Media personalities are not supposed to make news, or drive the news in any certain direction, or give us their biased version of what they think is the news of the day.

Chris Matthews regularly fails at that task.

He's buying into the false meme from the conservatives that they run every other day - that Obama is an elite who is out of touch with the working class.

Compare him to McCain -

the son and grandson of Navy Admirals,

graduate of a military academy (yeah, 3rd from the bottom, but still hard to get into one of them),

married to a millionaire he met at a cocktail party and dated while still married to his first wife.

Then consider Obama -

married to a middle class woman,

raised by a single mom much of his life and by his grandparents at other times,

born to a black African father who was only in the USA because of a college scholarship, a father he only saw once after early childhood.

Yeah, that Obama guy is a real elite who can't associate with the working man and can't get their vote because those voters more closely align themselves and think themselves more similar to John McCain.

How did those voters get the crazy idea that McCain was more like them than Obama? From people in the media like Chris Matthews, that's how.

 

You left out the part where McCain left his 1st wife because she was disfigured in an auto accident. McCain has no concept of what it's like to marry for better or worse, until death do you part. He values what makes him look good over what is right. Don't get me wrong, he's a perfect right wing candidate because he shares their values. It just doesn't sit well with true practicing religious folks is all.

It just occured to me. McCain is nothing more than a 2 bit poser. Anyone who can take the @ss whuppin he did in 2000 and still keep his membership in the good ol boy's club has no scruples.

Wasn't it you who linked to this story about McCain's first wife? He was a serial adulterer it seems who married up to his benefit.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1024927/The-wife-John-McCain-callously-left-behind.html

While Obama will surely press his credentials as the embodiment of the American dream – a handsome, charismatic young black man who was raised on food stamps by a single mother and who represents his country’s future – McCain will present himself as a selfless, principled war hero whose campaign represents not so much a battle for the presidency of the United States, but a crusade to rescue the nation’s tarnished reputation.

If only McCain were truly selfless, he wouldn't have cheated on his wife and married a millionaire heiress. He wouldn't have the gall to call her a C***, and wouldn't twist Clark's comments if he were principled. And he would truly be looking to polish the tarnished reputation if he didn't use SwiftBoat Vet liars to bolster his campaign and use surrogates to slam Obama for, you guessed it, supposedly using surrogates himself. If he had moral fiber, he wouldn't have wanted to act like a 25 yr old when he was 40, which is what his first wife says was the deathknell of their marriage.

Obama has character earned from a less than cushy childhood. McCain has contrived character bestowed upon him by an adoring media but not substantiated by the facts of his life and his behavior.

 

I think I did link that story, maybe not the UK one, but one like it. You're right, he has no scruples. A two bit poser who can't even manage his own finances. I wish I could not pay my property taxes for four years and suffer no consequences other than a little interest fee. If I missed a year I'd be in court. Not Johnny Elitist though... ;)

I too am concerned that John McCain called his a wife a C*nt.

Of course, the corporate media won't touch this.  If this was a Democrat, we'd be talking about this for weeks.  But since it's a Con, they won't touch it.

"At least I don't pile on the makeup like a trollop, you C*nt."  This is what Sen. McCain said to his wife, in front of many members of his campaign staff.

I think the American people need to know about this. 

Actually, I think we DON'T need to know about that.

I don't give a rat's ass about McCain's personal life, and I hope it doesn't become a campaign issue.

The only sad thing is that if it was a Democrat, the press would already be all over it. 

"I don't give a rat's ass about McCain's personal life, and I hope it doesn't become a campaign issue.

The only sad thing is that if it was a Democrat, the press would already be all over it."

Exactly, but when it's a Republican, the corporate conservative Republican news media either covers it up, or they attack any person or group who mentions the items about McCain's life.

The California Tax Auditor who mentioned Liar McCain's tax cheating will likely be destroyed and/or Swift Boated by Liar McCain's Corporate Conservative Media. 

"I too am concerned that John McCain called his a wife a C*nt."

"Of course, the corporate media won't touch this. If this was a Democrat, we'd be talking about this for weeks. But since it's a Con, they won't touch it."

