Chris Matthews to theGrio: No regrets on 'forgot Obama was black' remark

Posted: Thursday, January 28, 2010 3:57 PM by Chris Matthews

Matthews implores his critics to take another look at the footage from Wednesday night. He strongly believes that if people listen carefully to the words that he spoke that they will see he was only trying to point out that members of Congress and Americans watching the president's speech at home "saw [Obama] as an individual person and as our leader" not as part of a racial or ethnic group.
 
"I thought he led the country last night," said Matthews. He is surprised but untroubled by the commentary and conversation stirred up by his post-State of the Union remarks. "I don't think people heard what I said," Matthews insisted.

To read the entire text from The Grio, please click here.

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Matthews clarifies statement on Obama, race

Posted: Thursday, January 28, 2010 12:56 AM by

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Matthews: Democrats need to show support for the people

Posted: Wednesday, January 20, 2010 10:39 AM by Chris Matthews

by Chris Matthews

It's very hard to say what the lessons of this election are for Democrats. Mike Barnicle said that he thought a really strong policy achieving senator, like Rep. Eddie Markey, the congressman who did so much on cap and trade and on the environment all these years, would have been a stronger candidate and would have beaten the Republican Scott Brown by 10  points. It's very hard to predict these things.

I thought there was tremendous support in this state for a woman candidate to be the next senator after Hillary Clinton had a strong showing up here in the last election. I thought there was a backlog of  feeling for a woman. I spoke at the Massachusetts Women's Caucus before the campaign began. I felt this strong support for Martha Coakley. And she just didn't campaign effectively, I guess.

Everybody will have their small lessons. Here are my two small lessons: The old politics is the real politics. You have to make contact. You have to get to know people. You have to listen to them, and them a sense you're asking for their votes. The Kennedys did that. That's how Jack Kennedy beat Henry Cabot Lodge, the estimable great Yankee hero, who fought in the war and been so courageous. And he beat them because he went out and campaigned with his sisters, and they had tea parties and they went door to door and they really asked. They got the sweat equity. I think they don't think Martha Coakley did that. She didn't ask.

The second thing is I think politics has become too much 24/7 media types. Robert Gibbs says something, Axelrod said something, some clown on Fox said something -- it's a back and forth. The reality seems to be missing. I think in this campaign there wasn't reality there, so people just voted "no." 

Democrats, if they want to win, have to go back to giving people real public enterprise, real tangible product of public action.  And  you can laugh about the Big Dig up here, but everybody uses it, and they like it.  And they like public education if it's good. They like things that work. They like mass transit when it works. 

We don't build things at the public level any more that people say, "Great, we did that together."  "We built that big highway."  "We built that big Museum."  "We built that educational system."  I sense that people want a  tangible product from public enterprise.  And this campaign got too elusive for health care, too much out there, and not enough positive reality to it. 

Scott Brown had a better tactical approach. The Democrats pit the Democrat versus the Republican. And the smart move this cycle was “"the outsider versus the insider."

In the long run, those who believe in stronger government and those who believe in more activist public life in this country, who believe there's a role to equalize the opportunities for health care and education and all the good things that we have to do together, are going to have to have better candidates and a stronger case, and they're going to have to convince people that they're on their side, and that they can get the job done. 

 

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Matthews on America's ability to act quickly when helping countries in need

Posted: Friday, January 15, 2010 4:24 PM by

by Chris Matthews

The pictures are just plain terrible. Nothing good to see or to say. I've never seen the media show pictures of so many bodies but I guess that's the story that needs covering.

But as we watch these pictures from Haiti, in the newspapers or right here as we are now on television, something is happening here in America.

One of the good things about this country is its ability to act quickly. We're not the greatest when it comes to the long-term stuff, like keeping the debt under control, or fixing up our mass transit systems, but we're very good, maybe the best at getting off the dime - at reacting to the immediate crisis.

That's not always true  - example - Katrina - but its historically true. Look at us after Pearl Harbor, or the Manhattan project or what happened after the Soviets beat us with Sputnik and how we beat them to the Moon.

We're also a generous country. Look at the Marshall Plan. Look at what President George W. Bush did to fight HIV in East Africa.

Oh, yeah, we're good - at least for much of our history at getting together in groups - not government - voluntary organizations to get things done. Like the people doing the good work already in Haiti.

So as we look at the pictures, wondering how far the media will go in showing them, how much we can take in watching them, we also have to cover the story of what we Americans are doing these past few days in meeting what's happening in Haiti.

We've moved fast. We've been generous and we're once again showing our power to work together, in non-government organizations, from the Red Cross to Catholic Relief Services, to meet an urgent need.

Maybe some people in the world will notice how we're doing on this, maybe not. It doesn't matter. What matters is that we notice it and learn from it. This is a great and good country.

