Chris Matthews' Obama Mancrush

Last night was a new, and revealing chapter, in the media drama that is Chris Matthews. Following Barack Obama's speech, in Wisconsin, essentially his Crab Cake Primary Victory Speech, Matthews made another scene.

Matthews is known to add color and embellish, always looking to make the prosaic melodramatic. So in declaring to those watching the emotional impact of hearing Obama speak (not in person but via a satellite fed), Matthews said:

The feeling most people get when they hear a Barack Obama speech, I mean, I get, I felt this thrill go up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often.

Yes, Chris Matthews has a certain thrill that travels up his leg when Obama speaks. One tries to block the image of Matthews watching an Obama musical video.

This is not a 'Swift Boating' of the Potomac's favorite wind-bag; let's review further!
About half an hour later, Brian Williams was asked about the primary results last night and he piled-on:

Williams: Let's talk about that feeling that Chris Matthews gets up his leg when Obama talks for starters. That seems to be the headline of this half-hour.

Olbermann: No, No!

Matthews: Ha! Don't tread on it if it's a good line.

If it weren't so rude to suggest senility, I would.

This isn't Matthews first (nor likely to be his last) loose tongue incident. Hardball viewers remember his self-inflating so-called apology to supporters of Hillary Clinton over his previous take on her credibility:



This is part of his diatribe that prompted the apology::


Matthews also went on a side-tangent, last night, about ethnic bus lines; this is simply the making of an oddball.

Yet, Chris Matthews isn't alone. MSNBC appears to have become an insensitive old white male broadcast variety show. Last week you had the David Schuester "pimp" comments about Chelsea Clinton. And Keith Olbermann continues to make cracks about John McCain's age (is ageism ok now? maybe its a Boomer thing).

This morning Joe Scarborough kept the absurdity going by saying about Clinton's communication flack: "If I were Howard Wolfson, I might have a feeling running down my leg."

Are these "news anchors" so bereft of imagination that the only intelligent description or analysis of current events they can muster must make use of body fluids?

Clearly, there is a new line between real news and infotainment. But does MSNBC's clownish behavior example a broader problem?

Back in 1992, a common election bumper sticker read: Annoy the Media / Re-elect Bush. It was cute and summed up the common and obvious advantage that then-Governor Bill Clinton had when running for President against George H.W. Bush. Bush was old news, Clinton was new. It wasn't just a generational thing, it was also an ideological thing. It was all so long ago, but it seems all new again.

The difference, this time, the Clinton's are victims of the precise advantage they once enjoyed. Karma I guess.

Does the feelings that Chris Matthews gets in his thigh, impact his new coverage and commentary about the Presidential race? I bet it does.

Has Barack Obama, who like Hillary Clinton, has never won a tough election escaped scrutiny and been treated with favoritism? Possibly. Does Clinton get more negative press because she's not the "it" product this year? Probably. The equation on her gets so mixed because of her husband's rants.

Then again, no one noticed when Obama's spouse wouldn't commit to supporting Clinton if she were the nominee. Double-standard? Sure. But then again, Michelle Obama isn't a former POTUS.

Those who take-up the difficult job of representing the fourth estate on public airwaves (or public utilities) need a time-out. News personalities make mistakes, like all of us, but it is precisely because they are like the rest of us that we deserve to hear more straight facts and less folly.