THE MEDIA HAS WAITED WITH BAITED BREATHE FOR HILLARY TO MAKE A MISTAKE
ONE WOULD THINK THAT THE PUNDITS AND TALKING-HEADS WOULD REALIZE BY NOW THAT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A PERFECT CANDIDATE OR A PERFECT PRESIDENT
IF ANYONE IS EXPECTING THE VIRGIN MARY TO RUN FOR OFFICE YOU HAVE A LONG WAIT.
There are times when I would like to turn a few of these damn cable news people around and kick them squarely in the ass.
At the top of my list today is Chris Matthews (by the way I don’t even care what the Fox court jesters say because the only list they appear on is the “List of Fools” along with Rush Limbaugh, Oliver North, G. Gordon Liddy, Ann Coulter and the like.
Matthews, while lacking in manners is saved by his winning smile that resembles the look of a boy who just got his hand caught in the cookie jar or one who just got caught by the nun making out with a cute little Irish girl under the bleachers in the back of the gym.
His other annoying trait is his pedantry. He hooks onto some minute flaw in people that the loves to hate such as Hillary Clinton and beats the point to death. Over and over again like a broken record, he repeats and repeats and repeats his minutia until you want to turn off the TV, open the window and shout at the top of your lungs the illustrious words bellowed by Peter Finch’s character in the movie Network, “I’m as mad as hell and I am not going to take it any more.”
During the last Democratic presidential candidates’ debate, Hillary was not up to the standards the political analyst’ have established for her. She was not as direct with her answers to the questions posed by the moderator for the evening Tim Russert, as her critics would like. Obama and Edwards confronted her about some of her positions on Iraq, Iran, illegal immigration and her apparent waffling on issues such as their perceived delay of the release of her papers covering her tenure as First Lady.
By her own admission it was not her best night at the podium. Her husband, former president Bill Clinton, with a broad grin on his face, made a comment the next day about how tough she is even under pressure from “the boys”
Matthews jumped on that like a pit bull in heat. To paraphrase some of his comments, “She did not sound so presidential.” “She lost the aura of inevitability that has surrounded her candidacy since the outset.” “She was playing the sex card.” “What did the former president mean by the use of the term “the boys?” “Somebody in the Clinton Camp tried to blame her performance on Tim Russert and his overly tough questions.” “Has she suddenly become the weak little woman who needed to be protected by her husband?”
I saw Candy Crowley’s interview with Hillary the following day on CNN and I saw no bruises, no lack of candor, and no hesitancy to directly answer questions. With a broad smile she did say that it sure wasn’t her best performance, but there were no tears, no gnashing of the teeth, and no evidence of damage to sense of self-worth or her campaign. In fact, she was relaxed and comfortable as could be.
I frequently hear people say that she is too scripted, too uptight, and too aloof. I truly do not know where that comes from. When I think of women in politics who are aloof, or false, or counterfeit or phony I immediately think of Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) who is about as comfortable with herself as a woman who mistakenly walked into a busy men’s locker room full of naked male bodies.
The next day a story broke that at a recent speech a student was approached by one of Clinton’s campaign aids who apparently suggested that the young woman might want to ask the candidate about her position on global warning (as if it would come up anyway).
The pit bull came out again and accused her of planting questioners in the audience to pose “soft” inquiries. A member of another audience earlier in the campaign reported the same scenario.
In both cases it allegedly was a campaign worker who made the suggestion that a member of the audience present a question on a given subject, and in both cases they were questions that Hillary had answered a thousand times before and that certainly have come up on these occasions whether prompted or not.
This is simply nonsense! If Chris Matthews can not find more substantive topics to discuss on his show, the hour my wife and I take out each evening to watch his babbling is nothing more than time wasted. We will simply rely on the extremely gifted and creative talents of Keith Olbermann, Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report.
The irony is that a couple of nights prior to this episode over planted questions, Matthews picked her as the Democrat most likely to be nominated for the presidency.
This is no way means that he likes her. He doesn’t. In fact, unable to kick the Philadelphia machismo that he so proudly wears on his sleeve both on the air and on interviews, plus his overexposure to Catholicism as a child, the former aid to President Carter and Senator Moynihan needs to be loved, demands to be right, and throws common courtesy to the wind has be indifferently interrupts his guests, talks over their often excellent comments and like a bull in the infamous china shop plows through interviews with little or no respect for the guests who appear.
His macho-laden façade hides a multitude of insecurities. One of the reasons he likes Rudy Giuliani so much is that he exudes a hard exterior and speaks with a voice out of the Godfather. In other words Giuliani owns the toughness Matthews wishes he possessed and believes the next president must possess in a world where terrorists are behind every shrub and the enemies of America are everywhere because of the disastrous Bush years.
I am prepared to bet any pundit or talk show host that Hillary Clinton is as tough as Giuliani or any other “wannebe” president in the race this year. She is smarter intellectually. She is smarter politically and she has been hit hard by the right-wing of the Republican Party during her White House years and did not cringe, stumble, or fumble the ball at crucial times. Her intellect alone strikes awe in many people like Matthews who is educated but not in the way that cause people to stand in trepidation by his presence or the profundity of his words.
Hillary does not need to be loved like Chris Matthews. When he gets down on the floor and licks the boots of some politicians, military top brass, and others who are guests on his show, I want to regurgitate.
Recently, Joe Klein and a strategists whose name I cannot recall, Matthews tried hard to bash Hillary about the planted questions and the unclear explanations of her positions on specific issues, much to my surprise it was Joe Klein who came out looking and sounding bright, fair, and somewhat compassionate. As hard as Matthews tried, Klein stuck to his guns and walked about the winner of that round of political intercourse.
Yes, Hillary did not put on her best platform performance, but the pounding she took from Matthews, Russert, the Fox boys, CNN’s crew and others was unworthy of professional news reporters.
I want to hear a truly fair and balanced newscast, not the farce that Fox puts on the air. Hannity is a totally partisan mental midget, Colmes makes Barney Fife look like Mr. Wizzard and Barnes, Krauthammer and Kondracke are the three stooges of punditry.
Nit picking at Hillary does not give me the news, it does not address the key issues that comprise this critical election and it gives me no insight into any of the candidates and their positions of issues that matter.
Get off of Hillary’s back and put away your childish fetish with the only woman in the campaign. She made a trivial and insignificant blunder and Matthews and others in the media talked about nothing else for the past two weeks.
Good God, Pakistan is on the crevasse of disaster, the price of oil is towering over our entire economic panorama, and all the media can talk about is Hillary and driver’s license for undocumented aliens, the boy’s club and her votes on Iraq and Iran.
Today, November 16, 2007 following the debate in Las Vegas, it was obvious she got back her “mojo” and should force Chris Matthews and all of the other “Hillary Haters” to change the subject.
12:33:02 PM 
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