. We would never want our people to...

L. CHENEY: Norah, are you going to give me a chance to answer your question?

O'DONNELL: Let me finish my point.

L. CHENEY: I get your point, Norah, but the point is – no, Norah, wait a second...

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: ... America no longer cares about torture?

L. CHENEY: That's not what the world is hearing, Norah. First of all...

(CROSSTALK)

O'DONNELL: .. and if gets valuable information, then OK, we're for it. Is that the message they send?

L. CHENEY: Norah, that may be what you're saying, but that's not what I'm saying.

O'DONNELL: OK.

L. CHENEY: What I'm saying that is there were a series of tactics, a series of techniques that had all been done to our own people. We did not torture our own people, these techniques are not torture. The memos laid out...

O'DONNELL: Did we torture other people?

L. CHENEY: No.

O'DONNELL: You just said, we did not torture our own people.

L. CHENEY: Therefore, the tactics are not torture. We did not torture. The memos laid out the extent of exactly how far we could go before it would become torture, because it was important we not cross that line into torture.

Cheney just wanted to be like Pol Pot, I guess:

Even George J. Tenet, the C.I.A. director who insisted that the agency had thoroughly researched its proposal and pressed it on other officials, did not examine the history of the most shocking method, the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding.

The top officials he briefed did not learn that waterboarding had been prosecuted by the United States in war-crimes trials after World War II and was a well-documented favorite of despotic governments since the Spanish Inquisition; one waterboard used under Pol Pot was even on display at the genocide museum in Cambodia.

And as Digby writes:

It shouldn't have taken any warnings. You don't have to be an expert to know that there is a huge difference between having your own people train you to withstand these techniques and using them on prisoners.

And you don't have to be a historian to figure out that malevolent torture techniques have been considered poisonous and evil by civilized people for quite some time now. (That nobody even bothered to find out where these techniques came from is just another example of the "Brownification" of the US Government under the idiot Republicans.) It was bloodlust, plain and simple. They gave themselves permission to become barbarians.

That we now have even more proof they consciously sent these SERE techniques to Iraq to "Gitmoize" it --- a country which we invaded under false pretenses and which had not attacked us first --- takes these crimes to yet another level. If nothing else, allowing a bunch of low level grunts to pay the price while the men and women who gave the orders publicly pretended they were appalled at the behavior they themselves had sanctioned, makes all arguments that these leaders shouldn't be held accountable completely untenable.

Marcy gives the shorter Liz Cheney: "I'm proud my daddy is the prime mover of torture." Full transcript below the fold:

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Norah O'Donnell exposes Republican hack John Feehery's talking points in about a second and leaves him scratching his head like a dimwit when he had no response after he was asked to name one "pork barrel" project contained in the stimulus bill. (rough transcript)

Feehery:.... They go first with this huge pork bill.

O'Donnell: Name one piece of pork.

Feehery: Ahhh, bhah,,,You can't do that to me right now, I can't think of it right now, but it was a huge bunch of stuff that we don't even know what's in there.

O'Donnell: Well the reason I ask and it's not to put you on the spot and everything, but it's not pork. A lot of people say what it is, it's infrastructure spending, it is spending that is stimulative. That's what the White House says.

{snip}

O'Donnell: Let me get this straight: Republicans want to come out and be against helping people who are unemployed?

Feehery: No, they don't want to do that, but they...

O'Donnell: But that's what it sounds like...

Feehery: What they don't want to is go bankrupt in the off years and that's why Republican governors are having a hard time with this legislation ... the relief is temporary, but the changes are costly forever.

O'Donnell: Well it doesn't sound clear that the republican party knows exactly what to do quite frankly since there's this disagreement between the government on what to do. I want to read from the Politico, which has an interesting story today which says: Republicans are hatching a political comeback by dusting off a strategic playbook written nearly two decades ago.

Its themes: Unite against Democrats’ economic policy, block and counter health-care reform and tar them from spending scandals.The key point, a playbook from two decades ago. This is really I guess the grand old party.

Is that really the best Republicans have?

Feehery: Well, hopefully not ...

O"Donnell: Is anybody a thinker in that party?

