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Chris Matthews Thinks McCain Deserves
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All's fair in love, war and politics for Chris Matthews. And there is one particular theme that he just can't seem to let go of, and he's asked absolutely every guest on Hardball for the last week the same thing, as evidenced by this clip from last Wednesday: Doesn't John McCain deserve respect or credit for not invoking Reverend Wright in the waning days of the campaign?

Think about that. McCain has flailed wildly over the last few months, calling Obama a friend to terrorists, a socialist, a Marxist, a communist among many, many other attempts at smears, but somehow we're all supposed to be impressed that he doesn't bring up Rev. Wright? Nevermind that he has 527 support doing it for him, the fact that McCain himself doesn't say anything is praiseworthy to Chris Matthews. Should we likewise be impressed that McCain hasn't actively encouraged his supporters to call Obama the n-word, even though they've managed very well on their own? What other non-actions should we praise McCain for, Tweety?

Meanwhile, whatever restraint McCain may have displayed in this matter was utterly nullified by the massive last-minute ad buy by Republicans, running an anti-Obama ad featuring Wright, that ran incessantly on cable TV (notably MSNBC) the last couple of days.

And finally, though I know C&L readers already know this, but I harbor a secret hope that a Hardball producer reads C&L and can maybe just clear this up for Matthews, as he has bought the Fox-driven Rev. Wright smear hook, line and sinker, here is the full context of the snippet that FNS played over and over to show Wright's "anti-American hatred." I would hope that if Matthews had actually ever saw this video, that he'd admire McCain's reticence just a little bit less.

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114 comments

he knows better, but can't shake that creepy crawlyness. trying to get ratings I guess.

an attempt to stave off the criticism that his network is as left as Fox is right?

This past week I've seen a deluge of the political commercials in support of the McShame campaign attacking Obama for supposed past associations with Wright. McShame never denounced them.

Scratch Mathews abit below the surface and you find a Republican extremist.

I saw about 6 Rev. Jeremiah Wright commercials after 11:00 pm from some rnc group

These ads are sponsored by a repub group but not McCain's campaign. There is no verbal approval by McCain before or after the ad. However I believe McCain could have stopped them if he really wanted to.

being civil is supposed to garner a medal nowadays.

Reverend Wright was on during every commercial on MSNBC during Olberman last night. I agree McCain could have stopped them if he wanted to.

If McCain gets creds for no invoking Wright then Obama should get credit for not invoking Vogel or the witch doctor, or troopergait, or the bridge to nowhere, or the lobbiest for Wasilla... the list goes on and on.

Or

How McShame is almost universally hated by the Vietnam MIA/POW community. You know, the people who "should" be embracing him as one of their own?

So after running the kind of campaign that validated racial hatred and fear and encouraged the ignorance of its supporters to believe his opponent was a secret-muslim, terrorist/terrorist-sympathizer, black radical, socialist/communist/marxist, anti-american, he's to be credited with holding back on Wright... riiiiiight.

Over the last 2-3 days, I've been seeing a lot of ads linking Obama and Rev. Wright ..... in Illinois of all places.

Probably from the same 527 group as the above poster saw - I think it was GOP Trust PAC, or something similar.

It's would be like McCain being grateful to his North Vietnamese captors for breaking three bones instead of four.

hahahaha excellent.

This is why Matthews is now 3rd banana behind Madow and Olbermann!

he's that far up the ladder... I think he's a republican talking point puppet for the most part. Can't stand the mofo personally.

I'd rate matthews at the bottom next to mcslime.

What's with his stupid looking get-up? He couldn't take the time to dress properly before going in to work? Don't get me wrong I don't have anything against casual, I wear rags to work but I milk cows not spew BS on national television. If we must be exposed to these sorts of people the least they could do is dress up a bit for us.

It was the day after the Phillies won the world series.

Chris is still wearing his halloween costume... oh and he was wearing a Phillie cap too.

The Repukes deserve hard time with no parole and that is it! Matthews can go behind bars for conjugal meetings with his loved ones.

Chris must have some Prime Rib on his eyelids .. I tend to recall seeing and hearing tons of Wright nonsense this last week..

Sigh..

Screw it..

Come talk about it during the Horns election coverage today

@

www.headonradionetwork.com with Bob Kincaid and Co..

Liberal Conversation Radio.

Awww....he's got his "peabrain" cap on.

How cute!

McCain also deserves credit for not calling his wife a "C U Next Tuesday" infront of any reporters lately.

