Come on Matthews....... are you fricken kidding me?

Obama is the proverbial American dream who was able to go to school and because the great person he is!

Yes, he went to an Ivy league school...... and what.... we are supposed to hate him for doing what we all dream of doing?

He's popular, he remembers his roots, and will do great things for this country! 

Stop making a fool of yourself Chris...... leave that to FOX Noise and the lunatic right-wing fringe!

Heck, Bush went to an Ivy League school and graduated with a C average. And it shows.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let's go now to Roger Simon. Again your thoughts on last night's magic moment for a lot of Americans, in fact, me included. I, that picture is right out of Camelot, as far as I'm concerned.

(speaking on Obama's win)

MediaMatters forgot to report on this. And the innumerable other thrills going up Matthews's leg for Obama. 

"He's gone from being a poor kid, growing up in Hawaii, in Indonesia, part of his youth, mixed family background, had to struggle, worked with community organizations; went to these incredibly elite schools, Columbia and Harvard Law, making Law Review and all that. He missed the middle part."

Tweety misses a lot of things, too.  Like the facts....

In this corner, on the XXX ticket: The AVERAGE GUY!  Vote for him: He's just like you!  Since when has the "Average American" made a good political candidate?  (And don't say Bush - he's below average in many ways, despite having a far above average upbriging.  The two do NOT balance out.)  And if the "middls class" is "struggling" (Mathew's own words) after eight (and really more like fourteen) years of conservative policies, isn't that a ringing endorsment for what the Liberals and the Democrats are selling?

So according to Matthews, Obama can't connect with middle america because he's only known poverty and wealth with no stops in between.

I may be wrong but the middle class connected with both FDR and JFK and they were never middle class.

So according to Matthews, Obama can't connect with middle america because he's only known poverty and wealth with no stops in between.

I may be wrong but the middle class connected with both FDR and JFK and they were never middle class.

Using that "logic", no one can connect with John McCain, either.  He grew up in a military family (son of an admiral), and lived a military life himself until he dumped his disabled first wife to shack up with his sugar mommy, Cindy Lou.....

A how could anyone POSSIBLE connect to Ronald Reagan, a man who spend is entire life pretending to be someone else?

Tweety is running out of arguments.....

Geez Matthews, you are such an idiot & to think I used to stick up for you here.

I dunno Chris, JFK went from wealthy to um, wealthy. Did he miss something? Yet he somehow connected with the voters. Others here I'm sure could give many other examples.

You're exactly right Jeter.  I think this "connection" argument is just ridiculous anyway, at least for me.  I don't want a candidate to somehow pander to me and tell me they feel my pain, or they will fix my problems, pat me on the head and blubber on about their humble beginnings and they know this struggle or that struggle.  So what if they do, or don't.  I don't care.

What I want is to be treated and campaigned to like an adult, told what challenges we face as a nation, foreign and domestic,  what our options are, their vision and their path, the tough decisions and choices that I may not always agree with, but I can respect honest debate and discussion and candor from them, always, for us, the people they work for.

Is that so much to ask for in any candidate?  Stop treating me like I am a child. 

Great post.  Spot on.

I agree with you, however, the issue here is how we're being reported to, not campaigned to. 

I agree. Jeter2/Tommy has once again shifted the focus. Even if Sen. Obama did not have a typical American middle-class upbringing (according to Matthews), he obviously was raised with such middle class values as "hardwork, decency and honesty" (see his May 5 Meet the Press appearance). And his wife Michelle was apparently very much middle class, with her father being a "shiftworker for the city of Chicago." Did John McCain have a typical American middle-class upbringing? I believe his mother came from money. I believe his wife came from money. Will Chris Matthews be making an issue of whether McCain's background makes it difficult for him to relate to struggling middle class voters? 

What I want is to be treated and campaigned to like an adult

As long as your candidates repeatedly say that they support the troops as they point to their lapel pin. 

Sounds like Obama is your kind of candidate!

Won't happen. We have two major parties: The Daddy Party (GOP), and the Mommy Party (Dems). Both have a streak of looking at we ordinary folks as hairless apes who, without Their Divine Guidance, would poke our eyes out with scissors or pointy sticks. We're children that must be coddled and observed and scrutinized.

We might as well turn America into one, huge daycare center/assisted-living community. We're headed that way as it is, might as well get it over with.

Have a government-approved day!

 

Gee, Libertarian Guy, what in God's name are you talking about? No national health care, no regulation of corporate crooks, no infrastructure spending (which would keep the bridges from falling down and put a lot of Americans to work). I can think of lots of stuff the government should be doing that the private sector can't or won't do.

