When The Tingling Turns To Tears: Chris Matthews On Barack Obama’s Debate Performance

04 Oct, 2012 by John Hawkins

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“I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often.”: – Chris Matthews on watching Barack Obama speak

Chris Matthews isn’t just a left-wing hack; he’s the hackiest left wing hack you will EVER run into. He’s like an Obama campaign staffer except with LESS shame. So, this is a man whose predetermined conclusion going into the debate last night was that Barack Obama DESTROYED Mitt Romney and that anyone who would say anything differently is obviously a partisan Republican – and is probably racist to boot.

That’s why it was a beautiful thing to watch Matthews on MSNBC last night. He was hollow eyed, distraught. Matthews looked as if he had been forced to get up early and go on TV early in the morning after a hard night of drinking.

Why?

Because happily, Mitt Romney so thoroughly CRUSHED Barack Obama that: even Chris Matthews couldn’t deny it.

“I don’t know what he was doing out there. He had his head down, he was enduring the debate rather than fighting it. Romney, on the other hand, came in with a campaign. He had a plan, he was going to dominate the time, he was going to be aggressive, he was going to push the moderator around, which he did effectively, he was going to relish the evening, enjoying it,” Matthews said.

…”Where was Obama tonight? He should watch – well, not just Hardball, Rachel, he should watch you, he should watch the Reverend Al [Sharpton], he should watch Lawrence. He would learn something about this debate. There’s a hot debate going on in this country. You know where it’s been held? Here on this network is where we’re having the debate,” Matthews said.

“We have our knives out,” Matthews said, admitting his network is trying their best to defend Obama and his policies. “We go after the people and the facts. What was he doing tonight? He went in there disarmed.”

“He was like, ‘Oh an hour and half? I think I can get through this thing. And I don’t even look at this guy.’ Whereas Romney – I love the split-screen – staring at Obama, addressing him like prey. He did it just right. ‘I’m coming at an incumbent. I got to beat him. You’ve got to beat the champ and I’m going to beat him tonight. And I don’t care what this guy, the moderator, whatever he thinks he is because I’m going to ignore him,” Matthews said.

“What was Romney doing?” Matthews asked. “He was winning.”

Maybe Romney did so well because while Obama was getting underhanded softballs from his pals in the press, Mitt went through an endless series of debates, honing his skills against Newt Gingrich – which is the speechifying equivalent of sparring with Muhammad Ali in his prime. Mitt tightened up his game, while Obama looked like a kid who didn’t do his homework telling his professor that the dog ate it and then he ate the dog to get revenge