I'm a Black liberal, who proudly voted for Obama today, but I give McCain credit for this also. Right-wingers at FOX News and on talk radio have been crucifying McCain for the last few weeks for his unwillingness to step over that line. Hillary had no qualms about using Wright in the primary. Palin even publicly complained in The New York Times about McCain putting Wright off limits. You can't hold McCain responsible for renegades like Dick Morris who have nothing to do with the campaign but did this anyway. Rush Limbaugh summed it up when he said they would have to drag McCain over the finish line, even if he was kicking and screaming the whole way.

Furthermore, McCain did stand up for Obama at that rally when he heard his supporters trying to smear Obama, which is more than I can say for Hillary "as far as I know" Clinton, who had no problem with supporters like Bob Johnson smearing Obama right in front of her.

Finally, I don't believe that McCain ever called Obama a communist or a Marxist, but correct me if I'm wrong.

I believe he let Palin do that.

and his buddy palin took over from there. traditional role of the VP to be sure. so a lot of it is standard stuff, I just don't like mcCain't.

"I for one welcome our new Socialist overlords ..."

for simple minds. Doesn't take much work to get this guy off.

How can one guy find so many ways to show what a stupid ass he is?

he still thinks elections are decided by voters and what they're influenced by.

Diebold - The fix is in.

I forget what it was that Chris said a couple of weeks ago, but whatever it was we thought he might be coming around to reality...then about two nights later he had Tom Delay on his show. Chris is kinda like a box of chocolates.

change offten enough so you have to watch a lot to figure what side he's on. Like I said in post one, this guy knows better, he just doewn't act better.

And the 20 times that I've seen that stupid Reverand Wright commercial from the Republican NAC, TODAY ALONE don't count? Right. I think that "P" on your hat stands for "Penis #2."

The RNC PAC http://nationalrepublicantrust.com/ road blocked all cable news last night with nothing but "God Damn America" ads.

I made a similar point in a different thread. As bad as the campaign was, it could have been a lot worse from the get go, and I'm willing to bet that McCain is going to take a lot of static from the more rabid wingnuts for not going to the bottom immediately.

Although I arrived at this conclusion independently of Chris Matthews, and I wrote it in good faith, it's still a shock to realize that I'm saying the same thing as a known wanker. My apologies.

Here's a nice thing to think about. Tomorrow you will see no political commercials on tv. How long has it been since we could say that?

But according to my studies in the occult, isn't invoking what ya wanna do to bring for demons or spirits for a spot of necromancy?

But I have to give him some credit.
He had Ken Blackwell on the other night and actually gave him somewhat of a hard time.
So you never know with Tweety.

Gosh, does Chris Matthews watch TV?

So who has the biggest ego, chris or joe scarboroug?

But I have to go with Scarborough, I despise him more.

I agree. Joe is the only person that would spend twenty minutes telling you what a great pol. he was and then follow that up by saying a pol must have humility.

for Biff.

go ahead Chris, give McCain credit for not heading down that muddy road
and be sure to thank him for the decorum he displayed throughout the campaign

Ok first of all, bringing up the rev. every chance you get makes YOU part of that group of smear artists, moron.

And just because the words didn't come from mclames mouth doesn't mean he's off the hook. If he had a single ounce of integrity he would have made that shit off limits from the beginning. But he never said a word to stop it.

You know Chris, manson didn't actually participate in the Tate/Labianca murders gee maybe we should give the guy some credit for that?

Shows how dumb Chris Matthews is. He won't hold McCain accountable for this either or post a retraction to his mistakes. Let's all try to hold the media accountable for the foreseeable future. Peace.

Maybe McCain hasn't mentioned Wright. But he's rolled out his surrogates from the National Republican Trust to do it for him. Resorting to this tactic so late in an unwinnable election is pure spite. It's also a bald-faced attempt to unfairly discredit Obama in the eyes of the American people and delegitimize his victory.

"Country First" my *ss.

-AF

Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud

Haha:
Keep hope alive, Nicole.
[rolls eyes at Tweety]

I have to admit, Tweets has been a tad more fair lately. But as with McCain, I am not going to fall all over myself because Tweets managed to pull his head out of his butt just lately. Let's see if he can keep it up for awhile.

Oh, did anyone see Morning Joe today? I turned it on just to see what MSNBC was reporting; I don't know their teevee schedule, so I had no idea Joe was on. Anyway, it may have been my imagination, but Joe Scar looked really deflated and depressed, even though it was still only 7:30am West Coast. Even his attempts to paint a pretty, winning picture for McCain were flat and half-hearted. Hahaha: eat it, Scar. Eat hearty.

