Really, if Chris Matthews didn’t exist (he does exist, doesn’t he? Or is he simply a figment of Rachel Maddow’s and Keith Olbermann’s imaginations?) we’d have to invent him. I’m not even referring to the thrill he felt going up his leg when he heard Obama speak, but to his even more dramatic outdoing of Harry Reid’s Negro dialect gaffe.
After the State of the Union speech last night, Matthews inadvertently revealed quite a lot about … Chris Matthews, as reported, well, everywhere (the following from the Washington Post’s “Politics and Policy” blog):
On MSNBC News Wednesday night, “Hardball” host Chris Matthews had an idiosyncratic take on President Obama’s first State of the Union. He told Keith Olbermann that during Obama’s speech, “I forgot he was black.”
Matthews seemed to be trying to articulate how Obama had moved beyond race. “He is post-racial by all appearances. You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour. You know, he’s gone a long way to become a leader of this country and passed so much history in just a year or two. I mean, it’s something we don’t even think about,” Matthews said. “I was watching, I said, ‘Wait a minute, he’s an African-American guy in front of a bunch of other white people.’ And here he is. President of the United States, and we’ve completely forgotten that tonight. Completely forgotten it. I think it was in the scope of his discussion — it was so broad-ranging, so in tune with so many problems, of aspects, and aspects of American life that you don’t think terms of the old tribalism, the old ethnicity.”
Let me translate.
I forgot he was black.
Most of the time Matthews thinks of Obama as a black president, but last night he forgot.
He is post-racial by all appearances
Obama doesn’t look like a Negro.
You know, he’s gone a long way to become a leader of this country …
Once he’s been president another couple of years he might actually be a leader
… and passed so much history in just a year or two.
Not sure about passing history. I don’t think Matthews means passing history like passing gas, but he couldn’t be referring to passing legislation. Maybe this is Matthews’ way of saying We Have Overcome. But liberals don’t agree with that view — still too much to be done to have overcome already, etc. — so let’s just say Matthews misspoke here, whatever he meant.
‘Wait a minute, he’s an African-American guy in front of a bunch of other white people.’
Wow! Other white people! Imagine that! Matthews is saying. Obama’s as white as you and me and all those Congresspeople!
… we’ve completely forgotten that [he’s black] tonight. Completely forgotten it.
But if we’ve completely forgotten it, why are “we” spending so much time talking about it? Matthews is quite proud of himself for forgetting about race … for a few minutes. But more to the point, why did he forget it about it at all? Because…
… it was in the scope of his discussion — it was so broad-ranging, so in tune with so many problems, of aspects, and aspects of American life that you don’t think terms of the old tribalism, the old ethnicity.
In short, Obama is not black “by all appearances” because he is so well-spoken … and on so many topics (look at that “scope”!) that blacks don’t usually talk about. All the African Americans we’re used to are so, well, tribal. But Obama talks just like us on the very things we talk about, so he doesn’t even look black.
Now I think I’ve finally figured out who Chris Matthews really is. He’s a more verbose, less articulate Joe Biden! Remember, Biden said all of the above, much more concisely, back in 2007:
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy,” Biden said. “I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”
Chris Matthews, plagiarist.