JFK had a "rock star" quality that appealed to the masses but was not one of our better Presidents. 

And another thing Chris...... did you miss the 'middle' part of life?  Should we be listening to you?

I realize that running for president requires a bit more than that of a TV personality...... everyone about anyone can or will find something about a person that is somehow precieved as elitist and will forever bring out the jealocy in some people about others that have done what they themselves didn't, couldn't or failed at!

Matthews will not start his assault on Obama.

...Don't you mean "stop"?

... or was it "NOW start his assault on Obama." ?

"Matthews' will not start his ass"

Reading between the lines here, I think it's clear that Matthews would rather not be delivering such spectacular election analysis.  He’d prefer to be bowling with average Americans at a small town dinette.

Reading between the lines here, I think it's clear that Matthews would rather not be delivering such spectacular election analysis.  He’d prefer to be bowling with average Americans at a small town dinette.

And afterwards, Tweety would meet David Brooks at the salad bar in Applebee's...  :-)

I just clicked on those first two links.  Bravo, MM.  Perfect.

Has Tweety ever asked this question of McCain? After all, the son of an admiral, educated at the elite Naval Academy, pilot in Vietnam, politician with a welathy (second) wife... when did he stop at (or, more accurately, stoop to) the Mythological "Middle"?

Shouldn't that pose trouble for him connecting with "real folks"?

Oh, I forgot -- he's got a barbecue grill.

Wanna see connected? Here's McCain ducking a question about his marital infidelity by giving talking point 36 as an answer. And the crowd goes wild! Amazing, no one at this town hall seemed to care that McCain fooled around while his 1st wife was hospitalized, and broke up with her because the accident deformed her. That's some marraige fidelity there, John...

BO is bit out of touch with the American people, with his fancy clothes, words and schools. He reads books too!  How bout learning how to bowl before running for president, Barack? Or learning that regular people drink orange juice in diners?

That damned Arugula is going to ruin him.

I here he likes French fries and Italian dressing too. Snooty foreigner!

Freedom Fries, Wookie...we're still boycotting France, right?

I'll have to check with O'reilly about the boycott.  Did you know that he almost dismantled France's economy, single-handedly, by calling on his listeners to boycott wine from France? 

I'll have to check with O'reilly about the boycott.  Did you know that he almost dismantled France's economy, single-handedly, by calling on his listeners to boycott wine from France? 

I remember back in 2003, when I lived in Colorado and the whole "Boycott France/Freedom Fries" thing was getting started.  On the local news one evening, they showed how a local restaurnat was "teaching France a lesson" by smashing all their bottles of French wine and letting it run off into a storm drain.  But since the owners of that restaurant had already PAID for that wine, the only thing they did was take a chunk out of their own bottom line.....

Yeah, Obama even looks French!!

Give me a President who can shoot hoops over one who bowls any day.  Nixon was a good bowler.

Interesting, Matthews.

Let's turn this amazingly critical eye of yours on our last few presidents. Let's see if we can find any "middle class cred."

GW Bush? Nope.

Clinton? Maybe. In fact, some would argue that's why most Washington blue-bloods hated him; because he wasn't "one of them."

GHW Bush? Nope.

Reagan? Definitely not.

Carter? Yep. 

You're dead right about Clinton.  Reagan wasn't born rich though.  I'm no fan but I think he had some middle class cred.  Albeit many decades before he became Pres.

MATTHEWS: It's so funny, I never heard it put together he married into a beer fortune and he doesn't know how what it's like to sweat.

I can't even make any sense out of this sentence.  I can only assume Matthews is on the verge of a meltdown because Ford isn't bowing down and worshipping at McCain's feet like him and everyone else he ever has on his show.

Chris, none of us have all possible experiences but we can relate to them. For example I can imagine what it is like to be a brain dead talking head on TV and I have decided its not for me.

Matthews, you're back in the doggie house. You were brilliant with the Kevin James bit but now you're back to the usual silly BS. What happened - did management tell you to beef up those ratings?

So, from what Chris is saying, Obama went from being too poor to relate to most of the country and immediately became too elite/wealthy to relate to most of the country?  What??

Tweety would never take this line of attack against a conservative...

Would never dare to impugn a re-puke-lican by insinuating he or she might be an elitist.

He just wouldn't do it.  He's a corporate suck-up and a hack.  He'd probably lose his job if he dared to suggest a Con might be an elitist. 

Would never dare to impugn a re-puke-lican by insinuating he or she might be an elitist.

You're right.  After all, Dubya went to Yale AND Harvard, yet Tweety always gushes about how down to earth that creep is.

