To all the millions of victims of superstorm Sandy, Chris Matthews has a message: “I’m so glad.”
The MSNBC host, on a panel of pro-Obama pundits including Rachel Maddow, ended election coverage overnight by saying he’s “glad” the storm hit, suggesting it served a greater good by boosting President Obama to a second term.
“I’m so glad we had that storm last week,” Matthews said, after interjecting to give some final thoughts. Somebody off-screen could be heard saying “ooo” at that remark, but Matthews confidently put his hand up to explain.
“No, politically I should say — not in terms of hurting people. The storm brought in possibilities for good politics,” he said.
The death toll from that storm, which caused billions of dollars in damage, now exceeds 100. Many in the path of the storm’s wrath — in New Jersey, New York and elsewhere — lost their homes or their cars or were otherwise displaced. The storm wreaked havoc on Election Day, as officials scrambled to facilitate the vote with many precincts facing power outages and fuel shortages.
Some analysts did say the storm boosted Obama’s image by allowing him to show a bipartisan side — reaching out to Republican Gov. Chris Christie, who publicly thanked Obama for the federal government’s support — and effectively sidelining Mitt Romney for a few days one week before the election.
Exit polls also showed about four in 10 voters said Obama’s response to Sandy was important to their vote, and they backed the president by more than a 2-to-1 margin.
Matthews, though, was oddly upbeat in describing the political impact. He made the Sandy comment after ripping Republicans for their “assault” on the president.
“I am so proud of the country. To re-elect this president and overcoming — not because of the partisanship or even the policies — just the fact, here’s an African guy, African-American guy with an unusual background — part immigrant background, part African-American background — with all this assault on him from day one. From Mitch McConnell, from the clowns out there that aren’t elected, never will be to anything,” he said. “And the way he took it, as someone said, with coolness and charm and dignity and just took it and took it and kept moving forward and doing his job. … A good day for America.”
more at Chris Matthews on Obama win: ‘I’m so glad we had that storm’ | Fox News.
It is twisted people like this who have their priorities all screwed up that voted for Obama. People who would wish death and chaos on others to get what they want.
I need to get drunk, this has been a sad and frustrating day, America just signed itself to the devil for 4 more years.
Just watched O’Reily Fox done a poll after the election 42% of those asked said Sandy affected they way they voted.
Matthews should be sacked for that comment. Who the does he think he is? What does he mean “politically”- totally meaningless statement. Real people, Matthews, freezing out there, real people lost everything.
A key element of Romney’s appeal, particularly after the first debate, was his ability to govern with Democrats in Massachusetts. Obama’s one-party strident approach, so much the opposite of what he pledged in his first national speech in 2004, had turned voters off. But by working seamlessly with an acerbic Republican Governor like Christie, Obama was able to blunt Romney’s advantage in this crucial area.
Sandy, in retrospect, stopped Romney’s post-debate momentum. She was, indeed, the October Surprise. She also stopped the swelling concern over the murders in Benghazi and let Obama get away with his coverup in which he pretended that a terrorist attack was, in fact, just a spontaneous demonstration gone awry.
Obama is the first president in modern times to win re-election by a smaller margin than that by which he was elected in the first place. McKinley, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, and Clinton all increased their re-election vote share significantly.
Obama’s dropped from a 7 point margin over McCain to a 1 point margin over Romney.
That he could get re-elected despite his dismal record is a tribute to his brilliant campaign staff and the shifting demographics of America. This is not your father’s United States and the Republican tilt toward white middle aged and older voters is ghettoizing the party so that even bad economic times are not enough to sway the election.
By the time you finish with the various demographic groups the Democrats win, you almost have a majority in their corner. Count them: Blacks cast 13% of the vote and Obama won them 12-1. Latinos cast 10% and Obama carried them by 7-3. Under 30 voters cast 19% of the vote and Obama swept them by 12-7. Single white women cast 18% of the total vote and Obama won them by 12-6. There is some overlap among these groups, of course, but without allowing for any, Obama won 43-17 before the first married white woman or man over 30 cast their vote. (Lets guess that if we eliminate duplication, the Obama margin would be 35-13)
Having conceded these votes, Romney would have had to win over two-thirds of the rest of the vote to win.
He almost did.
But not quite.
If Romney couldn’t manage this trick against Obama in the current economy, no Republican could.