I just realized something. As far as I know Palin didn't go on a single Sunday morning news show. I wonder if she is the only vice presidential candidate to never appear on Meet the Press?

This will be the first election in a long time without Tim Russert.

I start to think that Tweety isn't so bad, he says something just completely stupid like this.

tweety will never rise above being a turd in the end.
pun intended.

today had a fast forward button.

Right on the head Peter G.

I don't like to wish my life away but I will happily give up the next two hours to find out which way Florida is going. Our polls here close at seven but anyone who is in line before seven will get to vote no matter what time it is.

Because you know the wingers will be calling any vote cast after 7:00:00 "unamerican" and "illegal" and doing everything they can to exclude them.

I wonder if colter and malkin have that particular anatomical feature?

Is that how it is supposed to look, or is his head too fat for it?

Neocons demand that Obama disavow everything anyone says about McCain/Palin that is not complimentary. Why are Democrats not demanding that McCain stop them from airing those contorted ads?

They know that most of us see these ads as an act of desperation. The only people moved by them were never going to vote for Obama anyway. These ads are just to stir up the base and get them scared enough of Obama to get their asses out to vote.

the democratic party is full of spineless weaklings and spineless, weak millionaires who know that either way, their privelege is retained. it's the voter they don't care about.

CoIntelPro.PronktasticlyAgainst.SCLM.E-Voting.Incumbents

I am 22 and I'd like to capture my thoughts before America either elects a president who its first 26 presidents could have legally owned, or brazenly subverts the very ideals it was founded upon by manipulating numbers in a final embarrassingly overt goosestep towards corporate totalitarianism.

I am nervous. And not night-before-the-swim-test nervous or even night-you-lose-your-virginity nervous, it's a low rumbling primal panic which I can only liken to Star Wars panic. Disney panic. The edge-of-your-seat-terror that makes you wonder if Skywalker's doomed after he refuses to join Darth Vader and drops down into the abyss, if the wicked octopus or grand vizier or steroid-pumping-village-misogynist is going to wed/kill/skin the dashing prince and then evil people in dark funny costumes are going to take over the world... if it wasn't a movie of course.

And tonight it's not. It's not a movie and yet I feel like Obama might as well be wearing an American flag cape while a decaying McCain, in a high-tech robotic spider wheelchair wearing an eyepatch and stroking an evil cat, gives orders to a sexy scheming Palin who marches back and forth through their sub-terranian campaign lair in four inch thigh-highs and full-body black leather catsuit bossing around the evangelical ants with a loooooong whip... umm... is this just me?

Anyway, the point is that things feel weird folks. I have friends who have peed in waterbottles to keep from interrupting a Halo-playing marathon who got off their asses/couches to volunteer for the Obama campaign not once, but many times. Friends so cheap their body content is at least 1/3 Ramen Noodle who donated a good deal of their hard-earned cash to the campaign. People have registered to vote in record numbers, and yet, something just doesn't feel right. I think we should stop congratulating ourselves for just voting. To vote is a privilege which people have died for, and I think there's a whole lot more to be done for the country than to simply help win an election every 4 years.

Hundreds of millions of dollars, hundreds of thousands of man-hours spent on both sides by good-intentioned people who want to make a difference in an historic election, so many resources and voices and energies devoted to a single day. After tomorrow, half of that is going to have been a waste. And I can't help but wonder what could have happened if all that muscle had been put towards something else, and what will happen to its momentum after the election has come and gone. Shouldn't we be donating our money to good causes whenever we can? Helping people who don't have? Dedicating some of our time to contribute to making the country which provides for us a better place? Of course a power shift is a hugely significant step on the path to great reform, but worrying about this election has been a wakeup call for me:

Even if Obama wins, we have not "won." This isn't a movie and we can't toss every greedy lobbyist oil fatcat bigot down a reactor shaft. I think if we dedicate ourselves to the ongoing welfare of the country as much as we have to the outcome of this election, we'll have a much better shot at coming closer to the overwhelming good the liberals hope Obama will usher in, but which no mere mortal could fully realize alone.

Which brings me to the other side. I've heard a lot of people claim that if McCain wins, they're leaving. I heard the same thing about Bush's reelection, and his unelection before that, and nobody seems to be leaving. And that's fine. Because as much as I complain about certain political happenings, atrocities, etc., I really do like it here and I suspect most other people do too. We have New York and Hollywood, purple mountain's majesty and sea to shining sea, we created jazz and country music and baseball and cars and lightbulbs and computers and that movie with hundreds of animated singing Chihuahuas! I mean who among the shivering Plymouth pilgrims ever imagined ordering hundreds of animated singing chihuahuas onto a magical box from an invisible information superweb?