Or if they were talking about it or started to, the corporate conservative news media would attack, smear, lie about, and destroy the person, people, or group that pointed out this negative indictment against Liar McCain.  Jamison Foser said that the corporate conservative news media is placing a protective media barrier around Liar McCain to protect him against any criticism on any issue from anyone. 

Matthews ASKED if Obama was "too University of Chicago or too South Side Chicago" for working-class voters. MMFA'a hard on for Chris Matthews is ridiculous. I have watched his show many many times and quite frankly to me it is obvious who he would vote for. Matthews is just pointing out the obvious right now. Look at the numbers in places like West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, etc. Why do the the folks in this geographical region not show the same kind of support other white middle class voters have shown in other regions? Is it because of his skin color? Is it because they view him as elite? How does the simple asking of such questions by Matthews make your argument about him valid? 

Looks like you need to read my response again.

Obama is the candidate who is most closely aligned with working-class voters, not McCain.

When Matthews suggests that those voters can't or shouldn't feel a kinship with Obama, when the alternative is McCain, he's forwarding the conservative agenda that likes to pretend that Obama's a member of the elite.

I'm surprised that Matthews is not privy to all the polls that contradict him:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html 

When Matthews suggests that those voters can't or shouldn't feel a kinship with Obama, when the alternative is McCain, he's forwarding the conservative agenda that likes to pretend that Obama's a member of the elite.

Asking the questions Matthews did is not suggesting that voters can't or shouldn't feel a kinship with Obama. It's simply asking the question based on the facts we have, which show Obama struggled with this demographic in this geographic region. Do you dispute the numbers? Matthews is not forwarding any conservative agenda, that's a delusional statement based on...welll....your delusions.

The delusion would be that of Media Matters. Have you told them that they're delusional?

And did you really try to excuse his behavior by saying that he was just asking a question?

BottleBlonde, since I posted, we have yet to hear AChris' answer to your question.

 

Right on all counts, BottleBlonde.

The point of this MMFA piece isn't about support for Obama.  It's the equivalence Matthews is creating between working class WHITE voters and "regular folks."  Regardless of whether Matthews is or isn't racist (I'm not of the opinion he is), he has a habit of seeing "regular folks" pretty much entirely as white.

Indeed, that's the point here.  Matthews very consistently maintains that non-white people are irregular.

Exactly Governor.

So every time he says "regular folks" he should indicate he is including people of color in that description? 

Regular does not equal white.

Tell that to the right wing conservative racist white supremacists like Chris Matthews, Pat Buchanan, Monica Creepy Crawley, Flush Drugbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Larry "I Hate Black People, Even Though I Am Black Myself" Elder, etc.  All of these conservatives equate regular with being white. 

If he left color out of it completely the term would be fine.  The issue is that he has habitually drawn a specific equivalence between white working class and regular folks.  It's not that he doesn't specifically include non-whites among regular folks.  He uses working-class whites interchangeably with regular folks.

I could easily blow it off as a little verbal carelessness if it were one isolated incident, but it's not.  That seems to indicate a problem with his mindset.

So were you equally offended when Hillary Clinton said the same thing to USA Today this past May?

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

Sounds kinda like Matthews was paraphrasing Hillary.

 

AChris, the first problem with Matthews' ludicrous question, although not the most important, is:

1. The University of Chicago IS on the South Side of Chicago.  Either Matthews didn't know this when he asked the question, or when he did, Matthews knowingly spouted a LIE in an effort to help Liar McCain's chances...AGAIN.

2. Matthews is advancing Karl Goebbels Rove's lie about Obama being an elitist either before or after Liar Rove said his lie about Obama being a country club elitist, even though most country clubs still refuse to admit members that are African-American, and the South Side of Chicago is FAR from being elite, and Liar McCain married into Hate Hag Cindy's rich family and CONTINUES to benefit from that marriage.

3. Matthews' comments are racist (Matthews himself is racist also) because he's telling people that Obama in particular, and all African-Americans overall, are abnormal and/or dangerous because they are not white Anglo-Saxon Eurpoeans, and that all black experiences, all aspects of African-American life, are abnormal or dangerous or some other racist comment that Matthews was pushing because Matthews is being the good Republican seeking to get Liar McCain elected.

