Chris Matthews: Gingrich, The Joker, Obama, Batman

I think MSNBC should send Chris Matthews packing - immediately. The damage being done to the NBC news brand is enormous and probably irreparable.

Like Matthews' former MSNBC colleague Keith Olbermann, I'm sure Al Gore's network would welcome him with open arms.

On Wednesday, Matthews cast Newt Gingrich as the Joker to Obama's Batman.

I'm not a Newt Gingrich fan, but this is ridiculous.

Video.



Transcript, from NewsBusters:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Let me finish tonight with the Joker. Remember him? He was played by Jack Nicholson in that great “Batman” movie by Tim Burton. He was the key to the movie. Why? Because his dark world of malevolence and revenge set in contrast the goodwill, generosity and glamour of our hero. He was to the movie on the bad side what Batman was on the good. Batman stands on tall buildings looking for evil to be perpetrated, people to be saved. The Joker looks for ways to manipulate public opinion, interrupt the TV news, and bring his evil intentions and motives and instincts into reality.

Maybe the President today is our Batman, trying to do good, a bit mysterious, a bit cool and technocratic, a bit removed from the world of emotions, but right, right there on the side of good, always using his brains and wit to look out for the people in trouble. Well, maybe he's not that good.

No, Newt Gingrich is a far better Joker than Barack Obama is our Batman, that wide demonic smile of his, too much smile, not even a twitch of heart behind it, all guile, all dark delight in the menace he can dredge from the afternoon newspaper, the fears of people on the street, the midnight dread of what might be coming in an uncertain world and time.

Newt Gingrich, like all the bad guys of the Batman world, has now gotten caught up in his own nasty ploys. He’s just so instinctively looking for the next chance to attack he loses control even on his own bad attitude. “Life’s been good to me,” the Joker tells us on his comeback from the past, his face repainted to cover the horror, his smile deluding none of us instead being an unintended warning.

The joker is out there again, and no one's safe from his menace, least of all himself.

Matthews has really gone off the deep end. It's almost scary. He's so over the top.

The funny thing is Gingrich isn't the comic book villain Matthews makes him out to be.

Instead, Matthews is the joke.