Chris Matthews on the syndicated program bearing his name devoted an entire segment this weekend to attacking Sarah Palin.
To assist him in the attacks, the host of "The Chris Matthews Show" brought on Howard Fineman of the Huffington Post, the BBC's Katty Kay, Joe Klein of Time magazine, and NBC's Norah O'Donnell (video follows with transcript and commentary):
CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Welcome back. Sarah Palin has a very popular show on TLC, a regular slot on Fox News, and has done a few more interviews lately, but in the new NBC poll Palin has a 50 percent negative rating, and a 63 percent negative rating among moderate voters. Which brings us to our big question this week: with all she’s doing now, does Palin have the possibility of turning that huge negative number around? Howard.
HOWARD FINEMAN, HUFFINGTON POST: So how’s that tweety outdoorsy thing doing for you?
Nice job of showing your stripes, Howard. But that was just the beginning:
FINEMAN: I don't think she's made any progress. She could still win the Republican nomination, it’s a crazy world out there, but she hasn't helped herself at all however famous she is and however many tweets she tweets.
MATTHEWS: Katty, what’s happening not happening?
KATTY KAY, BBC: Well, one indication is that the ratings between her first show in Alaska and her second show fell by 50 percent, which suggests that she's not winning many converts. There are a lot of people who love her but trying to get those people who don't to stay with her is not going to be easy.
Actually, her ratings declined 40 percent from the first to second shows on TLC, but she's consistently getting around three million viewers which is far better than most people on cable with the exception of Fox's Bill O'Reilly.
But facts aren't important to these so-called journalists:
MATTHEWS: Norah, what can she do to improve her situation?
NORAH O’DONNELL, NBC NEWS: Well, I spoke with the Repubican half of our poll, Bill McInturff who also polled for the McCain-Palin team who points out that these are her highest negatives ever, fifty percent. She does not do well among independents and downscale women. She can win the Republican nomination, but if she has any shot at winning a general election she’s got to significantly improve those numbers. It’s going to be hard because the cake is baked in many ways on her. Everybody has an opinion about Sarah Palin. They either love her or they hate her.
Actually, that's not true, for when it comes to the mainstream media, they either hate Sarah Palin or despise her like something foul-smelling on the bottom of one's shoe:
MATTHEWS: You say the cake is baked, but it seems to be burning. There's something wrong here. She’s gotten out doing soft things, like TLC and the woodsman stuff. It seems to be, you know, friend making, but it doesn't seem to be making friends.
JOE KLEIN, TIME MAGAZINE: She's becoming a much better reality TV star, but she's not a politician. The only thing that she can do to turn around her image as a politician as opposed to a celebrity is to take a creative, interesting, brave position on some issue. She has no positions on any issue.
Really? What about her August 7, 2009, position on ObamaCare that ended up not only changing the debate, but was also a huge media focus for weeks?
In fact, contrary to Klein's absurd view, Palin's Facebook notes on a variety of issues regularly garner attention from politicians and pundits. But such inconvenient truths are unimportant to this crew:
FINEMAN: If she had, yes.
KAY: And one trip to Haiti doesn’t do it.
FINEMAN: At first it was really cool to be a celebrity politician. But to have mined it to the extent that she has makes everybody think, “Well, maybe that's what she’s really in this thing for, and not preparing in any serious way to run.”
MATTHEWS: I think she’s a victim of America’s boredom complex. We quickly get bored with politicians.
FINEMAN: Yes, and it’s fun to beat them.
Actually, Howard, it's only fun for you folks to beat Republican politicians as you rarely if ever debase Democrats so gleefully.
As for Matthews' comment about Palin being a victim, he's partially right: she's a victim of America's liberal media complex that has been mercilessly attacking her since the moment John McCain announced her as his running mate in August 2008.
Now, almost 28 months later, they're all still at it and hypocritically wondering why her approval rating is so low.
Reminds you of a child asking why the scab he keeps picking at won't stop bleeding.