It's got some weaknesses again, like long-term thinking about spending, taxes and fiscal good sense, but we're also really something else when it comes to acting quick, acting charitably and acting as individuals and together, voluntarily, to help a neighbor, a very poor one, that needs help.

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Congress can make America better

Posted: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 5:04 PM by

by Chris Matthews

In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected president. He promised big change and he came into office ready to make change. The Democrats, who lost the election, opposed him in Congress but they didn't obstruct him. They didn't threaten to keep the Senate right up 'til Christmas Eve.

The Speaker of the House, Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, who I was working for, believed the voters had made their decision and figured the man they elected had a right to his turn at bat.

In 2008, Barack Obama ran for president promising big change. He told the voters he would be a "transformative" president. He promised us one big thing: healthcare reform. Just like Reagan he had made a clear appeal to the voters and came into office ready to deliver the change he had promised.

What's been different? It's been the decision by the opposition, this time the Republicans, to use every parliamentary maneuver to stop the new president from doing what he promised the American people he would do, what they elected him knowing he intended to do.

To his historic credit, Speaker O'Neill ended up balancing off the extremes of Reagan's policies. The Democrats picked up 26 seats in the 1982 election. He and President Reagan teamed up to save Social Security in 1983 and to pass a much-respected tax reform bill in 1986 that cut rates and plugged loopholes.

Tip O'Neill retired in 1986 with a job approval rating of 67 percent. Ronald Reagan didn't do too bad either. Ironically, their tough debate made both leaders look better. By each doing their job, by accepting majority, by displaying mutual respect and without obstruction, they made America better.

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Matthews apologizes for calling West Point 'enemy camp'

Posted: Wednesday, December 02, 2009 5:39 PM by

I've gotten some very tough calls from parents of Cadets and from former Cadets at West Point about my saying last night that the President had gone to speak to "maybe the enemy camp." I was talking about the skepticism I saw on the faces in the crowd as President Obama spoke, also how West Point was where President Bush went in 2002 to make his most hawkish speech before the Iraq War.

Now I've heard too many politicians say things like "oh that was taken out of context" to explain something they wish they hadn't said. Let me just say to the cadets, their parents, former cadets, and everyone who cares about this country and those who defend it, I used the wrong words and worse than that I said something that is just not right. For that I deeply apologize.

As those who watch me regularly probably got right away, my point was that the military up at West Point was probably a skeptical audience for President Obama given his strong position against the war in Iraq and generally more dovish image.

I was wrong to make that conclusion based on the lack of applause or apparent enthusiasm in the ranks of officers and cadets last night. Cadets, one former cadet and friend just told me, aren't supposed to show that kind of reaction to a speaker.

He reminded me that soldiers, including those now in training to face the enemy, want wars to be fought effectively and ended as quickly as possible. I had no reason to assume that the cadets at West Point or the officers present last night are more hawkish than the President.

People who have watched me over the years know, I think, of my strong devotion to this country and strong gratitude toward those who serve it in the military. It's because our military is so good and true, I want the civilians who make the policies, and set the missions, to get them right, in this country's best possible interest. And it's something we're allowed to argue about in this country.

Whenever I meet someone with a service record, I always say "Thank you for your service." They know I say it and I hope they know I mean it.

Watch the complete video below.

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Commemorating Germany’s freedom

Posted: Monday, November 09, 2009 4:17 PM by

by Chris Matthews

Twenty years ago I stood in the rain on the East Berlin side of the great Brandenburg Gate, the grim symbol of division between East and West during the Cold War.

It was a rainy night and it was cold. But people were standing around, just waiting. Word had got out that "the authorities" might be opening the great Gate that the "Vopos," those notorious East German police, were still guarding.

Change was in the air. As I interviewed one East German after another I kept asking them what "freedom" meant to them. "Was its Freiheit?" I kept asking in my limited German. Soon a crowd gathered around me, a kind of rump town meeting. Attracted by an American with a notepad, people were eager to give me their personal meanings of what this whole thing meant, this coming down of the Berlin Wall, this fall of the Iron Curtain, this ending of their captivity, this first chance to speak their hearts and minds on matters of politics.

For a nurse, it meant free elections with real choices, multi-party elections. Only that would end the drain of her fellow workers to the west for better jobs and better lives.

For some it was free enterprise, capitalism, like in the west. For others it was socialism but of a democratic kind like in Scandinavian countries. For others it was simply the ability to vote and choose what kind of system people wanted.

For one young man, "freedom" meant doing what we were doing right there on that cold rainy night, talking politics in public. "This is Freiheit!" he said, talking without fear about how they were being governed, how they wanted to be governed.

I doubt that I will ever forget that moment.

