Matthews: 'I Want to' to Enable a 'Successful' Obama Presidency --11/7/2008

1. Matthews: 'I Want to' to Enable a 'Successful' Obama Presidency
If anyone actually expects the media to confront President Obama with the same adversarial approach that they used with President Bush for the past eight years, they're likely going to be disappointed. Appearing on MSNBC's Morning Joe on Thursday, Hardball host Chris Matthews announced that he now sees his job as doing everything he can to make the Obama presidency a success. "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work," Matthews declared to the astonishment of host Joe Scarborough, who asked him if that was really the job of a journalist. "Yeah, it is my job. My job is to help this country," to "make this work successfully, because this country needs a successful presidency more than anything right now," Matthews insisted.

2. Chris Matthews Cheers on Hardball: 'The Excitement Begins!'
Sounding like a voice-over on a movie trailer for an upcoming action blockbuster starring Barack Obama, Chris Matthews greeted viewers of Thursday's Hardball with this exclamation: "The excitement begins! Barack Obama makes his first major appointments." Matthews then continued his giddiness, a little later in the show, when he raised up an electoral map, published in the New York Times, that featured a "sea of blue" for Obama and hailed: "This is maybe the best map ever seen!"

3. Fineman: Obama's 'Excellence,' 'Changing Everything as He Moves'
Catching up with Newsweek's Howard Fineman on Wednesday's Countdown, he came across as a parody of an in-the-tank for Barack Obama journalist as he gauzily proclaimed: "Obama's changing everything as he moves. His victory speech last night in Grant Park...was so memorable on so many levels." Asked by host Keith Olbermann to predict "an overarching theme" for Obama's appointments, such as "competency, bipartisanship, diversity, newness," Fineman went beyond Olbermann and trumpeted: "Well, it's going to be all of those. But I think, if you had to pick one, it would be excellence. Barack Obama is a guy who appreciates excellence and focus. He's a guy who appreciates results."

4. CBS's Harry Smith on Obama Win: 'I Wept Tears of Joy'
At the very end of Wednesday's CBS Early Show, an emotional Harry Smith declared: "I don't know how else to say this -- I grew up in a household that was not racially neutral. I grew up in a household where racial epithets were used commonly and with vigor. To see the difference in this country, in a country that I grew up in, so many people have said this is not something they thought they would ever see in their lifetime, and I wept tears of joy last night." Co-host Julie Chen observed: "You have tears in your eyes right now, Harry."

5. Harris: 'We're Having Something of a National Moment' Over Obama
According to Good Morning America reporter Dan Harris, "No matter how you voted, it's hard to deny that we're having something of a national moment right now" over the election of Barack Obama to the presidency. The ABC correspondent appeared on Thursday's show to explain how the national and international celebration for the Democrat's victory was continuing. In a tease for the piece at the top of the show, co-host Robin Roberts bubbled that the President-elect "woke up to a chorus of worldwide approval." (At no point did any of the journalists question whether foreign approval over an American president was a good thing or not.) Harris did allow that Obama wouldn't receive a "permanent honeymoon," but co-host Diane Sawyer closed the segment by cooing, "I was saying, my sister in France has people coming up to her and saying, American? Obama!"

6. Giddy on MSNBC: Olbermann Compares Obama Election to Moon Landing
Just after MSNBC declared an Obama victory in the 11pm hour Eastern time on Tuesday night, the liberal network's tributes to the history (and the defeat of prejudice and the "right wing") flowed naturally. Keith Olbermann proclaimed: "You've seen those videotapes of Walter Cronkite, the night that man landed on the moon for the first time, when Neil Armstrong stepped out, and he could just barely get out monosyllables. Politically, that's what this is. This is man on the moon."

7. CNN's Frank Sesno Labels Rahm Emanuel 'Center to Center-Right'
Beware the tendency for media liberals to paint the new Team Obama as a surplus of centrists. Just after 8:30 AM EST Thursday on CNN's American Morning, Frank Sesno declared that Rep. Rahm Emanuel, projected as Obama's chief of staff, is seen as "on the center to center-right." But that's not what his congressional voting records suggest.

