“Look, calm down. I got this”
by digby
I really hope this Chris Matthews anecdote is something he hallucinated because if it isn’t, then my criticism of the president for “believing his own hype” is literally true:
… After the first debate [in which Matthews harshly criticized Obama’s performance], I saw the president at the Al Smith dinner, and he told me, I mention you in my speech. And he had that line about “First I caused him a thrill up his leg, and then I caused him a stroke,” which was very funny. And then he comes over afterward, and he says to me, “Look, calm down. I got this.”
Yikes. I wonder if that’s what he told his staff every time he got rolled by the Republicans over the past five years? (But then this is being recounted by Chris Matthews who added, “and I thought: What? What does that mean? Does he mean he knows what the numbers are? He’s going to win?” so who knows?)
Read the whole interview. It’s with Joan Walsh and it’s very entertaining. He’s written a book called Tip and the Gipper in which he portrays Reagan as a good chap and evidently forgets to mention his racist campaign tactics. (Hey, nobody’s perfect.) It’s a perfectly timed reminder of everything that’s been wrong with the Democratic political establishment of the past quarter century. We didn’t get here by GOP lunacy alone — there’s been a whole lot of enabling going on.
I hope Rick Perlstein is called upon to review Matthews’ new book for us. He’s working on his Reagan opus as we speak …
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