I'm really shocked that Norah actually put him and Republicans on the spot for a change. It's not her usual MO, and it suggests just how bad Republicans are starting to look. Wow, Feehery probably expected the usual on-air time to freely slam anything Obama. She painted him in the corner over Republican governors refusing to accept unemployment aid and then hit him over the head by pointing out that the only new ideas they have are out of Newt Gingrich's 20-year-old playbook.

Republicans are hatching a political comeback by dusting off a strategic playbook written nearly two decades ago. Its themes: Unite against Democrats’ economic policy, block and counter health care reform and tar them with spending scandals.

Those represent the political trifecta that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich bet on in 1994 to produce a historic Republican takeover of Congress.

This normally would work, as our librul media usually gets sucked in by the Gingrich playbook. But I have a hope that maybe, just maybe, more TV hosts will call this out for what it is: Pure lunacy in a time when this country cannot afford these political games.

Republicans who adopt this philosophy should remember that Gingrich got his butt kicked over this plan. And they are terrified that we may get universal health care in the future and will do anything to undermine that. Even if it means digging up Newt's bones to do it.

If you ever need an example of how the media swallows whole every right wing talking point, here it is. Norah O'Donnell uses John Boehner talking points about "contraception" to attack President Obama's stimulus plan as if it's the absolute truth. And of course everything else that republicans don't want in the bill is just plain old pork.

Norah: With all due respect isn't that a bunch of pork in here and how is that exactly stimulus?

I take your point Congressman. but go ahead and answer what Congressman Boehner said. How can you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives. How does that stimulate the economy?

Well, let me ask you that then, do you think 200 million dollars essentially contraceptives is wasteful spending?

You get my point, (scowl on her face) there is going to be since this is over 800 billion dollars there's going to be a lot in there that people are going to raise questions about in the long run about wasteful spending, whether it's democrats efforts just to HUGE massive, unprecedented spending bill to put stuff and get stuff paid for that they haven't been successful or paid for in the past.

She even used the now discredited talking point about the CBO. Now we have a real CBO report that says: CBO Report Confirms Economic Recovery Act Provides Immediate Stimulus to Help Create Jobs.

It didn't matter what answer Chris Van Hollen gave Norah, she wasn't buying it. Suddenly John Boehner is a source of incredibly non partisan information. Oh, I forgot, he's a republican. I thought when the nation voted in the Democratic Party to take over, they would write bills and govern on their beliefs. That's why they were elected. OK, to debunk the "contraceptives" talking point which is an attack on Nancy Pelosi, Elanor Shor writes:

The Drudge Report and Politico are breathlessly repeating Republican talking points that accuse House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) of hijacking the stimulus bill to promote contraceptive use...

First of all, the family-planning program that Pelosi supports expanding in the stimulus bill was created in 1972 under the leadership of Republican president Richard Nixon. What's being proposed is an expansion in the number of states that can use Medicaid money, with a federal match, to help low-income women prevent unwanted pregnancies...read on.

Digby writes:

The media are going to be the death of this country. It was bad enough when they were too dumb to know (or care) that the Bush administration was marching us off to war for no good reason. But at least that made a certain evil, emotional sense. People have often gone to war because they got all excited over snappy uniforms and killing people.

Watching them deal with something complicated like our economic crisis is enough to make your head explode.

Boehner's cute soundbite about contraceptives is, of course, nonsense. The money he's talking about is for medicaid, which is desperately needed at a time when people are losing their jobs --- and, by the way, will help stimulate the economy by paying the doctors, pharmacies and hospitals for the (much increased) care they give, something that is a big problem at a time when states are going broke.

Norah O'Donnell later ripped Democrat Chris Van Hollen a new one on that issue because he wasn't prepared and he ended up pretty much endorsing the idea that spending should all be on infrastructure after she perfectly parroted all the conservative talking points and successfully framed all expenditures that aren't tax cuts and bridges as pork.

Oh Lord, please help me. Then I watched Chris Matthews actually quote Limbaugh by name saying that the stimulus plan is just party politics for poor people and thought the use of contraception was just like China counting babies. The media has no shame. No shame I tell you.
Media Matters is covering the media and their insanity very well also.