From Hardball Dec. 5, 2008, Chris Matthews opines over who should be leading the country right now even though Barack Obama has not been sworn in yet. Michael Smerconish and Phil Bronstein both give the logical answers that he's done about all he can do because we only have one President at a time and that there's not much more he can do without looking like he's meddling. Then Matthews goes here:
Matthews: Well let me put it to you forward looking now Michael and then Phil and ask the question. We had a loss of 533,000 this month, the highest loss in a third of a century. There's all signs that it's going to continue to get deeper and deeper. We're facing what looks to be a very deep economic trench ahead of us right now. Worse than under Reagan, worse than under, well going back, going back to Gerry Ford. It's going to get worse and worse. If the country sees this between now and Jan. 20th or some time in February, no one's our President and acting like it. Are they going to hold it against somebody and that person could be Barack. What do you think Michael? Will they hold them off? Will they hold it against him?
Smerconish: No. I think it's part of the Bush legacy. I don't think it's going to be something that will tar Barack Obama. I think that the public has already weighed in as to how they feel about this administration and it will be part of his legacy and not the incoming President. I'm clear on that.
Matthews: Phil?
Bronstein: Yeah, I mean I think he's got about a thirty second honeymoon and, where he can continue to blame the Bush administration. The problem is, is as Michael suggested, you know he's done a lot of things, he's named his team. It's been met with a lot of positive response, but you know, you can flap your arms and flap your arms and create a lot of wind but it doesn't mean you're going to take off.
Matthews: Yeah.
Bronstein: I think the expectations level will be huge the second he takes office.
They move on to discuss Bush's legacy rewriting he's attempting right now. It's so nice of Matthews and Bronstein to expect Obama to start cleaning up Bush's eight year mess either before he takes office, or after his thirty seconds of good will. And Matthews even has to ask if the American public won't realize who's policies got us into this mess? Who refused to regulate Wall Street and the banking industries? Hell any industry for that matter. The free markets will fix everything won't they Chris? Businesses will just behave on their own if you ask them nicely won't they?
George Bush gave the GOP a chance to take every single Republican ideal and use our country and Iraq to try to prove they work and yes I'm well aware it goes much further back than Bush and didn't start with him, but he got a chance to test those ideals unchecked in a way like none before him without going back to the Gilded Age. Well we now see what that's brought us, again. And you want Obama to fix it in an instant? It's going to take ten or twenty years to clean up Bush's mess, if we're lucky. I think Obama deserves a little more time than just thirty seconds of good will. If the entire country does not come together to fix this mess nothing is going to get better any time soon.