The point being, if things don't turn out the way I want tomorrow, I feel compelled, as a college-graduated adultish-type-person, to take a stand. And if I'm going to leave I'm going to leave. But if I'm going to stay I'm not going to sit around whining like I have for the past 8 years. It's like when I don't clean my room because it's dirty and then I blame the dirt. So in my very indecisive way, before you and your screen, I'm declaring my intention to make some kind of stand in the event of -(Ican'tevensayit)-, and encouraging you to consider making one too...

Jump the ship or grab a bucket?
-Sigh-
Wasn't everything so much easier back when the worst possible affront to your values was a PB&J sandwich cut diagonally with crust?

Anyways, I guess what I'm saying is that if we're going to stay on board, we should probably be generous with our time and resources when times are tough even more than when the hero saves the day. Because what if he doesn't? And what if he can't? If we're serious about real change, election day should only be the beginning of "Yes we can," not the end.

Best,
Hannah Friedman
www.writinghannah.blogspot.com

young lady. All your points and concerns are valid.For a young person to write so well gives me hope.Good luck.

Ditto to what UncleDave said.

Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

May your sentiment be well met. Commitment is a life decision. Many don't recognize that. I'm glad you do and I'm glad you shared those word with us today.

Thank you.

Go do your thing!!
:<[)

You surely have a talent for writing.

...not crashing any planes lately.

...calling anybody "That one".

...grabbing foreign dignitaries by the collar in the last few years.

...not interrupting Palin during an interview in the last five minutes. Altso[sic] there.

...not implying that being a decent family man and an Arab are mutually exclusive things lately.

Keep it goin'...

Not

Wiping his ass with the constitution. Oh wait, he isn't president.

Not mentioning lately that there were five and a half years when he wasn't able to ________

So the GOP is unaware that the NRT is running a Rev Write ad over and over on multiple channels in WA. RNC MCshame Tweety = liars

One of the status messages of one of my friends on facebook.

" (name censor to prevent humiliation) is praying that the electoral college prevails over the popular vote."

And I wish I was kidding

Republicans are subjected to such minimal standards... than things that should be expected and common place in the arena of decency for every body else, to the point of being assumed and not worthy of mentioning, all of the sudden become achievements for the republican which dignify mention and lauding.

So basically, the old inept white dude all that he has to do is to not drool all over himself to be considered worth of praise. While the competent younger half black dude has to basically earn a nobel price to get the same praise.

It must be awesome to be a republican, when you can impose standards on other people which you don't even have to even pretend to observe.

THE MEDIA IS PART OF THE PROBLEM AND HAS BEEN SINCE noxin. They still lie, distort, falsely equate, mislead, misrepresent, misinterpret and then they pose lies as truth or accept opinion as fact or present opinion as equivalent to fact.

so the repugs and the media can be considered as one, with the few obvious exceptions, two shows on MSNBC and two shows on Comedy Central.

Go figure.

Did anyone see the part of Keith's show last night where he put all the gaffes McCain has made into Obama's mouth? It was amazing. If Obama had said all the things McCain has said, he would have zero chance of getting elected today.

and KO is right and we know that.

I had a guy at work tell me he did not trust Obama. I schooled him nicely and I know he knows I'm right. But he knows I know that he'll vote for McC*nt.

Too bad.

American mainstream media. By observing the number of planes he crashed it is obvious that McCain has always been a gaffe machine.

Why the epithet "maverick" has always made me LOL when applied to mclame.

LOL...

that is to say, NOT CREDIBLE AT ALL.

Worse, he goes back to his racist/mysogynistic roots where this campaign season started. I bet for a while there, some of you held out hope that he was trying to be some kind of journalist or something.

No one's fault. They've exposed enough of his crap here at C&L.

I wish I could agree with Matthews but I'm too busy watching this negative Obama ad featuring Rev. Wright for the 100th time on MSNBC/CNN/ etc.
McCain is fuckin dickhead. The man didn't have the decency to give his condolences to Obama on his grandmother's passing away. Essentially, that was Obama's mother. Obama and Biden have given nothing but respect to McCain.

Fuck McCain, Bible Spice, and Joe the dickhead. I wish them misfortune.

in your sentiment.

not in the least bit alone.

"Fuck McCain, Bible Spice, and Joe the dickhead. I wish them misfortune."

couldn't agree more...

Obama said the McCains contacted him with their condolences.