Matthews: 'I Want to' to Enable a 'Successful'
Obama Presidency

Mark Finkelstein, a blogger for the MRC's NewsBusters blog, first posted Matthews' incredible admission on Thursday morning. For his blog entry with video of the November 6 exchange: newsbusters.org [1]

Last year, on Inside Washington, Newsweek editor Evan Thomas offered a very different view of how journalists should approach Presidents. Host Gordon Peterson asked Thomas, "Are the mainstream media bashing the President unfairly?" Thomas replied: "Well, our job is to bash the President. That's what we do."

For more on that exchange, including video, see the February 6, 2007 CyberAlert: www.mrc.org [2]

On the November 6 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe, Scarborough was asking Matthews whether the Obama team made a mistake in publicizing how Congressman Rahm Emanuel had been offered the job of White House Chief of Staff: "Well, he's sitting there in front of cameras trying to decide whether he wants to be Chief of Staff or not. Don't you think this would have already been decided months ago by he and his family?"

In the exchange at 7:51 AM EST, Matthews adamantly refused to second-guess the Democrats:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, I have no idea. I don't question motive, Joe. It's very hard to question motive.
SCARBOROUGH: You're a good man, but you do-
MATTHEWS: No, it's true. It's the worst thing you can do in journalism is try to figure out motive. There's no way to determine it.
SCARBOROUGH: But, Chris, you play hardball, and so let's play hardball here. You've got a guy that just got elected President of the United States. He offers a job up -- but you know, Lyndon Johnson, you just said, Lyndon Johnson, very disciplined, he wanted to make the announcements. You ask people quietly behind the scenes, "Do you want to work as Chief of Staff?"
MATTHEWS: Yeah, well, you know what? I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work, and I think that-
SCARBOROUGH: Is that your job? You just talked about being a journalist!
MATTHEWS: Yeah, it is my job. My job is to help this country.
SCARBOROUGH: Your job is the make this presidency work?
MATTHEWS: To make this work successfully, because this country needs a successful presidency more than anything right now.

Presumably, Matthews will hardly be alone in that sentiment. Once Obama assumes office, the myth of journalists "speaking truth to power" that we've heard so often the past eight years will be a thing of the past.

Chris Matthews Cheers on Hardball: 'The
Excitement Begins!'

Sounding like a voice-over on a movie trailer for an upcoming action blockbuster starring Barack Obama, Chris Matthews greeted viewers of Thursday's Hardball with this exclamation: "The excitement begins! Barack Obama makes his first major appointments." Matthews then continued his giddiness, a little later in the show, when he raised up an electoral map, published in the New York Times, that featured a "sea of blue" for Obama and hailed: "This is maybe the best map ever seen!"

[This item, by the MRC's Geoffrey Dickens, was posted Thursday evening, on the MRC's blog, Newsbusters.org: newsbusters.org [3] ]

The following exchanges occurred on the November 6 Hardball:

CHRIS MATTHEWS OPENING SHOW: The excitement begins! Barack Obama makes his first major appointments. Let's play Hardball! Good evening, I'm Chris Matthews, welcome to Hardball. Leading off tonight, reconstruction. President-Elect Obama -- first time I ever said that -- is moving fast to build his team to rebuild a national consensus for action.

...

MATTHEWS HOLDING UP MAP: Let me show you a map that's one of the, I know we've shown a lot of maps. And Chuck [Todd] and his colleagues have shown a lot of great maps.
HOWARD FINEMAN, NEWSWEEK: That's a good one.
MATTHEWS: This is may be the best map ever seen! If you look at this map, let me hold it up higher. There it is, electronically. Hold that sign up there a bit. This is not a state of where people voted, Mayor [Willie] Brown, this is, this is map that tells you where people voted more for Barack Obama than they did for the Democratic candidate, last time. Everything blue there. That whole sea of blue across the country, with the exception of the mountain areas of Appalachia and the Ozarks, basically down there in that sort of crescent in the middle right there. All voted more for Barack than they did for John Kerry, four years ago.
So you see an amazing sweep toward Barack in the country. Mayor Brown this is amazing! I'm looking at the entire Northwest, entire Midwest, the Big 10 teams, by the way. Every state which there is a Big 10 team all went for Barack Obama. The entire Northeast. The coastal areas of, of, of, the Atlantic coast. All along the coast. In fact all along the Texas coast where Texas either touches Mexico or goes to the, to the Gulf of Mexico. All that. All California, up and down California, up and down Washington, Oregon. Everywhere went more for Barack than it did for John Kerry. What do ya think?

