PrintBizarre rant by Chris Matthews: GOP delegitimizes Obama by calling him 'Obama'
This is an important debate. What should we call the president of the United States? I prefer John Adams' idea of referring to the president as "His High Mightiness, the President of the United States and Protector of Their Liberties."Thankfully, Chris Matthews thinks the more modest, "President of the United States" is sufficient - for now. Next week, we might have to call him something else so that Chrissy doesn't get his panties in a bunch and accuse the GOP of trying to delegitimize Barack Obama by simply calling him "Obama."
MSNBC host Chris Matthews went off on Tuesday about what he characterized as a variety of efforts by Republicans and conservatives to "delegitimize" President Barack Obama. Among the efforts he cited to prove this case are Republicans calling Obama "a liberal leader," or simply "Obama," instead of "The President of the United States."
Addressing Bush's Brain author Wayne Slater, Matthews tore into what he saw as GOP efforts to ensure that the president's legacy is a mixed one.
"It seems there's a very interesting compelling continuing effort to delegitimize this president," Matthews insisted. "People on the right say he's a disaster, which he's not. Look at what he's already accomplished."
But they first of all referred to him, not as the 'President of the United States' but as a 'liberal leader.' They refer to the health care act of 2010 as 'a bill.' They refer to him as 'Obama.' They don't say the 'the president.' They don't say the 'a law.' They don't even speak the language we normally speak in civilized political debate.
"They've changed it so much that he's actually not really supposed to be there," Matthews insisted. He said that this is part of a concerted effort to create the conditions whereby history would regard Obama as an illegitimate president. "And I'm not paranoid," he concluded.
"I think that's right," Slater agreed. He said that most of the opposition to the Affordable Care Act stems from the fact that it is commonly referred to as "Obamacare."
"Yes," Matthews agreed emphatically. "Get him off the record books."
I don't have the time - nor the inclination - to go through the MSNBC archives and pull out 2 or 3 dozen examples of Matthews referring to President Bush as simply "Bush." And imagine calling a "bill" a bill! An outrage, I say!
When someone is so besotted with partisanship that they fail to recognize their own towering hypocrisy in their criticism of opponents, it's time for them to leave. MSNBC's ratings have dropped so much, they brought back liberal bomb thrower Ed Schultz - a true embarrassment for any legitimate news outlet - to prime time. He had been banished to weekend afternoons, where the only audience he attracted were people in hammocks taking a nap and dogs. Now, he's a star again.
Only on MSNBC.
