With the first 2016 presidential debate approaching on Monday, a portion of Tuesday’s Hardball on MSNBC was dedicated to looking back at some iconic moments from past debates and host Chris Matthews used the time to express his sheer anger that still permeates four years later at Mitt Romney for his “terrible performance” in the first 2012 debate where he “walked in like he’s a better man” than President Obama.
Matthews’s characterization of Romney’s performance being both “terrible” and “repellant” certainly runs counter to how he felt at the time on October 3, 2012 when NewsBusters wrote about the MSNBC host having a meltdown wondering “where was Obama” and credited Romney for coming in with “a plan...to dominate the time” and “going to be aggressive.”
For those who weren’t privy to having seen the meltdown live (as yours truly was as a college student), here’s a sampling of the epic freak-out:
Romney on the other hand, came in with a campaign, he had a plan. He was going to dominate the time, he was going to be aggressive. He was going to push the moderator around, which he did effectively. He was going to relish the evening, enjoying it....Where was Obama tonight?! He should watch, well not just Hardball, Rachel [Maddow], he should watch you, he should watch the Reverend Al [Sharpton], he should watch Lawrence [O'Donnell]. He would learn something about this debate. There's a hot debate going on in this country and you know where it's being held,,,We have our knives out, we go after the people on the facts, what was he doing tonight?! He went in there disarmed...Whereas Romney — I love the split-screen — staring at Obama, addressing him like prey. He did it just right....You've got to beat the champ and I'm going to beat him tonight...What was Romney doing? He was winning.
Fast-forwarding back to 2016, Matthews and his Hardball roundtable were going over some key factors for a successful debate and the aforementioned pundit ruled that the debate will be won on the “psychological” front as the winner will embody self-confidence in the mold that John F. Kennedy did in 1960 by having been “bred like this aristocrat.”
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Matthews is no stranger to expressing his deep-seeded love for Kennedy, but when another Massachusetts political figure 52 years later used the same strategy, his feelings were a bit different: “And that terrible performance by Mitt Romney in the first debate, where he walked in like he's a better man than the President. It drove me crazy. I thought it was repellant, but it worked.”
As Matthews was still trying to defend Obama even though it’s meaningless, liberal Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson somehow represented sanity as he admitted: “It worked. He creamed the President in that debate.”
A second instance of berating Romney came at the conclusion of the show during Matthews’s “Campaign Diary” entry:
Nixon expected a duel between old colleagues. Kennedy came across like a Yankee executioner. I don't think Nixon ever got over it. Mitt Romney did the same thing with President Obama in their first debate. He talked down to him. It may have struck you as repellent, it did me, but it worked. The President just couldn't or wouldn't stand up for him and that’s why Romney won that first debate. Fortunately for President Obama, he got it right in the second and third debates.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on September 20 can be found below.
MSNBC’s Hardball
September 20, 2016
7:44 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I mean, Hillary Clinton, obviously appearance is no problem. Trump was — the hair. But, you know, I wonder how much prep they're going to — I think it's psychological. I’m going to talk about it at the end of the show. If you come in there self-confident. Of course, Kennedy was bred like this aristocrat. He knew it. I'm better than him. And that terrible performance by Mitt Romney in the first debate, where he walked in like he's a better man than the President.
EUGENE ROBINSON: Uh-huh.
MATTHEWS: It drove me crazy. I thought it was repellant, but it worked.
ROBINSON: It worked. He creamed the President in that debate.
MATTHEWS: That self-confidence.
ROBINSON: Yeah, absolutely.
(....)
7:59 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Nixon expected a duel between old colleagues. Kennedy came across like a Yankee executioner. I don't think Nixon ever got over it. Mitt Romney did the same thing with President Obama in their first debate. He talked down to him. It may have struck you as repellent, it did me, but it worked. The President just couldn't or wouldn't stand up for him and that’s why Romney won that first debate. Fortunately for President Obama, he got it right in the second and third debates.
