The Media Attack on Obama Begins

flickr: SI Neg. 2004-41682. Date: na....Printed ribbon bearing the United States flag and printed beneath it the phrase "OUR UNION /NOW AND FOREVER.".In 1860, Abraham Lincoln pulled ahead of William Seward and won the Republican nomination on the third ballot. The Republican platform opposed slavery in the territories but upheld the right of slavery in the South. It also opposed the Dredd-Scott decision. The Democrats nominated Stephen Douglas and the Southern-Democrats who called themselves National Democrats nominated John Breckinridge. In addition, John Bell was nominated by the Constitutional Union party. The Republicans were united behind Lincoln, while the opposition was divided by regions. Most of the campaign was implemented by regional party organizations. The candidates took a small active part. Stephen Douglas was the only candidate to campaign actively throughout the country...Credit: Joe Goulait (Smithsonian Institution)


I turn on MSNBC this morning and Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough, the whiteboy rightwing mob (with their empty enabler Mika Brzezinski bleating helplessly in the background, saying nothing, nodding), are shouting that Barack Obama must denounce the pastor of his church for saying that 9/11 was the fault of the victims.

Here's what Richard Wright, the pastor of Obama's church, said in his first sermon after 9/11:

WRIGHT: We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant. Because the stuff we have done overseas has now brought right back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost.

He's not blaming the victims. He's saying America's foreign policy created some of our problems. For Christ's sake, we FUNDED Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan in the 1980s (slate: How Reagan turned Osama into a terrorist kingpin.)

In response, Matthews says, (paraphrasing) This is coming out now because the media is looking at Obama now because he's the frontrunner. Speaking truth to power, that's our job. I almost spit out my coffee. Chris Matthews, speaking truth to power? Please.

Chris Matthews is counting on you to forget that he gave George W. Bush a big wet kiss for seven years. But The Google is our friend, and we do not forget. We do not forget how Chris Matthews slobbered over George W. Bush after the whole "Mission Accomplished" speech in 2003. Here it is, Mr. "Truth to Power" Matthews, digging deeply into Karl Rove's photo op, courtesy of Media Matters:

On May 1, 2003, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln aboard an S-3B Viking jet, emerged from the aircraft in full flight gear, and proceeded to "press[] flesh," as The Washington Post put it, as he shook hands and hugged crew members in front of the cameras. Later that day, Bush delivered a nationally televised speech from the deck of the Abraham Lincoln in which he declared that "[m]ajor combat operations in Iraq have ended," all the while standing under a banner reading: "Mission Accomplished." Despite lingering questions over the continued violence in Iraq, the failure to locate weapons of mass destruction, and the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein, as well as evidence that Bush may have shirked his responsibilities in the Texas Air National Guard (TANG) during the Vietnam War, the print and televised media fawned over Bush's "grand entrance" and the image of Bush as the "jet pilot" and the "Fighter Dog."

Chief among the cheerleaders was MSNBC's Chris Matthews. On the May 1, 2003, edition of Hardball, Matthews was joined in his effusive praise of Bush by right-wing pundit Ann Coulter and "Democrat" Pat Caddell. Former U.S. Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-CA) also appeared on the program.:

MATTHEWS: What's the importance of the president's amazing display of leadership tonight?

[...]

MATTHEWS: What do you make of the actual visual that people will see on TV and probably, as you know, as well as I, will remember a lot longer than words spoken tonight? And that's the president looking very much like a jet, you know, a high-flying jet star. A guy who is a jet pilot. Has been in the past when he was younger, obviously. What does that image mean to the American people, a guy who can actually get into a supersonic plane and actually fly in an unpressurized cabin like an actual jet pilot?

[...]

MATTHEWS: Do you think this role, and I want to talk politically [...], the president deserves everything he's doing tonight in terms of his leadership. He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics. Do you think he is defining the office of the presidency, at least for this time, as basically that of commander in chief? That [...] if you're going to run against him, you'd better be ready to take [that] away from him.

[...]

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, Bob Dornan, you were a congressman all those years. Here's a president who's really nonverbal. He's like Eisenhower. He looks great in a military uniform. He looks great in that cowboy costume he wears when he goes West. I remember him standing at that fence with Colin Powell. Was [that] the best picture in the 2000 campaign?

[...]

MATTHEWS: Ann Coulter, you're the first to speak tonight on the buzz. The president's performance tonight, redolent of the best of Reagan -- what do you think?

COULTER: It's stunning. It's amazing. I think it's huge. I mean, he's landing on a boat at 150 miles per hour. It's tremendous. It's hard to imagine any Democrat being able to do that. And it doesn't matter if Democrats try to ridicule it. It's stunning, and it speaks for itself.

[Mr. Truth to Power lets Man Coulter's absurd statement go unchallenged.]

Oh, it gets better! Mika Brzezinski just asked Chris Matthews if this will help the Democrats implode in November. Chris Matthews tells her what an impressive candidate John McCain is and how well he will do in the Rust Belt states.

Will this all benefit McCain in the long run? she asks.

McCain's base will be working feverishly to get him elected in November.