Chris Matthews, Pat Buchanan Fight Over Obama's Academic Qualifications (VIDEO)

Chris Matthews and Pat Buchanan got into a long argument on Tuesday's "Hardball" about President Obama's academic credentials.

The clash was precipitated by (surprise, surprise) Donald Trump, who has said he doesn't think Obama was qualified to go to Harvard or Columbia, and was suspicious about how he was admitted to both schools. Buchanan said he supported Trump's curiosity.

"These are legitimate questions!" he exclaimed, wondering why Matthews was supporting what he called Obama's "right to conceal" his academic records. He guessed that Obama's rise through the Ivy League ranks was "affirmative action all the way."

"Why is it your guess?" Matthews asked. "...How do you make these assumptions? Do you know how this bothers people that you make these charges?"

"What I want to know is why you don't want to see the test scores?" Buchanan shot back. "Why don't you want to see any of these things? You're supposed to be a journalist! The people's right to know!"

"What am i supposed to become a master of his paperwork?" Matthews said. He told Buchanan that his arguments were one of the reasons that black Americans were often driven "crazy" by political discourse. Obama, he pointed out, had, by all accounts, had a stellar academic career, "and you still don't buy it. You don't buy him." He noted that "I got my job here without ever showing any paperwork from school."

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Comments

[Jahsmah]

01:48 AM on 05/08/2011

These are the same people who said Sarah Palin was qualified to be President. I don't even argue with them. After all, there is no reasoning with crazy.

[CraigVale]

04:14 PM on 05/01/2011

Good ole' boy Pukecannon, An IQ approaching that of an oxygen deprived squid, he continues with his dog whistle coded language diatribe all the while convinced that his not so subtle form of 21 century racism will somehow fly under the radar. He never got over the Woolworth lunch counter decision. It was just fine with Pat that blacks could wash his dishes, they just couldn't eat off them. Not much has changed for Pat or the likes of him. They will go to the grave holding tightly to their racism and with fingers crossed behind their backs, praying that the doorman at heavens gate is a black guy and not white. Holy Moley !

[sloreader]

11:54 AM on 04/30/2011

Dear Pat, just listen to the man the next time he speaks.

[Michael Doane]

10:20 AM on 04/30/2011

Pat Buchanan has been the poster boy for doughy white hate monger for twenty years. This is just more of the same. "...the WH stonewalling." "The public's right to know."

[truthserum808]

08:46 AM on 04/30/2011

Good lord Repubs, are you even trying? Debating stuff like this isn't even fun....its like shooting the broadside of a barn.

[jlm11579]

10:37 PM on 04/29/2011

My, my,,,,we really are defensive.

The point of the article is favoritism....the suggestion coming from Pat Buchanan (a gentleman, who I have met personally).....that the President progressed as a function of affirmative action rather than his own intelligence. By my own personal observation, and, by accounts from numerous people, the President has a superior level of intelligence. Having spent 30 years in the media business myself, I've learned to recognize that fairly well, without relying on documentation. I brought up GWB because he was president as well, one who severely lacked the communication skills necessary for the office and displayed little in the way of superior intelligence. Hence, my comments about his "legacy" status (I trust you know what that means) as a counter to Buchanan's affirmative action label attached to Mr. Obama. Kerry was never president, so, why bring him up? Lastly, I'm intelligent enough to trust my instincts more than a piece of paper. Your persistent refrain about Bush being the smarter among your select cast of characters (bad guys all, right?) doesn't say a whole lot about your ability to judge individuals. Or are you too blinded by ideology to see clearly?

[dewey13]

09:05 PM on 04/29/2011

I heard that Donald Trump's detectives found a really disturbing finger painting that they say was made by the president when he was four.

The Trump was quoted as saying "this is really big and it's amazing he got into law school after smearing all those colors"

[Char59]

08:54 AM on 04/30/2011

Now if you will remember, the Trump said their is no evidence of his childhood, no one ever knew the President when he was a child or in kindergarten, but now they find a finger painting when he was four..lol.. love your analysis...

