Fully Exploring the Chris Matthews “Obsession” With Hillary Clinton

One need only watch Hardball for maybe 30 or 40 seconds to know that Chris Matthews has some really odd issues with women that he projects onto Hillary Clinton. There was the discussion of her “cackle,” the claim that she was only elected to the Senate because her husband “messed around,” the fact that he pinched her cheek when they met face to face, and the probing of Hillary’s status as a “she devil.”

That’s why this comprehensive takedown of Matthews by David Brock is so welcome. Here’s a sample of Matthews’ statements, from that takedown (which I encourage you to read in full).

“Nurse Ratched”

“Doesn’t she know she looks like a fraud?”

“[L]et’s talk about the troops …Will they take the orders?”

“[S]he’s clapping, like she’s Chinese. I know the Chinese clap at each other, but what is she clapping at? I mean, it’s like one of these wind-up things.”

“[S]he was giving a campaign barn-burner speech, which is harder to give for a woman; it can grate on some men when they listen to it — fingernails on a blackboard, perhaps.”

There’s also the simple fact that Matthews doesn’t really say things. He declares them, in big, showy, unambiguous ways, and then goes on and on and on about them. In the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary, he announced Hillary’s campaign dead and asked every guest he had if she should just drop out of the race. After yesterday’s debate, he announced that Clinton’s performance was a “dramatic powerplay” (even though it was a relatively nondescript debate in which all candidates looked tired but intelligent and composed) and would not stop repeating his chosen storyline (even though no one else on his network seemed to see it the same way).

So here’s the summary. Chris Matthews: odious and sexist when slamming Hillary Clinton, just plain annoying at all other times.