Chris Matthews: a Dead-Eyed, Fawning, Sycophant

Mission Accomplished: A look back at the media's fawning coverage of Bush's premature declaration of victory in Iraq.

On May 1, 2003, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln aboard an S-3B Viking jet, emerged from the aircraft in full flight gear, shaking hands and hugging crew members in front of the cameras. Later that day, Bush delivered a nationally televised speech from the deck of the Abraham Lincoln in which he declared that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended," all the while standing under a banner reading: "Mission Accomplished."

Arguably, the most nauseating talkinghead coverage of the event came from MSNBC's Chris Matthews. Get your air sickness bags ready. Here are a few of Matthews remarks:

MATTHEWS: What's the importance of the president's amazing display of leadership tonight?

MATTHEWS: What do you make of the actual visual that people will see on TV and probably, as you know, as well as I, will remember a lot longer than words spoken tonight? And that's the president looking very much like a jet, you know, a high-flying jet star. A guy who is a jet pilot. Has been in the past when he was younger, obviously. What does that image mean to the American people, a guy who can actually get into a supersonic plane and actually fly in an unpressurized cabin like an actual jet pilot?

MATTHEWS: Do you think this role, and I want to talk politically […], the president deserves everything he's doing tonight in terms of his leadership. He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics. Do you think he is defining the office of the presidency, at least for this time, as basically that of commander in chief? That […] if you're going to run against him, you'd better be ready to take [that] away from him.

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you, Bob Dornan, you were a congressman all those years. Here's a president who's really nonverbal. He's like Eisenhower. He looks great in a military uniform. He looks great in that cowboy costume he wears when he goes West. I remember him standing at that fence with Colin Powell. Was [that] the best picture in the 2000 campaign?

MATTHEWS: The president there — look at this guy! We're watching him. He looks like he flew the plane. He only flew it as a passenger, but he's flown —

MATTHEWS: He looks for real. What is it about the commander in chief role, the hat that he does wear, that makes him — I mean, he seems like — he didn't fight in a war, but he looks like he does.

MATTHEWS: Look at this guy!

No Chris. Thanks to Media Matters for America, we're looking at you and it's not a pretty picture.