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Defending Biden's Blooper, Matthews Ignores 'Clean' Crack
NewsBusters ^ | Mark Finkelstein

Posted on 01/31/2007 3:51:01 PM PST by 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?

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Delaware
KEYWORDS: biden; chrismatthews; jessejackson; obama; wiarhsi
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
I don't think Biden was saying anything different than somebody from his generation would say."

Someone like TRENT LOTT, for example?

I never heard Chrissie making excuses for Trent.


21 posted on 01/31/2007 4:11:21 PM PST by They'reGone2000 (<---- and I DON'T want to change my name to They'reBack2008!)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

It is CLEARLY time for the "a joke gone bad" defense here. Biden states, "Just kidding!"


22 posted on 01/31/2007 4:14:11 PM PST by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

It is CLEARLY time for the "a joke gone bad" defense here. Biden states, "Just kidding!"


23 posted on 01/31/2007 4:14:19 PM PST by Right Wing Assault ("..this administration is planning a 'Right Wing Assault' on values and ideals.." - John Kerry)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
roots from plugs entered Bidens Brain and caused the faux pas.....


24 posted on 01/31/2007 4:15:52 PM PST by Vaquero ("An armed society is a polite society" Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Right Wing Assault

Yeah, but when you repeat the joke twice ;-)


25 posted on 01/31/2007 4:16:01 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

I wish someone who has the chance to ask Biden a question would ask this: "Sen. Biden, if you think Sen. Obama is such a great candidate for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination then why are you running for President?"


26 posted on 01/31/2007 4:22:11 PM PST by StormEye
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

No doubt Matthews was totally forgiving of Senator Allen when he used the word macaca. NOT


27 posted on 01/31/2007 4:22:39 PM PST by OldFriend (Swiftboating - Sinking a politician's Ship of Fools by Torpedoes of Truth)
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To: Republicus2001
Whenever I see Jesse Jackson on tv I wish they had captioning. I RARELY can understand him

Jesse Jackson is to articulate as Teddy Kennedy is to anorexic.

28 posted on 01/31/2007 4:24:10 PM PST by fruitintheroom
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To: governsleastgovernsbest
Suggested nickname for Joe Biden: Joey The Greek.

Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder (September 9, 1919 – April 21, 1996) was an American sports commentator and Las Vegas bookie. He was born Dimetrios Georgos Synodinos in Steubenville, Ohio.

[edit] Picking controversy As a football commentator, Snyder was controversial. He would often give his picks for winners of games and touted his ability to make the right picks, which critics claimed were indirectly encouraging gambling; Snyder countered by saying that he never gave the spread of the games, so his picks couldn't be considered an endorsement of gambling. According to the autobiography entitled Jimmy the Greek by Jimmy Greek, Steve Herskowitz (Editor), and Mickey Herskowitz, he bet $10,000 USD on the 1948 election between Thomas Dewey and Harry S. Truman, getting 17:1 odds for Truman to win.

[edit] Controversial statements On January 16, 1988, he was fired by the CBS network (where he was a contributor to the NFL Today program since 1976) after commenting to a reporter that African Americans were naturally superior athletes because they had been bred to produce stronger offspring during slavery:

“ During the slave period, the slave owner would breed his big black with his big woman so that he would have a big black kid—that's where it all started.

29 posted on 01/31/2007 4:29:58 PM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest; All

What really ticks me off is Biden saying "you got the FIRST African-American who is articulate and bright," IGNORING J. C. WATTS, MICHAEL STEELE, KEN BLACKWELL, LYNN SWANN, DR. WALTER E. WILLIAMS, DR. THOMAS SOWELL, WARD CONNERLY, DEROY MURDOCK, LARRY ELDER, ETC., ETC. ETC. (Grrrrrrrrrr!)

-- NOT the "clean" remark -- .

In this context "clean" is a VERY COMMON euphemism for scandal-free (but not corruption-free, IMHO -- Obama is DEFINITELY bought-out by various unions and big-government advocates).


30 posted on 01/31/2007 4:32:30 PM PST by FreeKeys ( Why not McCain? Because he won't nominate Supreme Court justices who'd overturn McCain-Feingold .)
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To: pissant
MESSAGE TO BIDEN:
Hey, Joe. Maybe you could top this off by sending some soap and shampoo to the Congressional Black Caucus. Maybe Senator Byrd will help with the expense.
(If these people said what they think, they'd be laughed out of the political arena. Unfortunately, millions of Americans can't seem to figure them out.)
31 posted on 01/31/2007 4:34:28 PM PST by Savage Beast ("Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.")
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To: FreeKeys

I will cut Biden this much slack - I believe he meant the first black presidential candidate.


32 posted on 01/31/2007 4:34:59 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

All they have to say is, "Joe Biden is really, really dumb."


33 posted on 01/31/2007 4:35:17 PM PST by ozzymandus
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To: Savage Beast

It's appalling that the party of FDR, Truman and Kennedy has sunk to these depths.


34 posted on 01/31/2007 4:35:59 PM PST by pissant
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To: governsleastgovernsbest; All
I will cut Biden this much slack - I believe he meant the first black presidential candidate.

Oh, right! Of course! I'm glad you pointed that out. That means he's calling Jesse Jacksaon and the Rev. Al Sharpton "inarticulate, dumb and crooked!" Excellent. I love it.

35 posted on 01/31/2007 4:46:57 PM PST by FreeKeys ("Once Hillary is elected she will create a new form of secret police." -- Dick Morris)
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To: FreeKeys

Absolutely!


36 posted on 01/31/2007 4:48:48 PM PST by governsleastgovernsbest (Watching the Today Show since 2002 so you don't have to.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

Biden meant that unlike the inarticulate senatorial candidate Harold Ford Jr who's family is a criminal enterprise Osama is Clean. ie no criminal taint.

Biden meant that unlike the greasy headed Charlie Wrangel, Osama is clean ie no greasy unempt hair.

Take your pick.


37 posted on 01/31/2007 4:51:12 PM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. .... It's spit on a lefty day.)
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To: governsleastgovernsbest

The only thing dumber that biden are the voters who keep re-electing this dumb stump.


38 posted on 01/31/2007 4:53:52 PM PST by chiefqc
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To: FreeKeys

I believe Shirley Chisolm predates Barak Obama. He's not the candidate yet, and she campaigned back in the days (I think) when they still chose candidates at the conventions. So Obama is no further along at this point than she was in her day. Chisolm was clean, articulate, etc. Biden ought to have remembered her!


39 posted on 01/31/2007 4:56:02 PM PST by StPatricksBreastplate
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To: river rat
Chris Matthew's nose is so embedded in the DNC's ass -- if a Democrat farts, it would burst his ear drums.

Visual of the day for me.

To me, real racist remarks must have an element of condescension to truly be racist. What Biden said qualifies in my book. What Trent Lott said was merely being gentlemanly. Awkward though his remarks may have been, he was not putting himself above another man, he was putting another man above himself. Biden dumped on the likes of Colin Powell, Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice, etc. His words were racist.

40 posted on 01/31/2007 4:56:35 PM PST by IamConservative (Any man who agrees with you on everything, will lie to anyone.)
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