Chris Matthews: Obama "Elite" For Wearing Sunglasses

Media Matters:

Here's MSNBC's Chris Matthews, moments ago, suggesting Barack Obama is "elite" in part because Obama was wearing sunglasses:

Can Barack Obama, a man of elite education if not elite background, break into the middle class and talk regular? Can he talk to regular people in their kitchens tonight, in their living rooms?

[...]

Everybody thinks Barack is too cool. In other words, there he is with the shades, getting on the plane. A little bit too elegant, a little bit too proud of his own bearing. Is that a problem, that he's just too cool for words. In other words, elite.

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Comments

[stonepier]

Anybody who doesn't wear sunglasses in bright sunlight is an idiot. It's about UV exposure. Ask your opthalmologist.

[nellie]

Never let common sense get in the way of a pundity soundbite.

[illinoisan]

Obama should follow the example of Tweety and drop the "ly" suffix from his adverbs.

[lissak]

I don't know what has happened to Matthews lately. He has become the Eddie Haskell of cable news.

[Brooklynindy]

Ever since Matthews got slammed for his "tingling leg" comment about Obama, He's been trying sooo hard to live it down.

[honeydiva]

KHA- TWEETY!

[Independent-for-Obama]

I wear sunglasses to protect my eyes from UV. Chris is just peeved that Obama looks so cool in his shades. Instead of putting Obama down as elite, as if it were a bad thing, he should be commenting on the brand and model so the rest of us can look cool.

[honeydiva]

tweety is richer than 0. his formal education may not match but he's no dummy.he's been a speech writer and tip o'neals right hand. The point is he wants to run for something (anything) and he the one time he did, he lost. he better pick adistrict that is more in line with his views in PA to run in next time because he's he will not win anything statewide. my point is he's jealous of 0 and that's a shame.

[honeydiva]

excuse the typos i didn't proof it. and g8d that was awful!

[jah2008]

It is this kind of talk from Matthews that we have someone like Palin on the Republican ticket. Matthews and Fineman can shove it up their behinds.

Let's imagine for a moment that we have an African-American candidate who speaks like an average Joe, a scrappy kid from Scranton. Does anyone really think that he would have a chance of being elected President of the United States? I think not. White Americans will not vote a an African-American man who does not sound educated. As racist as that may sound, that's a fact. Leave the scrappyness to Biden.

Matthews can harp on the eliteness of Obama all he wants. It only confirms how stupid Matthews is.

[jingles32]

And meanwhile, there's our beloved Joe B, the regular "Joe" from Scranton; the voice of the "real American" whom all of the working class can relate to, decked out in his 3 figure white dress shirt with French cuffs and doorknocker cufflinks.

[mydoglucky]

There was an article in th NY Times Sunday magazine about Matthews several months back. He is a very insecure man, clearly. He also is a millionaire who owns 2 Mercedes and summers on Nantucket.
If he talks about Obama not being able to connect to the "blue collar guy" that goes for a beer after work etc etc. I am going to scream. Chris is worried he won't have a job on MSNBC to my knowledge his contract has not been renewed. I never missed Hardball for years but I find it tedious and very predictable. I thought he did a much better job during Clinton's impeachment, the Iraq war and Scooter Libby's trial.
Chris' time has passed.

[CammyV]

His job is to 'stir the pot' and looks like he hit a homer with that observation.

[PAposter]

No, apparently his job is to inject racial divide, because that's exactly what he's doing.

Have you ever heard him say ONCE, "McCain has to find a way to connect with Blacks, Latinos, Asians"? Give me a f*cking break!

[honeydiva]

He's from PA and you know where his thinking is. I'm from Philly and I know what his thinking is. It's sad that he admires 0 yet his jealousy overwhelms him.

[1dogs2]

Nice point. The same is even more obviously true of Little Johnny One-note Buchanan, who seems incapable of remarking on anything other than Obama's alleged inability to connect with white, working-class voters. I've never heard him remark on McCain's inability to connect with Blacks or Latinos or other racial groups, either.

[LynndaMaree]

Amen to that PAposter, you are spot on.

[HateLieCheatKillRepubWay]

That's because McCain doesn't need the Black vote to win, but Barack needs the "regular" White working class to do so. While Chris Matthews does have a foot in mouth disease at times, he's not racist or prejudice.

[PAposter]

I think we need to give Chris 'the elitist" Matthews a piece of our minds. I also think we should shut him down for a while, by not giving him any rating. He needs to be taught a hard lesson, and realize that it is him, not Obama, that we cannot relate to.

Bay Buchanan all but said, the Black vote and Latino vote were not worth going after on CNN the other day. So, I guess when Chris speaks about "regular Americans" he means White working class individuals. Apparently, it's okay that McCain has rejected a great portion of the people in our nation.

Chris Matthews, GFY!

[Lagniappe]

Agreed. But ,I wonder if Big Ed Rendell ( Governor of Pennsylvania)wore sunglasses in California a few years ago when he brokered that Hollywood shindig that resulted in the Paul v. Clinton lawsuit ;involving false campaign reports of donations when Hillary was running for Senate?I haven't heard Chris call Fast Eddie elite!

[levibatgirl]

Just admit it tweety.

You've got it bad!

[FreedomCorpse]

Chris Matthews. Dumb*ss extraordinaire.

[FaceYourFears]

I'm done with Matthews..­..what a ridiculously stupid comment!

[PAposter]

Out-rageous!

[OhioJan]

Wow...This epitomizes why I canNOT stomach having to listen to Matthews at ALL anymore, and why I've switched back to Wolfgang Blitzkreig during the 5-7 time slot (can't stomach Gregory at ALL). This latest comment of Matthews is fantastically inexcusable and careless: Calling Barack Obama an "elitist" because he wears a pair of sunglasses - just like Matthews himself in the photo at the end of the article, as well as the hundreds of sunglass-wearing photos of his "war hero". Yeah, right, maybe we should tar, feather, and publicly flog Barack Obama for wanting to protect his eyes from harmful UV rays - which gave mccain SKIN CANCER 4 times!

Chris Matthews, you're a disgrace to journalism & have NO business being permitted to air your r@cist, ELITIST opinions on international airwaves!!!! You disgrace to memory of Tim russert with your h0rrendous blethering and unprofessional behavior!!!

MSNBC, CAN THAT R@CIST!!!!! (I'm sending a copy of this as an e-mail to MSNBC! I suggest that you folks do the same, so this R@CIST PARTISAN finally goes silence!!!)

[loax]

Sometimes Chris can be such an ass! He was just trying to start a controversy where there was none. Who doesn't wear sunglasses. Gorw up chris, report what is news, not you sometimes elitist drivel. Look at yourself. McCain can spend $5,000.00 on make-up and not be an elitist, but Obama wears sunglasses becuase it is SUNNY outside and you call him elitist? That was one of your most stupid remarks ever!