Chris Matthews: "I Want To Do Everything I Can To Make This New Presidency Work"

Chris Matthews appeared on "Morning Joe" Thursday morning, and in the context of discussing the Obama transition — and Rahm Emanuel's motives for waffling on the chief of staff position — told Joe Scarborough it is not his job to question Emanuel's motives.

"You know what?" Matthews said. "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new Presidency work."

Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski pressed Matthews on his claim, asking if it his his job as a journalist to make the Presidency work.

"Yeah, that's my job. My job is to help this country...to make this work succsesfully, because this country needs a successful Presidency, more than anything right now," Matthews said.

"As Americans, Chris Matthews, we are all rooting for the success of Barack Obama," Scarborough said. "America is at a perilous time. But you just talked about being a journalist, and your job as a journalist is not to question motives. Then, two seconds later, you said your job was to make this Presidency a success. That's curious."

Later, Scarborough said, "We all wish [Obama] well, we just don't think it's our job to make this work anymore than it was a journalist's job to make the Iraq War have a successful launch."

Watch, and enjoy Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel knocking Newsweek's Barack Obama cover, which features a photo that Stengel called "about two years old," below: