Olbermann, Maddow & Matthews Report on President's GOP Debate

Something very unusual happened yesterday in politics. The Democratic President stood--alone--and answered the questions of an all GOP House of Representatives delegation. It was aired unedited on national television. I've never seen anything quite like it. Even my mother, an arch-right, reflexive Republican had to concede that it was impressive (though she thought he looked "uncomfortable").

MSNBC, which usually airs Countdown with Keith Olbermann and The Rachel Maddow Show between 5 and 7 (here in the Pacific Time Zone) instead combined those two programs with a dash of Hardball with Chris Matthews, and aired coverage of the event along with analysis. I saw this referred to derisively as an "Obama love fest," which is a typical charge against MSNBC. Forget that the network airs a three-hour morning show starring a conservative. Forget that if you actually watch their left-leaning commentary shows, you know that the hosts regularly and forcefully criticize the President and other Democrats. MSNBC's slogan is "The Place for Politics," not "America's Most Trusted News Source," or even "Fair & Balanced."

The commentary by Matthews, Olbermann and Maddow (particularly the latter two) is most assuredly from a left-leaning standpoint. And in this particular case, there was little to criticize from the President's performance. I personally agreed with their analysis, and thought much the same as they did based on what I saw. And I'm quite disappointed with much of the President's year in office. It was, I thought, one of the better cable news specials I'd seen in a while, and I'm glad they aired it this way (rather than cutting away like cowardly FOX "News" did). Take a look.

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