Let's note that Matthews isn't scheduling any interviews with African-American Newspapers or African-American Magazines, or scheduling any appearances to appear on black talk radio programs on black talk radio stations, to repeat these obviously racist and ignorant and stupid and stereotypical comments.

Blondie posted;

"graduate of a military academy (yeah, 3rd from the bottom, but still hard to get into one of them),"

I'll put a third from the bottom (or dead last) academy grad against any state school party hound any day.  

The men and women who are fortunate enough to serve their country (yes SERVE their country) under strict discipline rules, mandatory drills, and sports activities not to mention their scholastic endeavors are working twice as hard to complete their degree. 

In fact, West Point and Princeton University are the only academic institutions in the nation that rank in the top four in both Rhodes and Hertz Scholarships awarded for excellence in undergraduate study.

I think your tired left wing talking point is moot.  There will be valedictorians and someone has to finish last.  If that person finished the race under the scrutiny that cadets face then I think a little respect is in order.   

McCain's father was an admiral.  I doubt it was that hard for him to get in to the Naval accademy.

Shags, can you show any link to back up that assertion?  I would not doubt it, but maybe, just maybe, John was a good student and earned his midshipman slot.  

The world's dumbest man pushes his own hot button again.  In more high-profile professions, like middle management in a two-bit trinket-selling business, it's possible to get demoted for being stupid.

MATTHEWS: Up next: They're the working-class white voters Hillary won and Barack didn't. Can Obama win over the regular folks against John McCain? You're watching Hardball, only on MSNBC.

Ok Matthews lets discuss this. When you say "regular folks" , you mean that minorities including African Americans are not regular folks?  Do you really feel this way?  I remember your insane argument last fall about how regular New Yorkers loved how Rudy got rid of the "pee smell".  The only pee smell I smell now is you Chris.  This comment is one of the top 10 most insane from Chris Matthews. I really now feel this man has brain damage, something is just not right. 

Matthews is not working class, so I guess that means he's not counted amongst the "regular" people. 

If he is not "regular", that must mean he is constipated. If he is constipated, that means he's full of... 

Tweety boy may have to change his song Nov 4, 2008, right about 7:15 PM Pacific time, I'd guess. because regular folks are going to the voting booth, nobody is pointing machine guns at them, and they are pushing the buttons they want. Worked well since 1776, except for a eight year period from 200-2008.

All this time I thought regular folks were the ones drinking prune juice... ;)

Stop that!(giggle)

I almost find Matthews insinuating that blacks don't work.

Look what telling America that black people are not regular gets you:

http://www.washingtonlife.com/issues/october_2005/inside_homes/images/inside_homes_03.jpg

On the right, Reihan Salam, and on the left, Mike Barnicle (in addition to everything else messed up about that segment)

MATTHEWS KNOWS WHAT HE IS SAYING AND DOING. I DON'T BY THE PEACE AND LOVE FOR ALL RACES THAT COMES OUT HIS MOUTH.

Well today is Wednesday july the 2nd,and so far I still have my TV but the brick I have next to my chair is waiting to be thrown at it.

More people would rather barbecue with Obama than McCain.

Not that liberals think that's meaningful, but now that your candidate is winning the "regular guy" category maybe you will.

Most voters would rather have a BBQ with Obama than McCain, but you know whose meat the press corps(e) would rather be smoking.  I'm just sayin'.

So, according to Chris Matthews, African-Americans are not included in his classification of the working stiff, the regular person who makes a regular income. I know that Matthews initially says he is talking about white working class people who voted for Hillary but as he expounds it sure sounds as though he regards African-Americans as a completely sui generis class of voters. Pretty sloppy, Chris...

Just off the AP and Yahoo...

"People would rather barbecue burgers with Barack Obama than with John McCain." 52% to 45%.

Is he a "man of the people" yet? Matthews you piece of ......

Sorry Bruce1Ace did not see your comment before I posted. Did not mean to step on your line.

