Last week, it was bowling; this week it’s orange juice
Look, I know it must be tough for the media personalities. It’s been a slow week on the campaign trail, and we’re still about two weeks away from the Pennsylvania primary. As Dayo Olopade noted the other day, the gap has created “a ‘news’ vacuum that has essentially forced the national media into a sort of 1950s, pre-technological childhood, playing Sputnik with an old refrigerator carton.”
This week, on “Hardball,” the old refrigerator carton became a trip to a diner.
Just about 24 hours ago, John Cole noted: “I watch Hardball daily because I am a masochist, and I just learned from Chris Matthews that Obama ‘doesn’t do diners good’ and doesn’t make that ‘regular connection.’ Additionally, Matthews was mortified that Obama, when offered a coffee, declined and asked for an orange juice. Kill me now. A couple more Hardball episodes and I may have to collapse the media and assholes categories into one all-encompassing category.”
I thought maybe John was exaggerating. I’ll never doubt him again.
It hurts. It really hurts.
For those of you who can’t watch videos online:
On the April 10 edition of MSNBC’s Hardball, after reporting that Sen. Barack Obama “campaigned today in northern Indiana, shaking hands and chatting with people at a diner near South Bend,” MSNBC correspondent David Shuster stated to host Chris Matthews: “Well, here’s the other thing that we saw on the tape, Chris, is that, when Obama went in, he was offered coffee, and he said, ‘I’ll have orange juice.’ ” Matthews replied, “No,” to which Shuster responded: “He did.” Shuster continued: “And it’s just one of those sort of weird things. You know, when the owner of the diner says, ‘Here, have some coffee,’ you say, ‘Yes, thank you,’ and, ‘Oh, can I also please have some orange juice, in addition to this?’ You don’t just say, ‘No, I’ll take orange juice,’ and then turn away and start shaking hands.” Matthews added, “You don’t ask for a substitute on the menu,” and then said: “David, what a regular guy. You could do this. … I mean, go to the diners.” Matthews then began an interview with Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA), an Obama supporter, by asking Casey: “Isn’t that interesting, Senator Casey, that Barack Obama, your candidate, can walk before 15,000 people with complete calm and assurance, but he seems a little out of place in A) a bowling alley and B) a diner? What is the problem with your guy?”
Earlier in his discussion with Shuster, Matthews asserted that Obama is “not that good at that — handshaking in a diner,” adding: “Barack doesn’t seem to know how to do that right.” Shuster agreed, stating: “He doesn’t do that well.” Matthews then asserted: “What’s so hard about doing a diner? I don’t get it. Why doesn’t he go in there and say, ‘Did you see the papers today? What do you think about that team? How did we do last night?’ Just some regular connection?” Matthews also asked Shuster, referring to Obama’s support among college students versus support for Sen. Hillary Clinton: “So you think the college crowd can beat the regular people there, if it comes down to that, in terms of Hillary’s support?”
And people wonder why I’ve sworn off television news.
I saw that too. The new meme from Karl Rove is that Obama is arrogant and now it’s the media’s job to fuel that meme. We’re the public and we need the media to tell us how to think of people.
Links to Balloon Juice/John Cole kill the site. It’s hamster-powered. He’s supposed to be working on it. In the meantime, I guess you could just be obtuse or vague about the h/ts.
Uh, a different Jen than the one already here!
Bush sure was good at the shmoozing and look where that got us. Honestly, I think Casey’s right on target, from all the local news reports I’ve seen from PA — he’s perfectly fine in a diner and in small groups of people.
How do these reporters manage to take themselves seriously? How do you live with this sort of crap as your job? Someone should ask them that while they’re handing them a cup of coffee. I notice there wasn’t any video of that, so we’re not sure quite how it went down…
Matthews shows again and again how deeply invested he is in the bullshit-encrusted forms and traditions of our political theatrics.
The notion that it’s more important to be “good in a diner”–which means shaking a lot of hands, mumbling Nice to see yas, and evidently ordering coffee which cameras flash and tape rolls–than, say, to have a working familiarity with economics and good judgment on questions of war and peace, helps explain how we wound up with President Dumbass.
Sorry, commentators? What is it that you call people like that?
Que es mas regular: McCain o Obama?
I can’t believe there’s two of us!
Matthews: “What’s wrong with your guy?”
