Chris Matthews seems to want to continually frame his panel segments on his Sunday show around ridiculous things that don't matter like President Obama's age as he did here. The man is going to be over fifty when he runs for reelection which might be young as Presidents go, but he's still not going to be some spring chicken. And he's going to be running for reelection after serving for four years. People are going to judge him on how he's governed, not on caring about how old he is.
I hate to say it but I actually agree with CNBC talking head Erin Burnett here. If the jobs numbers start looking better, it may not matter much if the Republicans want to try to attack Obama for not having enough experience to handle being President.
What John Heilemann fails to address is that if the Republicans do take this tack during the next Presidential election cycle, we can count on the likes of the Rush Limbaugh's and company to take it a step too far and start calling President Obama "boy". And I'm sure they'll all "report" on it if he does since heaven forbid the right wing flame throwing Oxycontin addict can't say anything without our media propping him up as newsworthy.
It would be nice to see them focus as much attention to our centrist Democratic President attempting to get anything passed with the obstructionist Republican minority he's dealing with instead of this nonsense. I'm not happy that he hasn't pushed harder for a progressive agenda and a lot of other issues as well, but I'm also enough of a realist to know that there was only so much he was going to get done when the Republicans and ConservaDems are putting the brakes on at every turn.
When he starts using his bully pulpit to call them out for it and quits looking like he's content with his staff taking glee in kicking liberals in the teeth, maybe he'll get some enthusiasm from his base for his reelection. I could care less about how old he is and being 51 one years old and seeking reelection and what his age might mean to voters is nothing but a distraction and giving Republicans some fodder from Matthews and his fellow Villagers. You can say you disagree with what he's done after four years as President. You can no longer say he's not "experienced".
I'd like for Matthews to sit down and deal with the crap the President has had to deal with day in and day out for maybe a month and then report to us how he didn't gain any "experience" from that. "Relative newness"... spare me Chris. After four years of being President there's not going to be any "newness" there.
Do me a favor and go take a few lessons from your cohort Rachel Maddow about how to do a relevant "news" show instead of talking about bulls**t. If age was going to be an issue during the last Presidential election it was John McCain's and wondering if he was too old for the job that should have been questioned.
And one last note on that Presidential ticket, if Sarah Palin were by some horror to get the Republican nomination for President, will Matthews ask the same question about her? She was born on February 11, 1964. President Obama was born (unless you're a crazy birther that questions his birth certificate's validity in the first place) on August 4, 1961. Anyone think Matthews will bring up the half-term governor's age if the wingnut gets nominated? I guess we'll see but I hope to hell I don't have to find out by her actually running and winning some primary races.
Rough transcript below the fold.
Matthews: Welcome back. President Obama turned 49 the other day. That brings us to this week’s “Big Question”. His youth won him the White House, you could say, last time, next time will his youth and relative newness be a plus or a minus? John Heilemann?
Heilemann: I think a minus. I think that Republican, the Republican attack on Obama is going to revolve around too liberal but also too incompetent and the inexperience that I think Republicans will try to hang around his neck, they’re going to say look, you hired this guy that was too young for this job, he didn’t know what he was doing, he didn’t have the experience and look what’s happened… not going to work.
Matthews: Do you agree with that?
Burnett: I’d say a minus except for one crucial caveat. Nobody will care if you start getting real job creation in the next six months. Then it won’t matter.
O’Donnell: I’ll say it’s a plus because it is still a vote about how you feel about a President and then a youthful President with a youthful wife and young daughters is still something Americans like.
Matthews: Howard?
Fineman: I’d say personally, his story is still appealing. I agree with John’s incompetence attack but I think Obama as a person, which is after all what got him elected the first time is still overall a net plus no matter what age he is.
Matthews: He’ll be able to campaign like heck too.
Fineman: Yes.
Matthews: As he always did.
