Chris Matthews: Obama Lost Because of "Sycophants" Who Just Tell Him That Everything He Does Is Right

Matthews is blowing a fuse. Not with Republicans -- but rather with the in-the-tank see-no-evil progressive shills he works with on MSNBC.

Noah Rothman digested the growing meltdown on MSNBC last night as it became clear the GOP was in fact demolishing the Democrats.

This first video shows Matthews beginning to make his argument. What he's pissed about is Obama's, and the Democrats', refusal to acknowledge that the majority of the public wants to stop illegal immigration. He's not anti-amnesty, mind you: But he's annoyed that the progressives will not admit the public desire for tough measures to end large-scale, never-ending illegal immigration.

So last night be began to get annoyed by that.

Today, on the Alex Wagner show, he got more and more angry, especially when he kept hearing Happy Talk from former Obama aide turned progressive shill (turned?) Bill Burton.

He began to rant, angrily, about Obama's complete refusal to confront the fact that his constituency consists of more than illegal Hispanics.

CHRIS MATTHEWS: What bothered me about him [today] he keeps talking about common ground. Damn it, there's very little common ground between left and right, but what there is is compromise. You do something for me on minimum wage, I'll do something for you in corporate tax reform. You give me something on corporate tax reform and I'll get rid of some of the loopholes or I'll do something on trade for you. He never talks about trading and compromising, he always talks about common ground. Well, damn it, you can not run a government on common ground.

He misses the main point of politics which is to be a politician and to trade. Okay, you want this? You want to take care of people who have been here illegally for 20, 30 years? Here's what I want. No more illegal hiring, and that's all in the Senate bill. But he won't sell the compromise. There's something in this guy that just plays to his constituency and acts like there is no other room out there. And that's going to be a collision at the end of this year like you have never seen. I do believe it will be like waving a red flag in front of the bull. I think Mitch McConnell is headed for a fight with the president.

He continued arguing with Burton about this, insisting that Burton specify what the public meant when it said it supported the vague notion of "immigration reform." At one point Burton said, in frustration, "I know what it is you're trying to draw out of me," and Matthews snapped, "Yeah, the truth."

The argument continued until Matthews told Burton that Obama lost because he was surrounded by "sycophants" (unstated but strongly implied: "such as yourself") who would not tell Obama an inch of the truth but rather just tell him "everything he does is right" all day long.

"The fact that this President is getting advice from people that say, 'You're always right,' is the problem," Matthews opined. "He's got too many sycophants around him telling him, 'All you have to keep doing is what you’re doing.'"

I have to stress that he was saying this to one of these sycophants' faces.

Becket Adams is going to have a fuller video of the exchange, not broken into pieces as it is here, later, but I'll add that link when it's available.

I've got Hardball set to record at 7. I'm hoping for an aneurysm.

Update: Here's that longer video I was talking about.

posted by Ace at 05:56 PM

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