Yeah, I'd rather BBQ with an intelligent, handsome, empathic and consensus building person than a ......well, you fill in the blank :-0)

That's because you don't cake the BBQ sauce on like a trollup.

Man, I'm glad you didn't continue on with the rest of that reference.

I promise to never accurately quote John McCain.

Well, Julia, we know that Liar McCain calls his wife and other women the "C" word, and we know that Liar McCain skips on his property taxes, and Liar McCain's Trophy Hate Hag loves to charge 3/4 of a million on her charge cards, and Cindy's beer business also lobbies against drunk driving laws.

Not that any of this matters to Racist White Supremacist Republican Chris Matthews or any of the rest of the nation's right wing racist white supremacists.  For them, since McCain is a white man, that makes everything he does riight.

I think Matthews is a racist.  He is speaking in code when he says "regular working class".  What he means is white working class who would never vote for a black man for anything.  Like the people they put on tv in my home state of Kentucky who told the camera that they could never vote for Obama becasue he is a "Muslim" or a "a black man".  These are ignorant people who have been raised to believe that minorities get all the breaks, that hard work isn't valued anymore (it's not, skilled labor is following close behind), that but for anothers unfair treatment they would have been more successful, and that the lack of religion and patriotism is the downfall of the country. 

Cannonball, Chris Matthews IS a racist.  Otherwise, he wouldn't have said this.

Race...

The new wedge in politics. Same as the old wedge.

They are different somehow -- fear them.

Hello All - 

It's important not to lose sight of why Chris Matthews' words are problematic, especially because of how he uses them. 

Every time Matthews speaks of the "regular" guy or the "blue collar" guy, he is clearly referring to "white" voters within this demographic.  The problem?  Every time he makes this idiotic reference, especially when he says, "regular guy," he is effectively painting non-white people as "other" and "not like us." 

 In addition, his comments about the "hardworking" stiff (which he always uses simultaneously with his "blue collar" or "regular" guy comments) reinforces the age-old stereotype that black people and other persons of color are not "hardworking" people!!  This is what is so offensive!!  I know many of us (people of color) are sick and tired of hearing the discussion framed this way.  Not only is it wrong (Obama has the support of various demographics), it moves the race debate and racial understanding backwards rather than forwards.  

- The Sauda Voice (Google Me)

Sotto Voce?

Chris Matthews has once again shown his lack of journalistic ethics and his racism!

So working people of color are not 'regular folks"? How could any one who works for a living support John Mc Cain, a man who cheated on his wife with his current beer heiress, who lies about everything, who has at leat 13 mansions, who supports tax cuts only for the wealthy, who will continue an illegal and immoral war which has destroyed our economy and our standing in the world? Mc Cain will be a bigger disaster than Bush!

Its the economy, stupid, and the Republicans have destroyed it to a point of possible no return> Everyday I read how the value of my home is dropping, I can't afford gasoline, food or anything special for my family and Chris Matthews only cares to denigrate Obama in such a ridiculous way. Get off of the public airwaves!

I also believe that his concept of "regular folks" is based on a 1950s worldview that there are a group of picnic having, patriachal led 'jest ordinary joes and josephines without taking in any consideration for the escalating divorce rate, fractured families and diversity of the last quarter century. It's a stupid fantasy, one that Tweety bases much of his hyperbolic rhetoric on.

He very much wants to live in the 50s sitcom "Leave it to Tweety," doesn't he?

Or "Tweety Knows Best."

It's hard for those penalized by affirmative action  to cozy up to any bigoted candidate supporting black preferences/white discrimination, regardless of his/her color.  Especially when those bigots insist that all whites, including cancer patients, auto accident victims, victims of crime, of floods and fires, ect. ect. are ALL historically privileged and can ALL afford such penalties, with no personal problems or diminished opportunities, whatsoever.

Obama's presidency will fully support black  preferences and the INEVITABLE corollary, white discrimination...the idea that his superficial skin color is attracting black voters and repelling white ones is ludicrous...it's his racist politics, which appeal to those expecting to profit from racial preferences  and repulse REAL civil rights activists, who understand that not even ObamaMessiah can omnisciently determine every single American's economic circumstances with a simpleminded glance at color differences.  A little fact that irrefutably INVALIDATES any attempt to produce "equality" with income redistribution based on color differences. 

