Ending his Hardball program tonight with his Let Me Finish segment, Chris Matthews went on an all out rant on Mitt Romney. Wow! If you missed it, I've transcribed every word:
Let me finish with this Romney character. I don't think Romney cares all that much about the presidency, except that he wants it. If he weren't running, do you think he'd be watching this show or any other show on politics? Mitt cares about three things: his faith, his family, his business. Right now his business is running for president. That's why he's interested in the presidency. It's his business to be interested.
"This Romney character?" Not a person, a character. I think what Chris is trying to say here is that Mitt cares about the presidency in the sense that somebody cares about winning a trophy. It's a prize for him, not a calling. He's not running for president because he has any great desire to help improve the lives of as many people in this country as he can.
Listen to him answer questions. If the interviewer doesn't ask the most obvious thing, something that Mitt's briefers have been over and over with him, he seems stunned. He doesn't have an answer. Why? Because he never thought of that one.
Have you been noticing those stunned looks too?
Fact is, he hasn't thought about many things outside his zone of interest, which again, includes his faith, his family, his business. And this is the most dangerous thing about this guy. Since he doesn't have a foreign policy, he buys the foreign policies of the powers that be. So he sings this song of his neo-con so-called advisers. What they really are, of course, are people who advocate a point of view: The need for a new war with each new Republican president. And they need someone in the White House to push it for them. They need a president who speaks their language, so they write his speeches. They want war with Iran, they just put that in the next speech.
This, as I said, is the dangerous part. We've had experience with a president who came to office with an empty head on foreign policy and bought the entire neo-con pitch, hook, line and sinker. The result was: the one war in this country's history that truly deserves a Dunce Cap.
We've heard President Clinton quoted a lot about the fact that the economic policies of a Romney presidency would be Bush on steroids. Haven't heard much about the foreign policies of a Romney presidency being Bush policies on steroids. How many wars can the neo-cons persuade Romney to start in four years?
Mitt won't say a word about taxes that Grover Norquist might disapprove. He won't approve any deal to cut spending that Grover won't say okay to. That doesn't make Mitt a leader, it makes him Grover's Rover. Grover says fetch; Mitt fetches. Grover says beg; Mitt begs.
Same with the religious right. Mitt won't say a word that the Pat Robertson/Franklin Graham crowd hasn't approved for his political prayer book. There he was down at Liberty University getting an honorary degree. Now, I didn't know they gave honorary degrees for pandering.
The scariest thing about Mitt Romney is that he really is open for bids. He's sold his soul to every right-wing faction that's out there: the neo-cons on foreign policy, the religious right on social policy, Grover on the tax issue. Why have a brain if you don't have to think? With this crowd around, his only job is to do exactly what he's told. He's done just that. Listen closely. Tell me if you've ever, ever heard Mitt Romney say something that's not pluperfect right-wing talking points. The exact words that pressure groups are telling him to say. This guy isn't a candidate. He's a speaker system.
How can anybody take this Romney character seriously as somebody capable of leading this country? This man who has three things in his head: his faith, his family, his business. He's been bought and paid for, and if you weren't one of the ones paying the tab, you're out of luck.
The video is now available online, and here it is: