Matthews slammed, "I think [Ryan] came in as an Eagle Scout and he lost
a few merit badges. I think he's going to be watched very carefully by
the media from now on in terms of his facts." (As they do with Obama?)
He continued, "That plant, that GM plant, closed under W's watch, not under Obama's."
Of course, Matthews, among others in the media, have misrepresented
what the Republican said about a plant that closed in Janesville,
Wisconsin. As the Examiner explained:
CARL QUINTANILLA: Back now at 7:41 with more on the battle for the
White House. The Democrats get their moment in the spotlight with their
convention in Charlotte this week. Chris Matthews is the host of MSNBC's
Hardball, and he is there. Good morning.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Good morning, Carl.
QUINTANILLA: Four years ago, you know Chris, the story was largely
about hope and change. The voters have been through a lot since then,
the economy has been through a lot since then. So can the President
reinvigorate the party as we kick off Charlotte.
MATTHEWS: They will have to, because I think after all of the debate
you and I will be covering for the next two months about the past, the
election is about the future. And Obama has to get people to double down
on him. He has to convince them it's going to get better the next four
years than the past four years. It's all about the future.
QUINTANILLA: I want you to take a moment and look back at last week as
well. Paul Ryan brought his conservative credentials to the ticket, but
there was a lot of criticism about his convention speech, Chris. Some
said he actually made false statements in the course of it. Does that
damage his credibility?
MATTHEWS: Yeah. I can't -- I think he came in as an Eagle Scout and he
lost a few merit badges. I think he's going to be watched very
carefully by the media from now on in terms of his facts. That plant,
that GM plant, closed under W's watch, not under Obama's. He did walk
away from the debt commission, Simpson-Bowles, before the President
walked away from it. So, there was some whole truths that were missing,
and some half truths. I think he'll have to be very careful down the
road here.
QUINTANILLA: Who ended up being the true star, in your view, Chris of Tampa: Christie? Ryan? Eastwood? Romney?
MATTHEWS, laughing: Oh, come on. Not Eastwood. Mitt Romney, I think,
not only did a competent performance, he did a very good performance. I
think that's going to give him a lot of confidence going into the first
debate in October, the fact that he did so well. I think he had
tremendous faith in the words he was speaking. He spoke them slowly.
There's an economy of words he used. He knew what he was saying was
going to work. It was going to get an applause. I think that confidence
is going to build towards the first debate.
QUINTANILLA: Chris, let's talk about this documentary that's airing on
MSNBC tonight. You actually return to 2004 when a lot of Americans got
their very first look at Barack Obama, and the speech that ended up
introducing him to the nation. Let's take a listen.
Clip of OBAMA 2004 convention speech: The pundits like to slice and
dice our country into red states and blue states, red states for
Republicans, blue states for democrats. But I've got news for them, too.
We worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don't like federal
agents poking around in our libraries in the red states.
Someone who sounds like DAVID AXELROD from MSNBC documentary: All
around us there were people who were crying. And halfway through, I
thought this guy's life is changed and it will never be the same.
QUINTANILLA: Chris, I want you to compare the Senator who gave that speech to the man who is in the Oval Office now.
MATTHEWS: Well, a lot of experience behind him now. He's been
President for four years. He caught bin Laden, he dealt with the
financial crisis, he passed the first ever health care bill, which
people have been fighting for since Teddy Roosevelt's time. A lot of
history has already passed. And I think what I'm trying to do tonight in
the hour-long documentary, is to give people a sense of, if this was
all there was to Obama, what's passed, what was done now, where would he
go in the history books? I wanted to give a really good accounting
where we stand now that gives us a better perspective than just the day
to day reporting.
QUINTANILLA: Do you believe he can exceed the impact he made in '04 and '08.
MATTHEWS: Well, that's a helluva high bar, Carl. I would say it's
impossible to do that. But the word 'hope' is still imporant. As I said,
we will debate about Bain Capital, we will debate and cover the
questions of how we're doing with the economy. But it all comes down to
direction.
Two great poll questions we ask at MSNBC: "Are we headed in the right
direction?" That's tough for Obama. "Does this guy care about people
like you and me?" That's tough for Romney. So they both face tough
challenges. Neither one is the complete candidate right now, in terms of
caring about us and being able to fix our problems. We haven't found
Mr. Perfect, yet, in either of these candidates.
QUINTANILLA: Alright, Chris, the President speaks late Thursday night.
First thing Friday morning, we're going to get job numbers for August.
How much of his re-election chances pivot around those numbers.
MATTHEWS: If he gives a barnburner, Carl, 10:30 Thursday night, and
then we get a higher unemployment rate on Friday, that will crush his
bounce. If, however, there's some good news, like, say -- well, you
cover the economy -- say 200,000 new jobs in the previous month, that
will help his speech rise even higher. So I think it really has to be a
double-two punch, a double punch for him. He needs a good speech, and he
needs some good economic news Friday morning. You're dead right.
QUINTANILLA: And, finally, Chris, do improving jobs numbers -- are
they a liability for Romney or is there a counter argument to that?
MATTHEWS: All elections come down to a simple question: "yes" or "no."
Do -- you like the way things are going, you vote for the incumbent.
You don't like the way things are going, you vote for the challenger. I
don't want to be cruel about it, but bad news is good for Romney, good
news is good for the President. It's as simple as that.
