Lawrence O'Donnell yesterday on The Last Word vehemently denounced Newsweek's "The First Gay President" cover because he thought it could mislead many people into believing that message. Ironically (and hilariously) "FIRST GAY PRESIDENT" in bold capital letters along with Obama's picture kept appearing on the MSNBC screen throughout O'Donnell's denunciation. His own screen graphics amusingly worked in contradiction to his arguments as if to mock O'Donnell.
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Starting at the three minute mark, O'Donnell launches into his attack on the Newsweek cover...as "FIRST GAY PRESIDENT" appears on the screen with him:
Newsweek had two headlines they were thinking of going with. "Please Buy This Magazine" was one...and the other was "The First Gay President."
After turning to his panel, O'Donnell edged himself ever closer to bulging neck vein rage (accompanied by the onscreen "FIRST GAY PRESIDENT") over the possible misinformation being spread by the Newsweek cover:
We live in a wicked stupid country, okay. This is a country that believes, in a very substantial proportion, that Barack Obama is a Muslim. Huge number, millions and millions of people...like 30 percent, think he wasn't born American. They think he's Kenyan. Crazy, crazy beliefs. And Newsweek, it seems to me, has to consider the responsibility of sending out into such a collectively stupid country and stupid electorate this thing, which is the only sentence in Newsweek that most people are going to read this week - the sentence on the cover.
And the only sentence that most people will read IF they watch your show, Lawrence, is the "FIRST GAY PRESIDENT" graphic that kept appearing on the screen with you. Oh, and an oatmeal cookie to the first person who can accurately tabulate the total amount of time in this eleven and a half minute segment that MSNBC's "FIRST GAY PRESIDENT" appeared on the screen.