Fineman: Obama's 'Excellence,' 'Changing
Everything as He Moves'

Catching up with Newsweek's Howard Fineman on Wednesday's Countdown, he came across as a parody of an in-the-tank for Barack Obama journalist as he gauzily proclaimed: "Obama's changing everything as he moves. His victory speech last night in Grant Park...was so memorable on so many levels." Asked by host Keith Olbermann to predict "an overarching theme" for Obama's appointments, such as "competency, bipartisanship, diversity, newness," Fineman went beyond Olbermann and trumpeted: "Well, it's going to be all of those. But I think, if you had to pick one, it would be excellence. Barack Obama is a guy who appreciates excellence and focus. He's a guy who appreciates results."

Fineman, the magazine's senior Washington correspondent and columnist, as well as senior editor and deputy Washington Bureau Chief, soon hailed Obama's expected team: "It will be naturally diverse and naturally bipartisan."

Newsweek's Fineman bio: www.newsweek.com [4]

[This item, by the MRC's Brent Baker, was posted Thursday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [5] ]

From the Wednesday, November 5 Countdown on MSNBC:

KEITH OLBERMANN: First transition in wartime in four years, plus a recession already in progress, might this transition like this campaign itself recast how this whole thing is done by necessity?
HOWARD FINEMAN: Yes, and it has already. Obama's changing everything as he moves. His victory speech last night in Grant Park which was so memorable on so many levels was also the first speech of his administration three months before it begins. He said, we're at the base of the mountain, not at the mountain top, and exuded a core of sort of sense of sober "let's roll up our sleeves" determination you're seeing reflective in the fact that he got this transition system running two or three months ago, another example of this guy's ability to plan and look ahead, look over the horizon. They've been working for months on this, Keith, just as they worked for months on the campaign itself before anybody noticed.
OLBERMANN: The names that we mentioned here, they are just some of many possibilities that have surfaced for the new administration. It's all over the place. But what will be, is there going to be an overarching theme in the appointments? We discussed this last night, competency, bipartisanship, diversity, newness, where are they going?
FINEMAN: Well, it's going to be all of those. But I think, if you had to pick one, it would be excellence. Barack Obama is a guy who appreciates excellence and focus. He's a guy who appreciates results. As we reported reportedly, doesn't like drama queens, doesn't like egomaniacs, doesn't like leakers -- which eliminates about three'€"quarters of the people in Washington for sure.
And that's what he's going to focus on. It will be naturally diverse and naturally bipartisan. He's not going to pick people to fit slots because they're Republican, because they're an African-American, because they're Hispanic. He believes that the country has changed enough and developed enough and is diverse enough, as his own election has now shown, that he can pick the best people all across the spectrum and will reflect the whole country. But it's going to be excellence first and experience.

CBS's Harry Smith on Obama Win: 'I Wept
Tears of Joy'

Prior to that admission, Smith interviewed poet Maya Angelou and asked: "Who were you thinking about last night as you watched the coverage?" Angelou replied: "All of us. All of those who went before, who paid dearly. And all of us today, all of us. I'm so proud, I'm filled -- I can hardly talk without weeping -- I'm so filled with pride for my country. What do you say? We are growing up." Angelou later added: "And he is inclusive, as opposed to exclusive. I know that he knows he is the president of every black person, every white person, he's the president of the bigots and he must remember that." Smith added: "He said in his acceptance speech, 'for those of you who voted against me, I hear you too.'" Angelou replied: "Yes, exactly. That's what I mean...We will be together. This is what he dreams, he envisions it."

