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McCain’s Ted Kennedy Moment: Flubs Softball From Matthews–Can’t Say What His Presidency Would Be Like |
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HardSoftball with Chris Matthews is making a “College Tour”. Yesterday,  Matthews spoke with (you can’t really call it an interview) John McCain at Villanova. Matthews had been bragging all day about how tough he would be on McCain (Matthews has made similar claims about his toughness as an interviewer in the past). The actual event did nothing to highlight Matthews’s interviewing ability, while it did reveal McCain’s inability to handle even the softest of questions, and produced an enormous gaffe that should focus attention on McCain’s readiness to be president.
The highlight, or lowlight, depending on your perspective, came at the end of the event, when Matthews asked McCain what his presidency would be like–”When you think about what your presidency would be like…paint a portrait…a big, iconic notion of a McCain presidency” (not Matthews’s exact words, but very close–no transcript available yet). McCain called it “a very tough question” and stalled for time by thanking the audience before making a rambling response. Ultimately, he changed the question around, pretending he had been asked how he would like to be remembered, and saying absolutely nothing about what his presidency would be like.
McCain’s non-response did make me think of something iconic–a 1979 interview in which Ted Kennedy couldn’t coherently answer the simple question “why do you want to be president“? Roger Mudd, who asked the question, remembers that Kennedy got “beat up in the press” for his “sort of hapless response.”
If the press is going to seize on this very telling exchange, it will take someone other than Matthews to tell the story. Matthews is a self-professed McCain fan and the Softball site is hiding McCain’s error by deceptively suggesting the key question was more generally about what McCain’s “legacy” would be like. If you watch the clip, you’ll see the question very specifically asked McCain what his presidency would be like, and McCain had no specific response.
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Roger Mudd didn’t as that question of Ted Kennedy, he asked it of George McGovern.
no, it was Ted Kennedy, in 1979: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Mudd
I listened to Roger Mudd give an interview last week on NPR talk about just that event. Now who are you going to trust. Roger Mudd or Wikipedia?
I trust Roger Mudd–here’s the transcript from his interview with Ted Kennedy, not George McGovern (this is linked in my original post by the way, but I have included the link again after the transcript excerpt. Mudd discusses, at some length, his interview with Kennedy):
MUDD: Why do you want to be President?
EDWARD KENNEDY: Well, I%u2019m %u2013 were I to make the announcement to run, the reasons that I would run is because I have a great belief in this country that it is %u2013 has more natural resources than any nation of the world, has the greatest educated population in the world, the greatest technology of any country in the world, the greatest capacity for innovation in the world and the greatest political system in the world. And yet I see at the current time that most of the industrial nations of the world are exceeding us in terms of productivity or doing better than us in terms of meeting the problems of inflation, that they%u2019re dealing with their problems of energy and their problems of unemployment. It just seems to me that this nation can cope and deal with its problems in a way that it has in the past. We%u2019re facing complex issues and problems in this nation at this time, but we have faced similar challenges at other times and the energies and the resourcefulness of this nation, I think, should be focused on these problems in a way that brings a sense of restoration in this country by its people to %u2013 in dealing with the problems that we face, primarily the issues on the economy, the problems of inflation and the problems of energy and I would basically feel that it%u2019s imperative for this country either move forward, but it can%u2019t stand still or otherwise it moves backward.
http://www.q-and-a.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1174
apologies for the text that got messed up when I copied and pasted–just check the link I included, and you’ll see that this was indeed an interview of Ted Kennedy by Roger Mudd.
I’m really tired of the free ride McCain is getting in the media. They go after Obama over things he didn’t even say (Wright) or take things he did say completely out of context (”bitter.”) McCain stumbles all the time and they never call him out on it.
I’m not for McCain, but I watched the video, and the question was more about how he’d be remembered. Matthews cited historical presidents and their sweeping caricatures. His response was nowhere near a flub.
Lowering the dialog like this is a dis-service to everyone.
If you’re for Obama, follow his example and stick to the high road. The high road is the shocking difference with this candidate and that’s why the electorate is energized after a long stupor.
Obamafan, that’s not correct. I gave nearly an exact quote of Mathhews’s question above. He directly asked McCain what his presidency would be like, and McCain did not answer rhe question. He gave absolutely no information as to what his presidency would be like. I find that remarkable. There is nothing about my post that lowers the dialogue in any way. I accurately reported in the exchange between Matthews and McCain.
Maybe McCain was just being honest. [Note: I did not see the show, watch Chris Matthews if I can avoid him, nor read the transcript] He, like everyone else, has no ability to tell the future, so how is he supposed to know how his presidency would play out? I know these leaders are supposed to have vision and be able to plan their first 100 days, but it is not like they are without opposition, no matter what they think. Sure, it would have been nice for McCain to say we are going to continue to occupy Iraq until the he can say “mission accomplished” for himself.
Also, he’s an old man - maybe he was just confused.
I could buy the confused theory…
thats cause hes the next king by g.w.,,an old time patsey..mavrike my ass..beltway savay more like it.