Clinton, Couric, and Chris Matthews’ Sexist Spin

When it comes to Chris Matthews’s interpretation of Hillary Clinton’s words—any of her words—she’s damned if she yeas and damned if she nays.

After gloating that a new poll found Hillary losing in a matchup with any one of five Republican presidential candidates, Matthews later in the same program spun her November 26 interview with Katie Couric, in which--like any candidate with half a brain and a quarter of a spine--Clinton showed confidence in her ability to win the Democratic nomination.

Couric: If it's not you, how disappointed will you be?"

Clinton: “Well, it will be me.”

Later, Couric asked whether she has considered the possibility she won't be the nominee. "No, I haven't," Clinton said.

Matthews played clips of the interview on his November 27 show and ranted: “Hillary thinks she’s got it sewed up.” As though there were anything wrong with that, as Seinfeld http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/seinfeld/
would say.

Does Chris expect a anyone running for public office to enter a race assuming he or she is going to lose? If Hillary were Henry, would Matthews judge him negatively for asserting confidence? Just the opposite I suspect. In a man, such confidence would be applauded. Or more likely, the question would never even be asked.

Clinton told Couric she would stand behind any other Democratic nominee, if it came to that. “We're going to have unified party, behind whoever we nominate.” That’s showing the humility and loyalty constituents expect from a candidate. Matthews failed to mention this. And dollars to doughnuts, if she had answered, “Yes I can imagine a scenario where I don’t win.” he would have pounced on her for not being strong enough for the gloves-off political game.

Eric Alterman wrote in The Nation about Chris’s many “man crushes”. Watching Hardball over time, you see him become enamored of candidate after candidate, from John McCain (who, trust me, is not a nice man) to Barak Obama, depending on their level of ascendancy in the media mashup of the day.

But from Day One, Matthews has found so many ways to trash Hillary Clinton that many of his own journalistic colleagues have accused him of picking on her.

You can leave Chris your comment about this on or send your thoughts to MSNBC.


11/28/07 © Gloria Feldt www.gloriafeldt.com

Best of the web?

In the you-never-know-what's-going-to-catch-them category, I was surprised to discover this morning that the Wall Street Journal, of all places, took umbrage at my clever rendition of Rudy Giuliani's well reported cross-dressing appearance, and cited a blog lambasting me and others as "gay baiters" in their "Best of the Web" section.

Well, OK, just spell my name right.

Rudy and the Hooker Principle

Here's the link to the Huffington Post version. Take a moment to post a comment there if you get a chance. I really can't believe the media has given Rudy such a free ride as he triangulates and prostitutes himself all over the place.
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With some politicians, there’s not a question what they are; it’s just a matter of negotiating the price. In accepting Pat Robertson’s endorsement this week, Rudy Giuliani would have been advised by one the wisest and wittiest of my college professors, the late Bob Rothstein, to apply what he called “the hooker principle”: first, get paid.

Even John McCain, who was at the exact same moment assuming the position in order to snag the endorsement of the more dangerous but less flamboyant Sen. Sam Brownback and establish his own creds with the hard rightwing, extreme anti-choice, anti-gay Republican base, was rendered speechless at the news about the unholy alliance between Robertson and Giuliani. For bald face political two-step, Giuliani has out danced them all.

One surely hopes that Pat paid Rudy well up front in whatever value he thinks he can deliver, because Robertson’s past disreputable actions certainly bring clear losses on the other side of this endorsement, as reported by The American Prospect Senior Editor, Garance Franke-Ruta,

Marc Ambinder reported this morning that Iowa Christian Alliance president Steve Scheffler is not going to follow Christian Coalition co-founder Pat Robertson’s lead and support Rudy Giuliani. That’s not too much of a surprise, as the Iowa branch of once-vigorous Christian Coalition was so disgusted by the scandals of the national group that it broke with the Coalition and changed its name to the Christian Alliance in March 2006, saying “the Board… would rather function as an independent organization than as an organization shrouded with perceptions contrary to its Christian commitments.”

Both men would have been well served to heed Proverbs 13:20: “He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm”.

Certainly Pat Robertson has shown himself to be a fool many times over. Besides blaming the evils of a secular nation—epitomized always by Rudy’s New York—for the 9/11 attacks, he famously said that the feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women, but rather about a “socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians”.

But Rudy’s acceptance of Pat Robertson’s endorsement is equally foolish. Not only has it made utterly transparent that Giuliani isn’t just a cross dresser but also a man capable of practicing the oldest profession as well as any Jezebel; it makes the press (yes, the same press that spent all last week creaming Hillary for acknowledging there was more than one way to look at a question) look foolish for trumpeting this hypocritical endorsement with too-little criticism of Giuliani’s blatant doublespeak on the social issues.

© Gloria Feldt 2007