[This item, by the MRC's Kyle Drennen, was posted Thursday afternoon, with video, on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [6] ]

Smith pleaded for Angelou to recite some of her poetry: "Of your many great poems, the poem that I have been thinking about since I knew that I was going to talk to you today was 'I Rise,' could you, would you, give us some of it this morning?" As Angelou concluded the poem with the line, "Bringing the hopes that my ancestors gave, I am the hope and the dream of the slave. And so, Harry Smith, we all rise." Smith continued: "And I rise...And I rise. And I rise." Following that recitation, co-host Maggie Rodriguez shared her thoughts:
"Harry, not a dry eye right here among the whole crew. And last night, 150,000 people were rising up here in Grant Park and cheering the historical significance of Barack Obama's victory. For them, it was a dream come true. And it was impossible not to be moved witnessing it, no matter what your political affiliation is, it was just about an historic moment in American history. This was the epicenter. For the first time, we are seeing an African-American president and to have the privilege of living it and seeing it first hand is -- is just undescribable."

Here is the full transcript of the November 5 segment:
HARRY SMITH: Barack Obama made history last night as he became the first African-American to become the president-elect. But there have been many other great African-American firsts in our history that have captured the attention and the hearts of the nation.
BARACK OBAMA: It's been a long time coming. But tonight, because of what we did on this day, change has come to America.
SMITH: It is something many people never imagined they would see in their lifetime, an African-American president.
OBAMA: And may God bless the United States of America.
SMITH: For it was just over 50 years ago that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus. And 40 some years ago since Martin Luther King and others risked their lives in the march for civil rights and the right to vote. There would be no Barack Obama without the shoulders of others to stand on.
THURGOOD MARSHALL: Desegregation will proceed-
SMITH: Thurgood Marshall made history as the lead attorney in Brown vs. Board of Education, the Supreme Court's first damning blow to Jim Crow and segregation. Marshall would join that court 13 years later.
MANNING MARABLE, COLUMBIA PROFESSOR: The possibility of a truly color blind judiciary came into being.
JESSE JACKSON: We've come from this grace to amazing grace.
SMITH: In 1984, Jesse Jackson became the first African-American to win a presidential primary.
UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, the Nat King Cole Show.
SMITH: Political progress and popular culture mirrored each other.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Don't take too much off of the top.
SMITH: Acceptance didn't come easy.
MARABLE: In the 1950s, blacks generally were portrayed in servile positions on American television. There was one great exception, and that once a week, you had this stellar performer, Nat King Cole-
NAT KING COLE: Yes, it's a good day for singing a song-
SMITH: After just two seasons, Nat King Cole pulled the plug, citing a lack of sponsors saying, 'I guess Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark.'
SIDNEY POITIER: I'm pleased to meet you Mrs. Drayton.
SMITH: Sidney Poitier became America's first black movie star, he shattered stereotypes in a time when many Americans were still proud of their prejudices.
POITIER: An awful lot of people are going to think we're a very shocking pair. Isn't that right, Mrs. Drayton.
KATHERINE HEPBURN: I -- I know what you mean.
SMITH: But it is Jackie Robinson who will always be remembered as one of the greatest, when he integrated America's past time, he changed more than the game. Those firsts were followed not always in quick succession by other firsts. But this first is arguably the most important one of all.
OBAMA: America, we have come so far, we have seen so much-
SMITH: Sometimes prophecy comes in the form of dreams, and the dreams come true.
OBAMA: We as a people-
MARTIN LUTHER KING: -will get to the promised land!