But what do liberal bigots care about facts...especially when they interfere with the  ego enhancement they get from kowtowing to the politically correct racial preferences du jour.  The same kind of stereotype-driven mind supported segregation with equal fervor and with just as much pride, and certainly with every bit of the stupidity that perennially declares that color differences are always relevant, indeed, politically and socially vital.  Note today's black self-segregation championed by the same kind of mind that once championed white self-segregation, creating a color coded double standard in both eras.  Liberals need to grow a brain. 

What about the "rich people" who used to be working-class?  Are they no longer the "regular people"?  If, by the next election cycle, any of these "regular people" become wealthier through hard work or whatever, are they no longer "regular people"?  Why are wealthy always demonized and stereotyped as a bunch of snobs?  What about rich country stars or ahletes who just a few years ago might have been working-class?  Are they now snobs as well?  You can be one of the "regular people" even if you are a rich person.

THANK YOU.

njguy93@yahoo.com

He is one of the "good ol white boys" who have figured it out that you cant be overtly racist or perhaps one might say a bit "overly ethnocentric" and stay on the TV screen.  He has learned that you can send out these phrases carefully disguised as this is.  He clearly believes that "working class white voters"  are the real "regular folks". 

 JLYONS is absolutely right on.  Maybe that simpering ass does have a brain tumor or something. 

 Joseph

   I am a 67 yr. old lifelong Dem. Although I was to young to vote at the time, the Eisenhour yr's in the 50's were some of the best. Had I been able to vote at the time he would have been the only republican I could have voted for. If one stopped at five different places looking for a job they had their choice at which job they wanted. Since then the republican party have been the party of the rich as is obvious.

Through the yr.s I have raised five children, four girl's and a boy, one of which is in her 30's the rest in their 40's. All the girl's and their husbands voted for the bush administration both times, sorry folk's but its true, and they have been voting republican in the past. Now the good new's I have recently heard from the last of them who has informed me that they will be voting for Obama for president, and for a democratic majority in the house and senate in the next election. So you see chris matthews your deceptive doublespeak is not going to work this time, the people are on to you and the rest of your minions at msnbc and fox. Dont you realize how desperate you all look trying to save your asses from the eventual thuth which you wont be able to hide from after the next election. It is going to be obvious to the American people that you and the rest of your kind never had Americas best interest at heart, for all that you have championed in the past 8 yr's is what has brought America to its knee's.

How can you all face your children and your loved ones knowing you sold out America for a paycheck. Heres to carma and conscience chris.

 

 

Matthews reminds me of an old episode of All In The Family when Archie was talking about a guy he worked with that he called "Black Elmo."  This, he explained, was to distinguish him from "Regular Elmo."

Not only is Chris Matthews once again showing himself to be a lying right wing conservative Republican, he's also showing himself to also be a racist white supremacist.

I challenge Matthews to appear on black talk radio and repeat what he said about working class whites being regular folks.

Then we can hear the working class blacks all verbally barbecue Matthews big time!

That has to be one of the most racist comments I have ever heard. Obama did very well with his so called regular people in Oregon,Connecticut,Maryland,Missouri, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado... Why does he not say what he means? It is the white bigots that Obama has a problem with. If these people that are considered regular people by Matthews, then what does that say about Matthews?

I really use to like Matthews when it was the primaries.  I thought he liked Obama.  Trust me I soon found out it was not about him liking Obama.  It was about his dislike (hate) of Hillary.  At this point, every questions he ask I put it on my suspect list.  I am sick of him and other MSM giving Obama's every victory a slanted story.  Obama does not have a problem with the middle class working average job or most of Americans.  The real issue Obama has is with the MSM telling the truth and how he can work around their lies. 

There is very little difference between the right wing racism and white surpemacy of the recently late racist white supremacist Jesse Helms and the current racist white supremacist Chris Matthews, other than the fact that Matthews launders his racist white supremacist comments before he says them.  Other than that, Matthews is just as racist as Helms was.