There was more to it than that, I would discover in the days ahead. While the East Berliners I interviewed that week in November 1989 differed on the question of capitalism or socialism or whether to re-unite with West Germany, they agreed on one thing.

They felt abused, humiliated, and robbed by their communist elite. And the ones that felt it the most were the good people who worked hard and played by the rules

It's a lesson for us. Watch what's happening on Wall Street, with all the bail-outs and bonuses. Watch the abuse of the free enterprise system by those at the top. And look at those who are most angry. It's the true believers in the system who are disgusted at the way the politicians are kowtowing to the money guys who screwed things up in the first place.

So this 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall falling is a good time to think of our own system: who is working to make it better, who is exploiting and abusing it, who is bringing it down? And who in government is doing the job of really protecting the true believers, you know, the people who work hard and play by the rules and don't like what they're seeing these days in this country they love.

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In memoriam: Jody Powell

Posted: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 4:58 PM by

by Chris Matthews

The death of former White House press secretary Jody Powell yesterday reminds me of the last night of the 1980 election.

I remember Jody, who had been President Carter's loyal press secretary and confidant all those years, telling the President late that night that we weren't going to over night anywhere that night. Carter would give his last speech in Seattle - to catch the last time zone - then we'd fly through what was left of the night back to Georgia to vote. 

I remember the way Jody said it: "There's no "tonight" tonight, governor." I had a seat next to Jody that election eve on the way West and back - a big deal for a speechwriter. I kept answering the phone for Jody from Patrick Caddell, the pollster and advisor who was playing such a big part in President Carter's re-election campaign.

At about 1 o'clock in the morning West Coast time, the President, having given the Seattle speech to a roaring crowd in an airport hangar, was now back in the staff section with us having drinks with the press corps - Judy Woodruf, Helen Thomas, Sam Donaldson, a few others.

Jody had gone forward to take that call from Caddell. It was bad news. Pat was back at the White House with Hamiliton Jordan and Jerry Rafshoon, who'd been with Carter from the beginning.

When President Carter came forward and took the phone from Jody, he got the news - hard. He was going to lose the election by ten percent - a landslide. I remember Rick Hertzberg, the president's chief speechwriter coming back to the staff section and saying "Jody's a soldier."

Jody Powell, who'd been Carter's press secretary, and a lot more than that, all the way, was now asking us to write something the president could say to both get out the best vote for his party while lessening the anti-incumbent heat that had grown through that long, brutal year of the Iranian hostage-taking and bad economic news.

There was Jody, still giving the commands, child of the South, standing up for the good fight, remaining at his post. "Jody's a soldier." Can't say it better than that.

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Chris Matthews on The Colbert Report

Posted: Friday, August 21, 2009 4:59 PM by

Watch Chris Matthew's appearance on The Colbert Report.

Matthews talks about the upcoming Hardball documentary on the Kennedy brothers. He explains why he's critical of the town hall protesters, and admits he likes to eat potatoes.

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Hardball examines the Kennedy legacy in a new documentary

Posted: Monday, August 17, 2009 10:43 AM by

MSNBC will premiere its latest documentary, The Kennedy Brothers: A Hardball Documentary, reported by Hardball’s Chris Matthews, on Thursday, August 27th, at 7 P.M. ET.
 
Before John F. Kennedy entered the political scene, no politician had ever seemed so comfortable—so himself—in front of television cameras. While politicians of the past were forever frozen in black and white photos, the Kennedy brothers were a crisp color image. They brought to Washington a level of glamour previously seen only in Hollywood movies.  But even the finest Hollywood director could never have cast such dashing leading men, nor could the finest screenwriter have conceived their tragic storyline.

The MSNBC original documentary The Kennedy Brothers deconstructs the myth and legend surrounding this quintessential American family. The documentary is reported by Chris Matthews, whose opportunity to work with and report on the Kennedys since the 1970s gives him a unique insight into their story. Matthews is also the author of the book, Kennedy and Nixon: The Rivalry That Shaped Postwar America. 
 
Matthews sits down with key Kennedy insiders, including Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Frank Mankiewicz, biographer Peter Canellos, and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, to gain priviledged access to their opinions on this enigmatic family.

The Kennedy Brothers documentary delves deeply into the family’s saga and seeks to discover why we as a nation not only embrace the family legend, but seem to have a desire to make their story our story.  It takes viewers behind the Kennedy legacy, exposing the family’s scandals, personal recklessness, and dashed hopes. The program’s insider access helps us come to terms with what this family has meant for American history—and what its absence will mean for America's future. 
 
As a supplement to the film, Hardball.msnbc.com will post interviews not shown in the documentary, as well as exclusive archived footage of Kennedy speeches and appearances that have not been aired in their entirety for nearly 40 years. 
 
Watch a preview of the documentary -- how JFK used the power of television in his presidential campaign below.

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