I have wondered about something. Do you recall that during the Cold War, the TV networks' election maps usuallly depicted the Democratic states in red (perhaps intending to imply an affinity between Democrats and our "Commie" foes?) But then, when the Cold War ended, someone apparently decided that the Democratic states should really be blue (perhaps suggesting elite 'blue blood?') and the Republican states became red (as in 'red-blooded' Americans?). Was a deliberate decision made to rebrand the two parties as part of an overall election strategy designed to bring lower class voters into the fold of "the party of the rich" -- what used to be commonly known as the GOP?

In starting this attack

on nominee Barack

Tweety proves to have a knack

for journalistic quack.

Let's face it: he's a hack!

 

In case my message was lost in the rhyme,

permit me to clarify just one more time:

I find Matthews' pronouncements simply obscene,

he's part of the republican propaganda machine.

 

The real question is how many different ways can Tweety ask this same question.

Barrack drank malt liquor as a teen and now he drinks oj...can he really connect with the beer drinkers?

ah, and so it begins, right on schedule. well, i feel kind of sorry for harold ford, neither of these guys is going to be an easy sell. of course, mccain has his war hero status, and the fact that he's bugf**k crazy going for him. obama has, well, um, wright and rezko going for him, i guess. ok, obama looks better in a suit than mccain, and "hope and change"!

right, let's not forget "hope and change"! with a big majority dem congress, mccain can at least be contained, i'm afraid they'd roll over dead for obama, not wanting to be called racists and all.

remember, "we are the change we've been waiting for!"! small change, no doubt.

An interesting argument to support continuing the current international and national fiascos!  Brilliant!

Not to worry, Matthews often has hoof in mouth disease wehn he starts these hyperbvolic tirades.  Just consider the source,you knoq rhw John McCain apologist.

Mathews actually believes there's some substance to his habitual character assassination.

This guy is operating at a Junior HS maturity level. 

What about Obama's church teaching its flock to "not seek middle-classness"? Sounds kinda self-defeating.

What about Obama's church teaching its flock to "not seek middle-classness"? Sounds kinda self-defeating.

Please clarify what "not seeking middle-classness" means to Obama's former church. Were they saying you shouldn't aspire to be more wealthy and well-off, or were they preaching that you shouldn't let materialism and worldly possessions become an obsession that consumes your existence? Those are two totally different things.

Having just started the process of scrutinizing black liberation theology, I think it has something to do with disdaining advancement in the sense of bettering ones' self.

Matthews has "lost it"

I heard this exchange, and found myself shouting back. Is it arragance, laziness, stupidity, sensationalism, prejudice, or a medical problem that makes Matthews utter such nonsense?

He has NO CLUE about Senator's Obama's ability to connect based on his economic experiences with the middle class. But my "clue" based on listening to Senator Obama, reading his books, and analysing his policies is that he understands that it's middle class America that's becoming an endangered species.

Something that Matthews can't articulate or apparently know.

 The media's fascination (including Matthews with his love/hare relationship with Hillary Clinton) with Senator's Clinton's ability to get some middle class voters in states like Pennsylvania with her ever evolving populist message in the last weeks of the primary campaign is superficial and has no bearing on who Senator Obama is and what he will do, and who will vote for him.John Edwards carried the baton to start (and finish, when he dropped out) picking up where he left off with John Kerry. This message is one that resonates with Senator Obama, and Matthews is a fool!!!!!!

 Where is the "elite, ivy educated" talk on Bush Jr. ? Where was it? He was not qualified for the job of President, and look where he has taken the country. His likeability factor "good 'ol boy" to have a beer with was manufactured. And we know how well liked he is now, and how in touch he is with the "middle class".

$4 gallon of gas, thanks to his and Cheney's wealth Saudi royal family and cronies, and the unheard of profit by oil companies with nice big fat tax breaks form Bush and company.

But I digress....

 Matthews go home, take a rest, get off the air.

 

I knew this was gonna happen.  Now that Matthews has defeated Hillary and fooled the Obama believers that he was for Obama he's now going after Obama.  Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!........  He's a republican you dimwits.  He destroyed the democrats' best chance with Hillary and in phase 2 he destroys Obama in favor of McCain and his rich man tax cuts for Chris and Timmy and the gang at MSNBC.

Where does Matthews place being the son and grandsone of four-star admirals, living at Pearl Harbor the day it was attacked, spending several years being tortured as a prisoner of war, marrying a multi-millionaire beer distributor and being a U.S. Senator on the "basic, struggling-class level"-ometer? Let's face it, no one who becomes the presidential nominee for a major political party lives an exclusively middle class life.