SMITH: One person who witnessed and wrote eloquently about some of those moments in history is author and poet Dr. Maya Angelou. Good morning.
MAYA ANGELOU: Good morning.
SMITH: Who were you thinking about last night as you watched the coverage?
ANGELOU: All of us. All of those who went before, who paid dearly. And all of us today, all of us. I'm so proud, I'm filled -- I can hardly talk without weeping -- I'm so filled with pride for my country. What do you say? We are growing up. My God, I'm so grateful. I'm -- I believe in the heart of every American there's the desire to belong to a great country. And look at it, not just powerful, not just might, not just things, not consumer goods, I mean, look at our souls, look at our hearts, we have elected a black man to talk for us, to speak for us. We, blacks, whites, Asians, Spanish speaking, Native Americans, we have done it. Fat, thin, pretty, plain, gay, straight, we have done it. My lord -- I am an American, baby.
SMITH: [LAUGHTER] Why this man?
ANGELOU: Because he's intelligent, Harry. I don't mean intellectually clever, I mean intelligent. I mean what used to be called mother wit, he has common sense, which is, I'm sorry to say, most uncommon. Because he knows that together we can be somebody. You see? And he is inclusive, as opposed to exclusive. I know that he knows he is the president of every black person, every white person, he's the president of the bigots and he must remember that.
SMITH: He said in his acceptance speech, 'for those of you who voted against me, I hear you too.'
ANGELOU: Yes, exactly. That's what I mean. That mean's that you know that we will not, as Shakespeare -- to quote Shakespeare, by 'limping sway disabled.' We will be together. This is what he dreams, he envisions it.
SMITH: Is there a tiny little part of you that said, 'did this really happen?'
ANGELOU: Yes, yes. Sitting and waiting to come on and talk to you. Yes, this morning I've not slept really. I can't pull my nose out of the television. And I go from one channel to the next, to the next. And I want to embrace everybody. I just am so proud. And grateful.
SMITH: Of your many great poems, the poem that I have been thinking about since I knew that I was going to talk to you today was 'I Rise,' could you, would you, give us some of it this morning?
ANGELOU: It begins: You may write me down in history with your bitter twisted lies. You may drive me in the very dirt but still like dust, I'll rise. Out of the huts of history's shame, I rise. Up from a past rooted in pain, I rise. A black ocean leaping and wide, whirling and swirling bearing in the tide, leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. Into daybreak miraculously clear, I rise. Bringing the hopes that my ancestors gave, I am the hope and the dream of the slave. And so, Harry Smith, we all rise.
SMITH: And I rise.
ANGELOU: Yes, we do. Yes, we do.
SMITH: And I rise. And I rise. Dr. Maya Angelou, thank you very much for being with us this morning.
ANGELOU: Mr. Harry Smith, thank you very much for having me.
SMITH: Let's go back to Chicago. Here's Maggie.

MAGGIE RODRIGUEZ: Harry, not a dry eye right here among the whole crew. And last night, 150,000 people were rising up here in Grant Park and cheering the historical significance of Barack Obama's victory. For them, it was a dream come true. And it was impossible not to be moved witnessing it, no matter what your political affiliation is, it was just about an historic moment in American history. This was the epicenter. For the first time, we are seeing an African-American president and to have the privilege of living it and seeing it first hand is -- is just undescribable.
SMITH: [Choked up] I don't know how else to say this -- I grew up in a household that was not racially neutral. I grew up in a household where racial epithets were used commonly and with vigor. To see the difference in this country, in a country that I grew up in, so many people have said this is not something they thought they would ever see in their lifetime, and I wept tears of joy last night.
JULIE CHEN: You have tears in your eyes right now, Harry.

Harris: 'We're Having Something of a
National Moment' Over Obama

According to Good Morning America reporter Dan Harris, "No matter how you voted, it's hard to deny that we're having something of a national moment right now" over the election of Barack Obama to the presidency. The ABC correspondent appeared on Thursday's show to explain how the national and international celebration for the Democrat's victory was continuing.

In a tease for the piece at the top of the show, co-host Robin Roberts bubbled that the President-elect "woke up to a chorus of worldwide approval." (At no point did any of the journalists question whether foreign approval over an American president was a good thing or not.) Harris did allow that Obama wouldn't receive a "permanent honeymoon," but co-host Diane Sawyer closed the segment by cooing, "I was saying, my sister in France has people coming up to her and saying, American? Obama!"

[This item, by the MRC's Scott Whitlock, was posted Thursday afternoon on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [7] ]

At one point, a costumed, older man in Chicago was featured singing, "We love you. You are the sweetheart of ours!" The segment also featured clips of talk show host Oprah Winfrey rhapsodizing on Wednesday's show: "Woo! Woo! A new day for America!" Sawyer later approvingly observed, "...Oprah was there when no one thought it was particularly possible to have an Obama victory."

