Hardball

Last week, the Media Research Center announced our “Best Notable Quotables of 2015.” Over the next few days, we’ll present the most outrageous of this year’s Notable Quotables as a way to review the worst media bias of 2015. Today, the winner and top runners-up of our “Obamagasm Award,” for journalists who get thrills and tingles when they think about Barack Obama.

Chris Matthews has made no secret of how much he loves the "perfect" Barack Obama in everything from his speaking style on down to his family life. But far be it from the hyperpartisan Hardball host to see Rubio's good looks and polished speaking style as plusses for him in a hypothetical general-election contest against Hillary Clinton.

During a live, post-debate edition of Hardball on Tuesday night, Chris Matthews declared Hillary Clinton the likely winner in 2016 and immediately moved on to 2020. Matthews, who famously had a “thrill" up his leg for Barack Obama, ended a segment on the current Vegas odds by declaring, “I think Hillary is favored. I think she'll probably win the general. Probably. Probably.”

Call Ayman Mohyeldin "the Duke Ellington Reporter" in homage to the jazz great's "Don't Get Around Much Anymore." Or perhaps you could say that Mohyeldin had his Pauline Kael moment, after the New York Times movie critic who, as legend has it, averred she couldn't understand how Nixon won since she didn't know anyone who voted for him. Isn't a reporter supposed to, you know, get around and speak…

In an interview with GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum on the December 1 edition of Hardball, MSNBC's Chris Matthews insisted that mass shootings don't happen "all over Europe." When an incredulous Santorum reminded Matthews about the November 13 Paris terrorist attacks, Matthews shot back that the Paris perpetrators were terrorists and not "locals."

Republicans like Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorina seem to "enjoy" it when an abortion clinic is attacked by a crazed gunman because it opens another opportunity for them to attack the liberal media, Hardball host Chris Matthews bizarrely theorized on his November 30 program.

During an interview with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) regarding his efforts to ensure New York City remains safe during heightened security in the wake of ISIS terrorist attacks, MSNBC Hardball host Chris Matthews insisted "the NRA is nondiscriminatory when it comes to who gets guns. They're for everybody getting them, including terrorists."

I took some flak awhile back for saying that--his liberalism notwithstanding--Chris Matthews had a patriotic streak. More evidence for that notion on this evening's Hardball, as Matthews twice derided President Obama's response to ISIS as "dainty," and kvetched that "I don't see us doing anything."  

As Politico reported earlier today, Secretary of State John Kerry seemed to see a "rationale" in the deadly terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo newspaper office back in January, unlike target pattern in Friday's coordinated terror strikes in Paris. Reporter Eliza Collins posted her story at 4:14 p.m. Eastern, about 3 hours prior to MSNBC's Hardball went live on the air. That's plenty of time…

2015 is drawing to a close, so unless some dark horse comes out of absolutely nowhere, Chris Matthews is a mortal lock for the DisHonor award for the year's worst analogy. On this evening's Hardball, Matthews argued that we shouldn't blame Islam for ISIS terrorist attacks since, after all, FDR, despite despising Mussolini, "never declared war on the Catholics." Just a little difference: Italian…

According to Chris Matthews, it's uncertain whether the term Hispanic can properly be used to describe GOP presidential aspirants Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Marco Rubio (Florida). It's better to say they are "Cuban nationals," offered the Hardball host on his Nov. 11 program.

Conservatives revere the Bill of Rights, including the 2nd Amendment, and highly respect those who have worn the uniform of this nation. So naturally MSNBC found Veterans Day a perfect opportunity to troll by giving a pro-gun control Army veteran a platform to insist "It’s time for vets to speak up about gun safety."

At the end of an interview segment tonight on Hardball, MSNBC host Chris Matthews and former Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) traded stories about their brushes with journalists who used goofy-looking photos of them as cover art to adorn magazine profiles.