My local Fox affiliate just did a bit about how and where each of the candidates voted,...oh yeah they threw in the Bill Ayers snippet before sneaking to a commercial break.

They're trying.

They did the same thing on Fox news this morning. They did say the two were not in the room at the same time. But they got to mention Ayres name along with Obama's.

I'm watching cnn with the sound off. They're using their magic computer screens to show mclame ahead when it comes to the topic of terrorism, i think.
Now ruby ghoulianni is up. I expect he's telling everyone to be afraid if Obama is elected.

You know what I would love to see? I would love to see the election coverage come on AFTER the polls have closed. I would love to see an anchor read the results from each area. No endless, pointless opinions from long since discredited talking heads. No commentary from stuffed shirts filling air time.
Just give me the results and stfu.
I want news again. Real news. Not this crap-o-tainment they force feed us now.

Sorry for that rant. My turn to sftu ;)

"Chris Matthews Thinks McCain Deserves "Credit" For Not Invoking Reverend Wright"

Gimme a break. Here in Nevada they're been running this snide "Obama and His Hate Preacher" TV spot about every three minutes ever since last week.

He trounced Michelle Malkin for claiming that John Kerry shot himself, and he gave enough rope to Michele Bachmann to let her hang herself. He's not all bad. I kind of enjoy him. I think he's, well, entertaining sometimes.

As far as not going after Obama with Wright, whatever. He knew the 527s would take care of that.

chris is wrong. i viewed that rev. wright 527 ad off/on all day yesterday. i could be wrong my guess is they checked with mccain campaign to make sure it was okay. mccain is NOT above dirty tricks. the
desire for POWER can do that to some. chris is know to be predictably unpredictable. some of these
people like mccain. like many have said he changed.

John McCain deserves credit for behaving like a spoiled teenager who is pouting because he didn't make the baseball team.

McCain is a former Naval officer, and to question the patriotism and the loyalty of the man who will probably be the President in January is not in keeping with the Code.

Shameful. If John McCain has any honor, he would be ashamed of himself.

The 'National Republican Trust' or something ran an ad spot lambasting Obama and Wright about a thousand times last night. In NM alone.

I'd bet that McCain's camp didn't want to bring up the connection to the Reverend because it makes Obama look like a Christian. It would damage half of their dirty smear campaign against Obama.

Chris Matthews Thinks McCain Deserves "Credit" For Not Invoking Reverend Wright

OH PLEASE! ! ! !

I just heard TwEeTy call McCain an Audie Murphy kinda guy.WTF!
No comparison. I don't care about Murphy's politics. He's dead.
But the guy did win the Medal of Honor.
McCain can't even tie Murphy's shoelaces.
TwEety, just stop.

Chris Matthews has used his show to promote the Republican Party so if McCain loses so does Chris. Several well known reporters and Journalist will not be insiders to the new Administration. The networks will be looking else where for new employees to cover the White House. Chris is a turn coat for money as he talked up John McCain and then talked about him like a dog, now he sucking up again. See your resume to NBC for the job openings.

CM swings from the nuts of John McCain...most people do... even though he lost all my respect by lying through his false teeth everyday...the guy is a fucking asshole...who's honor went out the door when he played the race baiting card and embraced the right wing nuts all for power!
Fuck em...fuck all of them!

For the last three to four days i have seen a Reverend Wright commercial dozens of times. Maybe McCain did not put it out, but that hardly matters. It is out there in support of him and if he wanted to he could stop it. He hasn't and he won't.

McCain/Palin HAVE put out a robo call in Florida that started an hour or so ago that is directed at Cuban/Americans that claims Castro has endorsed Obama and that if they do not want a Cuban style dictatorship they had better go to the polls and vote for McCain.

Thank God the machine is full...

I seriously think he's pulling for an Obama victory. Expect him to wax (somewhat) eloquently. I'll be sleeping by then...

St. McCain doesn't deserve any credit for not going after Obama on Rev. Wright. He would have if he believed it would have worked.

Hey Matthews! Does St. McCain still deserve props even though his campaign and his running mate, Caribou Barbie, incited hate and racism at their rallies??

He has refrained from accusing Obama of being...

...of being...

What is it McCain has not accused Obama of again?

?

What the heck is he talking about? McCain, or his surrogates, have been using Wright in a blitz of last-minute scare ads, at least right up until yesterday!

Already made, just pay for the airtime.

They ain't got SQUAT!!

I'm trying to watch MSNBC...someone,anyone please tell tweety to...SHUT UP!!!!...others want to talk too!!!!!!!

Obama 50%
McCain 48%