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MSNBC commentator: West Point is "enemy camp"

Yes, liberal pundit Chris Matthews used that term to describe the site of President Obama's address last night on Afghanistan policy.

Matthews didn't detect "a lot of love" in the audience for the president.

Could it be the cadets and officers were just listening intently to a policy pronouncement that puts their lives on the line? What did Matthews expect, a pep rally? Good grief, what an idiot.

Later, Matthews admitted "maybe" he chose the wrong words, but then he reiterated his point that Obama simply picked the wrong location.

I disagree. The setting was appropriate. The cadets and others in the audience were respectful. This was a serious subject, not one to elicit "a lot of love."

And if Matthews listened to the speech, he should have understood that the enemy camps are in Afghanistan and Pakistan, not at West Point.

Those are the good guys up there, the people training to protect us from our enemies.

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Posted by Doug Clark on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 10:41 am

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DonMoore

December 2, 2009 - 11:29 am EST

Could be that the Cadets had enough control of their bodily functions that they could avoid that warm feeling Matthews has stated he has when he sees the President.

Doug

December 2, 2009 - 11:36 am EST

Matthews is passionate about his president.

histrion

December 2, 2009 - 11:42 am EST

Agree all around. I only heard the audio of the speech, but it certainly sounded like the cadets treated their CIC with the respect the office deserves. I think the choice of venue was apt and helped emphasize exactly what the President and the nation are putting on the line with his decision: our best and brightest.

I think it was the right decision, but I certainly don't begrudge Obama for being deliberate.

Doug

December 2, 2009 - 12:14 pm EST

The only issue about his deliberation is now the deployment of these 30,000 troops is on a fast track, which gives the impression that time is of the essence.

Connie Mack Jr

December 2, 2009 - 1:24 pm EST

Those are the good guys up there, the people training to protect us from our enemies.* Doug

Really? Looks more like the Military-Industrial Complex is more interested in finishing it's Police State empire by making the American people the " Enemies of the State"

Doug Johnson

December 2, 2009 - 1:22 pm EST

The only thing about Matthews, each time he makes a idiotic remark, he soon tops it.
Any is ratings are in the tank?

Dogwood

December 2, 2009 - 4:12 pm EST

I watched the NBC broadcast at 8 pm EST. I watched the PBS broadcast at 11 pm. This morning I heard some talker on NPR reflect that the cadets were not smiling. How touchy-feely crap invades the dignity of students evades me.

Dogwood

December 2, 2009 - 4:56 pm EST

I may be wrong. I think Chris Matthews attended UNC-CH. I think he was a Peace Corps volunteer in a troprical climate. I forget where or what he did as a young man. He talks fast and may have been malarial bitten.
He may suffer periods of delusion.

Doug

December 2, 2009 - 5:10 pm EST

You are not wrong. His MSNBC bio -- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080432/ns/msnbc_tv-meet_the_faces_of_msnbc -- indicates he did graduate work in economics at Carolina, but it doesn't say when.

He also was a PC volunteer in Swaziland in southern Africa 1968-70. He has had at least one bout with malaria, but he apparently contracted it on a much more recent trip to Africa:

http://peacecorpsonline.org/messages/messages/2629/1008953.html

KKennedy

December 2, 2009 - 5:20 pm EST

I noticed plenty of cadets jockeying for handshakes and photos with President Obama after the speech — a much more appropriate time.

paffsb

December 2, 2009 - 6:38 pm EST

Chris Matthews is a bully and does nothing to help the ratings...throw him out!

brian444

December 3, 2009 - 12:59 am EST

Ah, give the guy a break. Politically speaking, West Point is the enemy camp: those soldiers will vote predominately Republican (which is why Al Gore and other Democrats seek to disenfranchise them) and they have little use, by and large, for narcissistic leftists given to multicultural genuflection.

Of course it's a clumsy way to make the point, but you know what he meant, and it's a reasonable argument.

Doug

December 3, 2009 - 10:13 am EST

No break for Matthews on this. He really did Obama a disservice if any viewers get the idea that the president might feel the same way. If Obama regarded any military installation as an enemy camp, even politically, he would not be fit to serve as c-in-c. But I have seen no indication Obama does feel that way. Frankly, the White House should disavow MSNBC, declaring it isn't a "real news organization," and refuse to give interviews.

brian444

December 3, 2009 - 1:19 pm EST

You could say the same thing about Obama speaking in the "enemy camp" at the megachurch debate, or Bush at an NAACP convention. It's a metaphor indicating that the political/cultural tenor of the audience differs from that of the speaker.

IMO, Matthews is the only watchable figure on MSNBC. Certainly the only one whose opinions are occasionally unpredictable or interesting. And having watched him a fair amount over the years, this is entirely predictable: he's always casting about for analogies, metaphors, and comparisons, and half the time they come off half-cocked.

Doug

December 3, 2009 - 1:35 pm EST

Point noted, but this was an especially poor choice of words given the subject of Obama's speech -- the enemy he's sending more of our troops over to fight. Putting the enemy tag on West Pointers under those circumstances was beyond dumb.

Doug Johnson

December 3, 2009 - 7:34 am EST

In one year Matthews rating have fell 62%.
CNN once number one is dead last in cable ratings.
Maybe if they would carry climate gate?
Not a snowball chance in hell,you should never know the facts. Just confuse what's left of there liberal base.
Funny what reporting news does, maybe the newspapers and other cable stations should copy Fox!
However they are waiting for Henry Waxman to rescue them.

tonymo

December 3, 2009 - 4:54 pm EST

Unfortunately the America hating left does not believe that West Point cadets, almost all of whom will end in Iraq, or Afghanistan, are the "good guys." They believe the Al Qaeda "freedom fighters" are the good guys. Many, including our president's mentor, and minister said that we deserved to be attacked. Many on the left have preached that very same sermon ad nauseum. Those patriots at the military academies are the antithesis of the treasonous left that wants the destruction of this country.