Hyperbole of the Day- Dead Kennedys Edition
The award goes to Chris Matthews for this:
You know there’s going to be a lot of talk about the tragic blessings of the Kennedy family, and the curse. And it’s all nonsense. These people were courageous risk takers. Kathleen Kennedy, the girl, the oldest daughter, she was killed with her lover traveling on a plane ride she never should have taken through terrible weather in Europe. Joe Kennedy, Jr. took a mission that nobody should have taken in a plane loaded with dynamite to go blow up the V-1 rocket sites. Jack Kennedy was killed in an open car in Dallas in the midst of the most hated–it’s like the mood we’re in right now.
Is the passing of a 77-year-old recovering alcoholic from brain cancer really causing a mood similar to the murder of a sitting president of the United States at 46? Or is he saying that the people who oppose the Democratic leadership’s agenda on health care reform are like Lee Harvey Oswald?
Mark Finkelstein notes that Oswald wasn’t even a conservative: “Need Matthews be reminded that JFK was killed not by a hate-filled right-winger, but by a Communist who had spent time in the Soviet Union?”
Rob Port, from whom I discovered this clip via Twitter, observes “nobody in the mainstream conservative movement wants Obama assassinated. We just want him booted from office.”
Matthews is a likeable enough guy but he manages to say something phenomenally stupid every couple of months and keep his perch as a serious commentator on MSNBC. That’s job security right there.
Oh, he’s outdone himself already on the Today show by proclaiming that Pres. Obama is the last Kennedy brother.
Serious, objective newsman that he is.
It must be the effect of that tingle running up his leg.
I’m not sure I’d be that happy with the “mainstream” qualifier. What are we left to believe, a significant fringe?
(“isolated nutjobs” would have been stronger, but perhaps his experience did not lead him there.)
No pundit’s job is insecure. Once you’re in the club, you’re in.
At the risk of being labeled a curmudgeon.
I used to watch these shows all the time. I was a dope, then. I finally asked myself – “do these people really bring an angle to the analysis or commentary I find valuable?”
Answer: “No.”
So I left Chris and his cohorts to talk about “tingles” and muse as to whether they should spit or swallow.
I don’t think I’ve missed much. I really don’t.
“…he manages to say something phenomenally stupid every couple of months…”
Every couple of months? You are being to generous.
Matthews’ primary redeeming value is the 2 or 3 times he’s cornered blowhards into sticking their big feet in their mouths. Like that guy who didn’t know what appeasement actually was, but sure liked saying the word. And that time with Michelle Bachmann.
I can get those classic clips on YouTube, so there’s no other reason to watch his show.
Fixed it for you James….