Casey’s response should have been, “Chris, I literally don’t have the foggiest idea of what you are talking about. There are 4,000 soldiers in Iraq who will never see their family again and plenty more to come, forty something million people in America without health care, and you wanna talk about orange juice? Chris, can we please, just this once, have a discussion about something relevant to the American people?”
Matthews needs a Jon Stewart/Tucker Carlson type smackdown and fast. Who will step up?
Homer
Sweet fuqing lord … so now we’re to choose our president not on policy, but on whether or not he/she prefers juice to coffee, and/or their bowling score?!
I really think that we, as a nation, are too fucking stupid to be allowed to exist. Really. Just too goddamn stupid.
**looks up real estate prices in the Netherlands **
For some reason, the last post I did about Chris Matthews a couple days ago was removed or dissapeared, so I’ll sum up what I said about him here. I think Matthews is the embodiment of all that is wrong with today’s MSM. He’s loud, in-your-face, brass, and frenquently gets his facts wrong. He is danergously out of touch with life outside his studio, to say nothing of what happens outside the Beltway. And what about his EMBARRASSING appearance on “Ellen”, for which he should have had the sense to never bring up again, yet thought he was smooth and played the clips of him grabbing Ellen’s breast as much as possible. Worst of all, he does things like what the post above reports on, and tries to create stories or controversies where none exisited before. He also is the kind of guy who buys into his own hype, and does things like refer to John McCain as a “maverick” or “straight-talker”. This kind of amateur BS is Fixed News 101, and hopefully, the rumors of Matthews eventual ousting will come true (sadly, not before the Nov. elections).
I’ll end this by bringing up the fact that I think he is a terrible influence on David Shuster, who I watch on all they dozens of other MSNBC shows he shows up on daily, yet never seems to say as much useless, pointless stuff, or to get into trouble, then when he’s on or hosting Hardball. Now, I know Shuster’s not perfect, but compared to 90% of the other useless figures that dominate cable and MSM, Shuster’s a breath of fresh air.
Now the Obama followers can see what it’s like to have the media go over and over their precious candidate’s beverage consumption the way it’s obsessed about Hillary’s little mistakes about her Bosnia trip. When was the last time Mr. Glass Jaw put down his orange juice and traveled into a war zone? Where Hillary has been, the orange juice would have to be served in Tommy Tippy cups because of the corkscrew landings. Do you think Mr. Prince and the Pea could handle it?
The one good thing is, this is so damn easy for the Obama camp to play. it’s like a slow underhanded softball pitch. Obama claims that the media and his opponents don’t want to talk about policy because it’s too painful. They’d have to admit their shortcomings. Better to try to occupy the American public’s minds with stupid things that mean absolutely nothing when the economy, our educational system, the enviornment and our foreign policy are all neck-deep in the outhouse. And here comes Chris Matthews with another textbook example of dodging responsible journalism and important issues. It’s almost worthy of ol’ Tweety getting a reacharound.
According to the recent New York Times Magazine piece on Matthews, Matthews is paid $5 million dollars a year for appearing on TV six days a week, lives with his former TV-news-anchor wife in an “art-filled” Victorian house in Chevy Chase, MD (right across the street from one of D.C.’s biggest lobbyists), drives a Mercedes, routinely rubs shoulders with the Washington elite, considers himself to be something of a well-read intellectual, and stays in Ritz-Carlton hotels when on the road.
Yet he sees himself as just a regular guy. A regular guy who is eminently qualified to opine to millions of viewers about how Democratic politicians like John Kerry and Barack Obama are insufficiently regular elitists who are ill at ease interacting with regular Americans - and for that reason alone probably not fit to be our president.
At another diner, President Bush was offered a cup of coffee, “I’ll take red American blood,” he said.
“No.”
“He DID!”
“Now that’s my regular guy!!!” slurps Matthews.
Oh dear god, I had no Idea how stupid americans really were until I saw that clip, suddenly it becomes clear how Bush got elected
“A couple more Hardball episodes and I may have to collapse the media and assholes categories into one all-encompassing category.”
With all due respect to John Cole, I’ve already done that.
When I read the headline for this post, a fear gripped the pit of my stomach that the media was going to make some crypto-conspiratorial connection between orange juice and OJ SImpson, that somehow Obama’s beverage choice was some kind of show of solidarity with black guys who “allegedly” kill white women. I see that Matthews’ unimaginative mind didn’t go that far — yet!