A transcript of the November 6 segment, which aired at 7:17am:

7:01
DIANE SAWYER: And he didn't even get to sleep in one morning.
ROBIN ROBERTS: I know.
SAWYER: You'd think after two years of campaigning, president-elect Obama got right to work, not even 12 hours off. Getting to work, in part, choosing the team.
ROBERTS: And he woke up to a chorus of worldwide approval. And woke up with an extensive global to-do list.

7:17am
SAWYER: And now the reaction to Senator Obama's victory. It continued through the day yesterday and into the night last night. And, so, ABC's Dan Harris is here to bring us up to date.
ABC GRAPHIC: From Hollywood and Beyond: Bold Names Congratulate Obama
DAN HARRIS: Good morning. Thank you. No matter how you voted, it's hard to deny that we're having something of a national moment right now. Just check out Ebay, where this morning, yesterday's four New York area newspapers, all with Obama headlines, are all going for more than $100. From the Oprah Winfrey show-
OPRAH WINFREY: I have two words for you, America. Mr. President!
HARRIS: To places where the debate was the loudest, like "The View."
ELISABETH HASSELBECK: But, I will jump in that line and support our president because that is what, as an American, I believe we should do.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Fist pump to that.
SHERRI SHEPHERD: And so, to look at my son and say, no limitations, it is an extraordinary day for me.
HARRIS: To the banners on Chicago's city hall-
UNIDENTIFIED COSTUMED MAN [singing]: We love you. You are the sweetheart of ours.
HARRIS: -to the marquee at Harlem's Apollo theater. Americans continued to absorb and celebrate history. Newspaper stands carrying Obama headlines were sold out. The tributes poured from sports stars-
DONOVAN MCNABB: (Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback): Well, anything is possible.
HARRIS: Statesmen-
COLIN POWELL: What Mr. Obama represents is the best of America.
HARRIS: And politicians-
ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: I think this is an extraordinary accomplishment.
HARRIS: Even the president, against whom Obama has railed so hard.
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: It will be a stirring sight to watch President Obama, his wife, Michelle and their beautiful girls, step through the doors of the White House.
HARRIS: And there was a rare glimpse of emotion from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE: I want to note that President-elect Obama was inspirational and I'm certain he will continue to be.
HARRIS: For a moment, at least, the two sides in the long, tough presidential race are coming together.
WILLIAM HAGER (McCain supporter): Well, I'm hoping that, you know, Obama- that maybe we can get together.
HARRIS: For 106-year-old Ann Nixon Cooper, the Atlanta woman whose story was told to millions of Americans on election night-
OBAMA: And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America.
HARRIS: -there is something even bigger happening.
ANN NIXON COOPER (Obama supporter): The races are coming together more now than ever -than I ever knew.
HARRIS: Here's an important point. There will be no permanent honeymoon for this president-elect. Even his most ardent supporters say Obama will now have to deliver.
SAWYER: But, as you pointed out, Oprah was there when no one thought it was particularly possible to have an Obama victory.
HARRIS: True. True.
SAWYER: So, we thought we would give you another little taste from her show yesterday.

["Oprah" clip]
OPRAH WINFREY: Woo! Woo! A new day for America! What did last night mean to you?
CONGRESSMAN JOHN LEWIS: Last night was one of the most moving moments in my life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Each of us will always remember this moment. All I can say this morning, amazing grace, how sweet the sound.
["Oprah" clip ends]

ROBERTS: Again, not just here, but the global reaction.
SAWYER: That's right. I was saying my sister in France has people coming up to her and saying, American? Obama! In France.

Giddy on MSNBC: Olbermann Compares Obama
Election to Moon Landing

Just after MSNBC declared an Obama victory in the 11pm hour Eastern time on Tuesday night, the liberal network's tributes to the history (and the defeat of prejudice and the "right wing") flowed naturally. Keith Olbermann proclaimed: "You've seen those videotapes of Walter Cronkite, the night that man landed on the moon for the first time, when Neil Armstrong stepped out, and he could just barely get out monosyllables. Politically, that's what this is. This is man on the moon."