[James Woody Woods]

06:36 PM on 04/30/2011

I heard Donald Trump rapes kittens. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Donald-Trump-Rapes-Kittens/210429598981092

[filiusj]

08:47 PM on 04/29/2011

The man graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, nuff said.

[Char59]

08:57 AM on 04/30/2011

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that anyone who gets in grad school has to have a certain level of GPA to be admitted, , so therefore that dispells all of Trumps inuendos. Affirmative action will not get you in grad school . Must have the GPA!

[shadowgirl52]

08:15 PM on 04/29/2011

The christian, right wing, repubs are just stalling untill the rapture. Each one of them thinks they have a seat on that space ship to heaven. I hope they are right. Bye Bye!

[Ward Anderson]

04:06 PM on 04/29/2011

Can anyone tell me what this has to do with anything? The man was democratically elected and his 20-year old school records won't change that fact. In likely won't affect his re-election campaign, either.

I thought Republicans were whining about wanting to fix the economy and didn't want to waste any more government time on things that don't matter. Yet every time I turn around, they're talking about things that simply do not matter. Test scores? Birth certificates? Gee, it really seems The Republicans aren't acting like there are any problems in DC that actually need to be fixed.

I heard that unemployment was high and that the budget was in crisis and that health care was screwed. I guess that's all fine now, since we're talking about 20-year old test scores and college records.

[1hotgolfer]

04:02 PM on 04/29/2011

I have a few basic questions for race monger Buchanan...Do you seriously believe that a predominately white male Harvard Review used affirmative action in electing POTUS as president of that organization? What role does affirmative action play in earning the distinction of graduating Magna Cum Laude from Harvard?

In addition, if affirmative action was the "foot in the door" to Harvard, does it stand to reason that the resulting magna cum laude honors legitimizes the use of that process? It seems to suggest that it wasn't a "lesser qualified" student who benefitted, it was a "under represented qualified" student receiving justified assistance.

How say you now, Pat Buchanan?

[ydrittmann]

11:57 PM on 04/29/2011

"But was he born here?"

[Jahsmah]

01:52 AM on 05/08/2011

YD, lol!
People are a mess with the "Affirmative Action" outcry. First of all, it may get you in the door, but you have to do the work to stay in the room. Second, it say a great deal, to me, about this fine country that we even have to have a program like AFAC. That all citizens are not truly equal and we have to make a conscious effort at inclusion should be the issue we debate 150 years after the Civil War. But, the like of Pat and the GOP/TP don't want to think about that. That would be too much like actual real brain usage for them.

[BOin08]

03:53 PM on 04/29/2011

Chris is falling into the GOP 'strategery' plan very nicely...expendable non-candidates like Trump and Palin are being used to flush out dem talking points and push hardcore issues that no serious GOP candidate will raise. In a brilliant flanking maneuver the Republicans are masking the main effort to avoid fratricide that is customary in long drawn out campaigns. They'll let Palin and Trump take the media fire while the real candidate goes unvetted with the usual barrage of muckraking from the other side. Hurrahs to point man Trump for jumping on the wingnut grenade that is sure to make the real candidate look 'moderate' and acceptable to disenchanted dems and independents alike.

[RickInMichigan]

03:50 PM on 04/29/2011

Why does Buchanon claim America has the right to know Obama's test results? What part of the Constitution gives us that "right"? We certainly had the right to not vote for Obama if he didn't show his school records...but that's about as far as it goes.

[Jahsmah]

01:53 AM on 05/08/2011

I want to see Pat's (Klan) records.

[Fattonecat]

03:43 PM on 04/29/2011

Another white racist making the rest of us look bad. Good job pat.......ugh !

[taxi648]

01:29 PM on 04/29/2011

Instead of trying to make President Obama look bad, why don't the republicans work on making themselves look better. Come up with ideas that MOST of America can get behind and support. As a moderate republican I could never support racism, the attack on women's health care, their views on education, and in particular abortion.