Thrill is gone: furrowing is gone
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, who once said he “felt this furrowing up his leg” about Barack Obama during coverage of the 2008 presidential primary election results with Keith Olbermann, asks what is he going to do his second term … is this as good as it gets?
President Barack Obama Must Define Second Term Goals
Chris Matthews’ transcript:
(About Obama’s run for second term)
Do Something
There is no Peace Corps. There is no Special Forces.
There is no 50-mile hikes. There’s no Moon program.
There’s nothing to root for.
What are we trying to do in this administration?
Why does he want a second term? Would he tell us?
What’s he going to do in the second term? More of this?
Is this it? Is this as good as it gets?
Where are we going? Are we going to do something this second term?
’cause you have to tell us.
He’s not said one thing about what he would do in his second term.
He never tells us what he’s going to do about reforming our health care system, Medicare, Medicaid? How he’s going to reform Social Security. Is he going to deal with long term debt? How? Is he going to reform the tax system? How? Just tell us.
Why are we in this fight with him? Just tell us Commander, just give us our orders. Tell us where we’re going. Just give us the mission. And he hasn’t done it. You know?
And I think it’s the people around him. Too many people around him are like little kids with propellers on their heads. They’re all virtual. Politics … this social networking … I get these e-mails, and you probably get them. I’m tired of getting them. Stop giving me them to me. I want to me people. They’re idea of running a campaign is a virtual universe of sending emails around to people. No it’s not; it’s meeting some people — forging alliances. It’s White House meetings and dinner parties that go on until midnight. And he should be sitting late at night now with senators and members of Congress and governors, working together on how they’re going to win this political fight that’s coming.
I don’t have the sense that he’s ever had a meeting. I hear stories that you will not believe. Not a single phone call since the last … They don’t call … he never calls. That’s the message. Members of Congress … I keep asking them, ‘When did you hear from him last? [empty, perplexed expression] he doesn’t like their company. That’s a fault, by the way.
Matthews “felt this furrowing up his leg” about Barack Obama during coverage of the 2008 presidential primary election results with Keith Olbermann.