Chris Matthews, for all his faults, has a rather encyclopedia knowledge of modern political history. So it's rather puzzling that during MSNBC coverage this evening, shortly before polls started closing in the Granite State, he insisted that Ronald Reagan, like 1952 New Hampshire primary winner Dwight Eisenhower before him and likely 2016 New Hampshire primary winner Donald Trump after him, didn't get into politics until middle age.
Granite State Republicans, Matthews insisted "made a transition in 1980 when they picked Reagan, who like Donald Trump had made his public name through eight to nine years of prime time television as host of GE theater."
"[I]n a way, three men in a row were not career politicians, certainly Eisenhower, Reagan, and now Trump, all reached, went into politics in their middle ages or later," Matthews told anchor Brian Williams, seeking to prove that Donald Trump's all-but-certain victory tonight in New Hampshire is not something of a fluke or unprecedented but rather thoroughly in line with the outside-the-box, anti-establishment ethos of the New Hampshire Republican voter.
But while it's true Reagan didn't himself seek elective office until he was in his 50s, the former movie star did, in fact, have a long history of political involvement prior to that, unlike the apolitical Eisenhower, a career military officer, and Trump, whose only political engagement to speak of has been as a campaign donor to candidates of both parties.
Indeed, a 37-year-old Reagan campaigned for Harry Truman in 1948 and cut a radio spot for Hubert Humphrey's 1948 Senate bid. Two years later, Reagan campaigned for Democrat Helen Gahagan Douglas, who lost out to Richard Nixon for a California U.S. Senate seat. And one mustn't forget that as a board member and president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Reagan led the Hollywood union through some pretty choppy political waters after World War II.
According to a SAG bio page in Reagan's honor:
Issues - Guild, national, and international - during Reagan's presidencies and board terms, 1946 - 1960, were among the most vast and complicated in the Guild's history, including, in addition to the CSU strikes: the Guild's first entirely new contract since 1937; passage of the labor-weakening Taft-Hartley act; the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings and the blacklist era; a severe decline in Hollywood film production, largely caused by both the exploding popularity of television and the 1948 "Paramount decree" which would bring an end to the "studio system"; the fall of mainland China to communism; the explosion of an atomic bomb by the Soviet Union; the Korean War; jurisdictional struggles over television; the MCA waiver; the Guild's first three strikes (1952-53, 1955, and 1960); the first residuals for filmed television programs; first residuals for films sold to television; and the creation of the pension and health plan.
Unlike Trump, Reagan didn't come to politics after TV, he'd always had political interests during his Hollywood and then TV days, and then pursued and obtained elected office (governor of California) before setting sights on national ambitions, namely the presidency.
It's inaccurate and grossly misleading for Matthews to have said what he did, a disservice to viewers at home who might not follow the late President Reagan's advice to "trust, but verify."
Here's the relevant transcript:
MSNBC
Live coverage: The Place for Politics 2016
February 9, 2016; 6:04 p.m. EasternBRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor: Remember, Chris, you had a World War II general, we love our generals by the way, I think either 11 or 12 of our presidents have been generals in the past, brief stint as president of Columbia in New York, but an entirely different resume than the one they are considering making the victory of the New Hampshire primary tonight.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yes, but they made a transition in 1980 when they picked Reagan, who like Donald Trump had made his public name through eight to nine years of prime time television as host of GE theater. So in a way, three men in a row were not career politicians, certainly Eisenhower, Reagan, and now Trump, all reached, went into politics in their middle ages or later.
Matthew erroneously saying Reagan went into politics in "middle age." He campaigned for Truman in '48 (age 37). pic.twitter.com/0qAV1PhDge
— Ken Shepherd (@KenShepherd) February 9, 2016
