Chris Matthews was trending globally last night, but it wasn't because MSNBC was suddenly providing the best analysis on the debate. Instead, it was because he had (another) epic meltdown in response to Obama's poor performance, pretty much confirming that MSNBC is little more than the White House's propaganda machine.
"Chris Matthews was trending globally in the top five spots from his epic meltdown," Glenn said this morning on radio.
Matthews was a far different man than he was the night where he claimed he got a thrill up his leg listening to the President speak. He appeared frazzled, sad, confused. His "analysis" consisted of him simply saying that Obama should watch more MSNBC - after all, they do nothing but defend Obama's policy all day. His hair was a mess. He even appeared to have been crying off camera.
"You're admitting you're a propaganda front for the administration, and they don't mind," Glenn said.
"MSNBC wanted that debate to be about the 47% and birth control and they got none of that," Stu added. "And give credit to Lehrer on that I think to some degree and to both candidates, even Obama to some degree on this in that neither one of them seemed to go to that. They actually tried to talk about issues. Obama just lost on the issues. And man, that's refreshing."
WATCH the meltdown below:
"This is no MSNBC debate where the president was doing poorly and so we would sic ‑‑ we would take our anchors and sic them on the other guy to let Obama up and give him some air, call in the support people.
RealClearPolitics transcribed the meltdown:
“Tonight wasn’t an MSNBC debate tonight, was it?” Chris Matthews said after the first Obama-Romney presidential debate concluded on Wednesday night.“I don’t know what he was doing out there. He had his head down, he was enduring the debate rather than fighting it. Romney, on the other hand, came in with a campaign. He had a plan, he was going to dominate the time, he was going to be aggressive, he was going to push the moderator around, which he did effectively, he was going to relish the evening, enjoying it,” Matthews said.
“Here’s my question for Obama: I know he likes saying he doesn’t watch cable television but maybe he should start. Maybe he should start. I don’t know how he let Romney get away with the crap he throughout tonight about Social Security,” Matthews complained.
Matthews then demanded that President Obama start watching cable news, specifically his program.
“Where was Obama tonight? He should watch — well, not just Hardball, Rachel, he should watch you, he should watch the Reverend Al [Sharpton], he should watch Lawrence. He would learn something about this debate. There’s a hot debate going on in this country. You know where it’s been held? Here on this network is where we’re having the debate,” Matthews said.
“We have our knives out,” Matthews said, admitting his network is trying their best to defend Obama and his policies. “We go after the people and the facts. What was he doing tonight? He went in their disarmed.”
“He was like, ‘Oh an hour and half? I think I can get through this thing. And I don’t even look at this guy.’ Whereas Romney — I love the split-screen — staring at Obama, addressing him like prey. He did it just right. ‘I’m coming at an incumbent. I got to beat him. You‘ve got to beat the champ and I’m going to beat him tonight. And I don’t care what this guy, the moderator, whatever he thinks he is because I’m going to ignore him,” Matthews said.
“What was Romney doing?” Matthews asked. “He was winning.”
“If he does five more of these nights, forget it,” Matthews added. “Obama should watch MSNBC, my last point. He will learn something every night on this show and all these shows. This stuff we’re watching, it’s like first grade for most of us. We know all this stuff.”
