I didn't get to watch the debate the other evening on MSNBC, but I've heard a lot about it... none of it good. I have taken the time to read through the transcript and I must agree with this debate's detractors. It was an abysmal performance by Chris Matthews, who clearly highlighted his Liberal bonafides. Many of his questions were Liberal talking points, attacks on Karl Rove, questions about Scooter Libbey, and even one question about the eventuality of Bill Clinton coming "home" to the White House. Home!

Judging from the transcript only (had I SEEN the dabate my opinion would doubtlessly have been more scathing), I have to say this was the worst performance of a News Outlet hosting and moderating a presidential debate I've seen(read). Mr. Matthews' performance was disrespectful.

Here's a couple of comments I found online...

"What a perfect depiction of the state of politics today! Democrats running scared from a FOX News debate while the GOP stands up fearlessly to endure the never-ending muck and defamation spewed forth regularly by the Democrat co-conspirators at MSNBC."

--Winston Smith

"MSNBC has a role in selecting and vetting the next President of the United States. They fell down on the job by selecting an unprofessional, immature moderator and it reflects very poorly on them. They can, by the way, make up for it by having Ann Coulter moderate the next Dem candidate debate. It's not that she is unprofessional like Matthews but she would be as grating to them as Matthews is to the world. And she could ask them things like, "Should Ronald Reagan be back in the White House?", "What do you love about America?", "Should Imus have been fired?" and "Should Al Sharpton be fired?" "

--Dahlia Travers

"The Drive-Bys are trying to say it wasn't biased, "We're objective, why, we're just reporting the news. We have no interest in the outcomes," and nobody believes that anymore. They've become so oriented toward the left agenda. What's insulting is that they deny it, and they spread things that are not true in the process of furthering the agenda, and it's quite irritating. Republicans are not going to run away from MSNBC, they're not going to run away from debates on CNN. That's not what Republicans do. The Democrats are running away from debates on Fox. Here's another bite. Bush-bashing questions were typical of Drive-By drivel last night. This is a montage of the moderators, Jim VandeHei of The Politico, John Harris from The Politico, they were cosponsors, and Chris Matthews posing questions to the candidates.


MATHEWS: Do you think Scooter Libby should be pardoned?

HARRIS: Would you have fired Don Rumsfeld before last November?

VANDEHEI: What do you dislike most about America?

MATHEWS: Is Karl Rove your friend? Would you employ Karl Rove?

HARRIS: Jack Abramoff, Mark Foley, Duke Cunningham in prison for bribes, FBI raids of two Republican members of Congress, what's with your party and all this corruption?

MATHEWS: Let me ask you a question which has grabbed a lot of Americans personally, the Terri Schiavo case.

VANDEHEI: Did you watch Algore's environmental documentary, An Inconvenient Truth?

MATHEWS: Seriously, would it be good for America to have Bill Clinton back living in the White House?


"What can you say about this? This doesn't need any analysis. You are informed and sophisticated enough to understand this. But, folks, it is what it is. If you're going to run for president as a Republican today, you have to know that this is what you're going to get. You have to be able to deal with it and you have to be able to knock it out of the park. I would have loved to have been on that stage and gotten every one of these questions. They're parody questions, but what they indicate is the mind-set, the Republicans are a bunch of pretenders, the Republicans are jokes. Remember, to the left, there is no debate. Republicans, conservatives, in the minds of the left, have to spend their entire existence justifying that existence. Every one of these questions goes to a liberal world view. You think Scooter Libby should be pardoned? Would you have fired Rumsfeld last November? What do you dislike most about America? That question came from somebody in general public, I think from Walnut Creek, California, that submitted the question via ThePolitico.com website. And, of course, the root of that question is it, "Well, conservatives hate America, conservatives hate, conservatives are racists and sexists and bigots and homophobes and all this, and they just hate people." That is a question that if you asked a liberal, and a liberal were honest to answer, he couldn't come up with a list of ten because that's too few items."