President Barack Obama might have won a convincing electoral victory Tuesday night, but that doesn't mean Chris Matthews was satisfied. In fact, he seemed downright annoyed.
The MSNBC host gave Obama poor marks for his victory speech in Chicago, arguing that the president was not aggressive enough in promoting the Democratic party's agenda. In particular, Matthews pointed to the Senate victories of candidates like Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown as evidence of a progressive mandate in Washington -- which, he argued, Obama failed to recognize in his remarks.
"I may be the only one here who's not satisfied with that speech," Matthews said.
He went on:
The Democratic party really wasn't given any attention tonight. The president is the leader of the Democratic party. Whatever forging of relationship he's going to do with the other side, it's going to start with unity…
They did very well, these Senate candidates, because they ran on the same platform, basically, as everyone pointed out tonight: stronger regulation of Wall Street, redress of inequality in income through tax policy, real fighting for that stuff. Dealing with industrial policy: We really go in and work for a company, like the auto industry, and save it. You don't sit around and watch it. You don't talk about bankruptcy.
There's real policy aggressiveness here that's come about over the last several years with the Democratic party at the front of it, and I didn't sense that he acted as a party leader, or even as a leader of a faction. It was him, again, alone.
Watch the full video clip above.