Tommy Christoper, ace Cable Gamer for the increasingly must-read Mediaite,
assesses Chris Matthews' career as a Democratic political strategist--oops, make that MSNBC talk show host. Or maybe both. With the acquiescence of first GE, and now Comcast, Matthews openly advises
Barack Obama on what to do--including, in this case, advise Obama to make the most of the Japan tragedy. Christopher disputes, slightly,
an earlier report from Newsbusters'
Ken Shepherd, but there's not really a lot of daylight between Christopher and Shepherd.
Indeed, as Christopher notes, it was just a few months ago that the execrable
Mark Penn, who made the "jawdropping" (Christopher's apt word-choice) suggestion that an Oklahoma City-type bombing would help Obama "reconnect" with the American people. And as Christopher notes, "Matthews didn’t bat an eye, and at the time, I thought perhaps he plowed over Penn’s gaffe out of mercy for his guest, but now, I’m not so sure." That is, maybe Matthews is just sharing the sense of political calculation, if not, of course, Penn's horrible "idea."