[This item, by the MRC's Tim Graham, was posted Thursday evening on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [8] ]

Rachel Maddow compared it to the Emancipation Proclamation: "Slaves built our national capital, that slavery built the firmament of so much of what we think of as the great founding of this nation. And to have, essentially, to have a moment that means this much that you can put alongside the Emancipation Proclamation in our history, in terms of what the idea of America is, and what the relationship of what Americans are to one another, so we can speak to the world with a clearer voice. I mean, it's sort of worth crying about."

Chris Matthews thought it was awfully big of poorer people to vote for Obama in a time of economic stress, since bad times usually result in racial prejudice among those with lesser educations:
"If you don't have that educational advantage, you fear competition. You see the rise of other ethnic groups, you see the challenges that face you, and you lack the confidence that comes with, 'well, I think change is a good idea.' Better-off people say 'change, let's try something new.' When you're really holding on to a job and barely able to -- your factory is closing, you're out of work and your option is an $8 an hour job somewhere, flipping burgers, you're not exactly thrilled by the rising aspirations of other groups. You're going, 'wait a minute, they're passing me by.'
"But a guy or a woman who's doing well says, 'no, I can take the competition, in fact, I want to live in a better society,' and you're much more generous about it. By the way, the amazing thing about this is we've made this big social change in picking an African-American at a time of social stress and economic stress. Usually when societies face economic and social stress, they get much more conservative and much more closing, they close the door to opportunity. They get more right-wing."

Olbermann took up the point of prejudice and wondered to black religious leader T. D. Jakes about whether the daily presence of President Obama might eradicate whatever racism whites still carry. But he said it clumsily, implying that McCain's supporters were still full of prejudice:
"An excellent point, Bishop Jakes, about Senator McCain's speech, which really will echo I think in many corridors, even if the immediate reaction is not what it might have been in Phoenix tonight. A lot of disappointment, and a lot of fear and a lot of prejudice is still there. This is what I wanted to ask you about.
"I would imagine you know the ins and outs of this subject far better than I do. But it has seemed to me that every study that's ever been made about prejudice between groups of people, and it doesn't matter if we're talking racial or religious or ethnic or societal or any kind of other differences between people, when you personally know someone of the so-called other group, your likelihood to be prejudiced or doubtful of them seems to drop from about 90 percent to about 10 percent.
"In some respects, a President-elect, soon we expect to be the president of the United States, is almost a figure in the family of everybody in the country, almost as well known as some at least distant relative. Will this have a material impact in knocking down what remains of prejudice in this country?"

Jakes naturally agreed: "You know, we all hope so and we aspire so."

CNN's Frank Sesno Labels Rahm Emanuel
'Center to Center-Right'

Beware the tendency for media liberals to paint the new Team Obama as a surplus of centrists. Just after 8:30 AM EST Thursday on CNN's American Morning, Frank Sesno declared that Rep. Rahm Emanuel, projected as Obama's chief of staff, is seen as "on the center to center-right." But that's not what his congressional voting records suggest.

[This item, by the MRC's Tim Graham, was posted Thursday morning on the MRC's blog, NewsBusters.org: newsbusters.org [9] ]

Emanuel's American Conservative Union average since joining the House in 2003 is a 13, with a 4 in 2006 and a zero in 2007. The Americans for Democratic Action voting index is even more emphatic: Emanuel averages out (by my math) to a 96 percent liberal score.

For more on Emanuel's ACU score, go to "2007 Votes by State Delegation" at: www.acuratings.org [10]

His ADA scores: 95 percent in 2003, 100 percent liberal perfection in 2004 and 2005, 90 percent in 2006, and 95 percent in 2007.

For more on Emanuel's ADA scores, go to "Americans for Democratic Action -- Voting Records" at: www.adaction.org [11]

Just a few days ago, Sesno noticeably announced in the same morning slot that "The era of Big Government is back." Emanuel's record matches that sentiment.

-- Brent Baker