Defending Biden's Blooper, Matthews Ignores 'Clean' Crack

NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Let's play one of our favorite parlor games: "WIARHSI?" You know: "What if a Republican Had Said It?" In today's game, let's imagine what would happen if a Republican presidential candidate had said that Barack Obama was the first "clean" and "articulate" African-American presidential candidate?

• Which paper would win the race to call for the Republican's withdrawal from the race: the NY Times, Boston Globe, WaPo, other?
• How soon until Jesse Jackson, Carol Moseley-Braun and Al Sharpton turned up on TV to be asked how they felt about being insulted in this way?
• How many hours of MSM musing over GOP's "history of racial insensitivity"; how many replays of Trent Lott making his statement about Strom Thurmond, etc., would we be subjected to over the ensuing week?
• How long until the hapless Republican did indeed withdraw from the race?

But when it's a Democrat . . . count on Chris Matthews, for one, to circle the wagons.

Matthews had Anne Kornbluth of the Washington Post and Jay Carney of Time magazine in as guests. The trio didn't even broach the Biden comments until a full ten minutes into their gab fest after batting around a number of other issues. How long would Chris have waited to launch had it been a Republican on the hot seat?

View edited video clip here.

From the get-go, Matthews focused on the "articulate" issue. He suggested to Carney "is this just a tempest in a teapot?" When Carney mentioned Jesse Jackson as an articulate man, Matthews interjected "I would put him at the top, right there with, in fact I'd give him a notch over Mario Cuomo." Higher praise hath no Democrat!

Carney took his lead from Chris. He suggested that Biden's only fault was in not being clear in saying that "there hasn't been a viable African-American candidate with all those qualities . . ." Chris couldn't stop himself from interrupting to complete Carney's thought: "and who's mainstream!"Carney acquieseced: "and mainstream." Matthews again: "mainstream's the key thing."

Matthews then digressed into a discussion of a Chris Rock riff about white people damning black college graduates with faint praise for being "articulate."

Chris was clearly in a forgiving mood: "I measure people by their heart. I don't think Biden was saying anything different than somebody from his generation would say."

Anne Kornblut wasn't about to crack down either on poor old Joe: "This is classic Joe Biden. He tends toward the hyperbolic and he talks and talks and talks, and that's one of the things that I think voters in Delaware have loved about him for a long time . . . and he just can't help himself." Aside: people from Delaware "love" the fact that Biden's a blowhard?

When Carney observed that Biden "tends toward the impolitic," citing the case from the summer where Biden made a crack about Indian people working in convenience stores, Matthews again butted in to defend Joe:

"He's trying to talk like people. And the minute these people use the talking points, we mock them for the talking points. When they try to talk like people - of their generation . . ."

Defense attorney Matthews offered his closing argument:

"I ask everybody out there to do what I'm trying to do -- look at this reasonably. In my religion I call it a venial sin - I'm not sure it's even that. I'm waiting on this one."

Does anyone really think Matthews would be so forgiving if a Republican had uttered the same words? In any case, notice the enormous straw man Chris set up. The entirety of the discussion focused on the "articulate" word in Biden's statement. Matthews & Co. utterly ignored Biden's depiction of Obama as the first "clean" African-American candidate. How can the MSM gang possibly talk their way around that?

Contact Mark at mark@gunhill.net

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Let's-play-WIARHSI?-ping to Today show list.

[pissant]

Of course. What can we expect from a party with Sheets Byrd as its most prominent senator.

[Anti-Bubba182]

There is no bigger partisan Whore than Crissy. He would make Hannity blush.

[neodad]

I heard Michael Steele on Laura Ingraham this morning. He was offended because he felt he cleaned up pretty well, his wife even picked his tie. LOL!

[river rat]

Chris Matthew's nose is so embedded in the DNC's ass -- if a Democrat farts, it would burst his ear drums.

Semper Fi

[MikeA]

And if Bush or a Republican senator said it, Matthews would be all over them like flies on a turd. Funny he didn't come rushing to Trent Lott's defense merely for praising Strom Thurmond too effusively, nor any of the rest of these media ass clowns. It was just assumed he was a racist. Biden says something actually bigoted (unlike Lott praising a Senate colleague without ever mentioning blacks) and these craven media pukes all try to help him spin his way out of it. What an Alice in Wonderland country we're living in right now.

[Uncle Hal]

Excellent post. I could not have said it better. The hypocrisy of the MSM and their left wing buddies is beyond belief. If this had been a GOP candidate that said this we all know what would have happen. Does not even have to be discussed.

[penelopesire]

LOL...I predicted this morning(like many) that the DBM would focus on the word 'mainstream' and use it to completely gloss over Biden's remarks!!

Just shakin my head. Good article btw!!

[kromike]

I take this as a positive. Conservatives & Republicans are simply held to a higher standard.

Don't want to ever be criticized? Then, become a liberal/dhimmocrat! You will then be loved, adored, and forgiven for all your faults, hypocrisy, and lack of consistent standards...

[Txsleuth]

This is just like their attitude towards Sandy Berger stealing classified documents....

"Oh, that big silly, Berger is SO SLOPPY"...LOLOLOL

They thought THAT was just funny also.

I guess Chrissy thinks that his viewers haven't heard ANY talk about the "clean" comment...

[RegulatorCountry]

"Matthews Ignores 'Clean' Crack"

LOL, I've heard that about Chrissy. This word, "clean," just trips them up every time, doesn't it?

[Buffettfan]

Obama is going to have a tough time defending the racist anti-white remarks and feelings that he admitted that he had in his first book. Time for the democrats to start eating their own (can you say Hillary?). Sit back and watch the fireworks.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

I haven't mentioned this in ages: anyone wishing to be placed on my ping list, please let me know by ping or private message.

[Republicus2001]

Carney mentioned Jesse Jackson as an articulate man

what is this guy smokin? Whenever I see Jesse Jackson on tv I wish they had captioning. I RARELY can understand him

[Carling]

"He's trying to talk like people. And the minute these people use the talking points, we mock them for the talking points. When they try to talk like people - of their generation . . ."

Well Chris, thank you for trying to understand us simpletons in the proletariat, but I must say none of the common folk, er "people", I associate with or work with "talk" like Joe Biden. Thus, I must also assume that the "people" that Chris Matthews associates with say things similar to the awkward, un-PC rants of Joe Biden.

[billhilly]

This is another cry in the dark about a condition that will not change. We have lived with this reality since Television covered the Nixon/Kennedy Debates in 1960. The only answer for Republicans is to hit back, as we do, when there are egregious falsehoods. We do not control opinion, nor should we. Remember, the media, as we have known it for most of our national life, is rapidly changing, and they can't do a damned thing about it. Eventually their fingers will let go of the slim branches they are holding on to. It will be bitter for them, but they have had a long ride.

[Afronaut]

No one watches this show. He is a nobody

[csmusaret]

What is the big deal? At least Joe didn't call him Macaca.

[Jane Austen]

If a Republican had said this, the media would have gone crazy - there would have been demands for his resignation.