Appearing on Hardball last night to support Barack Obama, Texas State Senator Kirk Watson couldn’t name a single piece of Obama legislation. In one of the most painful minutes of live television in recent memory, Chris Matthews wouldn’t let him off the hook:
Score one for the empty-hope meme.
The segment would have been more revealing, and fair, if Matthews had posed the same question to the Clinton supporter. Perhaps he was too afraid. Matthews, who is normally unfriendly to just about everyone, has nonetheless taken heavy flack for several particularly harsh attacks on Hillary, most notably last month on MSNBC’s Morning Joe:
The reason she’s a U.S. Senator, the reason she’s a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front runner is her husband messed around. That’s how she got to be senator from New York. We keep forgetting it. She didn’t win on her merit.
On Morning Joe Matthews went on to describe Obama’s January 9th New Hampshire concession speech as “the best speech I’ve ever heard” and confess to tearing up as he listened. So much for equal opportunity invective.
If Matthews singled out Watson last night to make up for being too nice to Obama (a common charge against the press by the Clinton campaign), he certainly succeeded.
This morning the shell-shocked Watson faced the world on his blog, in perhaps the only way he could: with humor.
“So. . .that really happened,” he began.
He went on to list the Obama legislative accomplishments he’d forgotten. “Most of all,” he concluded, “he has the record to prove that all of this is possible. It’s something no one should forget.”
“. . .Even though I did.”
“. . .On national television”