I hope someone gets the timecode on this little bit of schoolgirl playground gossip from Hardball: “he was offered coffee, and he said, ‘I’ll have orange juice.’ Matthews replied, ‘No,’ to which Shuster responded: ‘He did.’” That’s the f*cking moment the last shred of televised media credibility was garroted by these idiots. I just can’t believe this bullsh*t anymore.
same episode, mathews cilozza and buchanan beat the war drums on attacking iran — i sat there in utter amazement at their glee egging on attacks against iran, and not one of them offered a downside (e.g. oil prices going absolutely thru the roof).
tweety bird dressed up as a chickenhawk — laughable if he didn’t have a national viewership.
Invading Iran, great Idea, yeah we want to have the Battle of Basra on a regionwide scale /sarcasm
if McCain wins I am certain oil will hit $200 a barrel
I’m with Obama, only put some vodka in my OJ, because I can’t take this shit otherwise.
“a fear gripped the pit of my stomach that the media was going to make some crypto-conspiratorial connection between orange juice and OJ SImpson…”
All it would take is one email and Matthews would be all over this tonight. I’m surprised he missed this important connection.
Coffee is grown in foreign countries and imported. Oranges are grown in the good ol’ U.S.A. Who’s the patriot now?
Two Jens? It’s like elementary school all over again!
In yet another diner located in an undisclosed location, Vice President Cheney, when offered a cup of coffee, stared in steely silence behind mirrored shades as he calmly brought up his shotgun and blasted the offender in the face. “Coffee’s for pussies!” he growled as the man twitched in the throes of death, “I asked for Iran!”
“No.”
“He DID!!!”
“No country for old men?” Matthews swoons. “I want to DATE that man!!!”
if McCain wins I am certain oil will hit $200 a barrel / NOT sarcasm
Homer @ #8
“Matthews needs a Jon Stewart/Tucker Carlson type smackdown and fast. Who will step up?”
We had something close when Chris Matthews was invited as a guest on The Daily Show to plug his new book. Not enough?
Somebody must’ve slipped a lot of vodka into my OJ because I’m seeing double Jens here.
Where Hillary has been, the orange juice would have to be served in Tommy Tippy cups because of the corkscrew landings — Insane Fake Professor
You forgot about the grapeshot in the juice…
BTW. I think the Matthews/Schuster exchange about orange juice instead of coffee is supposed to be an equivalent of Kerry’s Philly (swiss) cheese steak; proves just how elitist and disconnected from “regular people” Obama is.
PS Can we change the anti-spam answer from “orange” to “coffee”, to be a bit more “regular”?
Chris Matthews: proof that Paddy Chayevsky was right.
2. On April 11th, 2008 at 4:05 pm, Jen (#2) said:
Links to Balloon Juice/John Cole kill the site. It’s hamster-powered. He’s supposed to be working on it. In the meantime, I guess you could just be obtuse or vague about the h/ts.
Well, I know which “Jen” this is: this is Airhead Jen. Real Jen will just have to change her handle to “Real Jen” like Dan had to become “Former Dan”
Airhead as in, “no brains.”
.sdrawkcab gnitirw sa hcus ,elyts euqinu a tpoda dluoc sneJ eht fo enO
Tom Cleaver-
Actually, the Jen in #2 is a regular over at Ballon Juice and is the only one that posts there under that name. I think you have her confused with somebody else.
The entire Lou Dobbs show today seems to have been about something Obama said to a rural crowd about rural people clinging to religion, guns, etc. because they’re bitter about how poorly society treats them. Supposedly this is a fatal mistake that will kill his campaign, bigger than Wright. I doubt that even though it doesn’t seem like a very smart thing to say, but we will see. At least they aren’t talking about orange juice.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mayhill-fowler/obama-no-surprise-that-ha_b_96188.html
He can’t do diners because he can’t relate, pure and simple. Tired of the media saying he’s raised by a single mom so therefore, his upbringing must have been rough. Fact is, he went to one of the most affluent school in Hawaii because of his successful grandparents. It was only upward from there. I met an AA who attended Stanford and obviously was born into money. He is a great guy, but every time he tried to blend in and tell tales of his average childhood you can feel he’s straining. That’s what I see in Obama. Even if he’s milking a cow, he’d still be wearing a suit.