Tag: Chris Matthews

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Congress continues to ‘fiddle’ around

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Chris Matthews is smart. And right. Yesterday’s vote was political theater. And a waste of the people’s time.

Instead of working to find common ground, the Republicans in Congress are grandstanding to play to their base AND hoping for calamity to occur so they can blame President Obama.

Time to stop playing games and do the job Americans want – get the job done.

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Matthews on soccer, equality and the US

From Chris Matthews on “Hardball”: Let me finish tonight with a grand American sight.

It’s what I saw yesterday at a San Francisco airport, what everyone saw who went past a restaurant, bar or any other place where there were people and a television.

It’s the huge bunch of men cheering the American women’s soccer team in the World Cup.

The whoops went up every time they scored, the howls everytime Japan scored a goal. As I said, the groups I saw were overwhelmingly men, and not all young men by any means.

This is the great American development. One, we’re getting really involved in international competition, and not just in the Olympics. Two, it’s the women’s teams that are getting us really gung-ho.

Soccer, we call it. The world calls it football. And everyone in this country lucky enough to have kids knows how much girls love the game. Our Caroline has rowed crew, gotten good at lacrosse amazingly fast but retains her loyalty to midfield, her position in soccer.

That’s the story here, the fact that ever since 1972, when Title Nine was added to our civil rights, girls and women have had an equal shot at sports in school. It’s why there’s nine times the participation rates in school that there was before the title was passed in 1972.

Look, we all got excited in 1999 when Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain and the rest won the world cup, and we were even more thrilled this time just by the fact that our women made it to the final. You’ve heard the statistics, more tweeting per second than at any time in history. People not just wanted to watch and see us compete and hopefully pull it off; they wanted to share the excitement with friends and family.

This is great stuff for the country, great stuff. It’s enormously important, much more important than politics, because it’s about an equal playing field, starting when you’re young. Learning equality at a young age is a very good thing to learn, especially for an American. We all need teams. We all need to hear the cheers of America behind us.

So good for Japan. And great for us!
(via MSNBC.com)

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Chris Matthews – Let Me Finish 6/6/11

I think Chris Matthews is one of the best at what he does. He’s been on the inside of politics for years and he knows what he’s talking about. He calls out Democrats and Republicans alike when they mess up. Here’s his wrap up for “Hardball” today. I think it’s smart and pretty intriguing.

Let me finish tonight with June 6th, D-Day. The Republican campaign has hit the beach. A week from now the candidates – six of them – face off in the first real debate of 2012. Here’s what I thinks going on in the inside.

Sarah Palin – What’s she doing? Instead of running for president she’s playing Tammany Hall political boss. Her agenda? Knock off Mitt Romney. She’s got real problems with him. One, she doesn’t want him to win, not Mitt Romney, not him running the country for eight years. I can give you several reasons. You can list them yourself. Look at his background. Look at hers. Do you really think he’s her kind of Republican?

She showed a bit of this attitude last week going to New Hampshire and big-footing Mitt on his press coverage –knocked him right out of the ballpark. That bus of hers rolled right over his chili fest.

Second on her agenda – knock off Michele Bachmann. The Congresswoman from Minnesota is getting in the race, showing up for next Monday’s first big debate. She’s a real-life candidate and Sarah wants her on the scope. This is roller-rink politics. Palin is out to knock both Mitt and Bachman off the course.

Here’s how she does it –she backs the alternative to Romney in the regular Republican Party – Tim Pawlenty, the ex-governor of Minnesota – who happens to be the active alternative to Bachman among the religious right-tea party factions.

This is where it gets intriguing, even fascinating. Can someone with Palin’s chops go out there and work this thing for Pawlenty, someone so obviously without those chops? Can she put a tiger in this guy’s tank? Better yet, can she “be” that tiger?

This is wild. If Palin pulls it off, Pawlenty of Minnesota can win the caucuses in its southern neighbor Iowa. He can go on and win among her fellow evangelists in South Carolina, starting a long, hard campaign against the deep-pocketed Romney right across the country. It would be Romney-Pawlenty or Pawlently-Romney onward to the national convention in Tampa.

If Palin fails to light up Pawlenty in Iowa and Bachmann wins out there, then Bachmann goes to New Hampshire good enough to make a decent showing then head down to South Carolina and wins there, setting up a Romney vs. Bachmann race all the way to Tampa.

This is how it looks on the Republican side right now as we approach the first debate. I’m counting on the debate to make the difference. If Bachman can do well, if she can be a star in the big candidate nights like next Monday, she will be the one to watch. If not, bet on Palin working her magic and knocking off, first Bachmann, and then Romney.

I don’t think the Republican Party can nominate anyone to the left of Pawlenty. That leaves it to him or Bachmann, another way of saying Palin or Bachmann.