I didn't get a Full Matthews, but this passage from a NYT article did give me chills.

[krkaufman]

(But if questioned, I'll attribute the chills to the humidity and breeze blowing in the office window.)

A reporter reads aloud from the novelist Darryl Pinckney’s essay in The New York Review of Books. Mr. Obama, the novelist writes, “comes across as someone who stored away for future consideration practically everything that was ever said to him, and who had a talent for watchfulness, part of the extraordinary armor he developed at an early age.”

Mr. Obama nods. That’s intriguing. But he prefers his own riff, which not incidentally trains the eye not on him but on his crowds. “I love when I’m shaking hands on a rope line and”— he mimes the motion, hand over hand — “I see little old white ladies and big burly black guys and Latino girls and all their hands are entwining. They’re feeding on each other as much as on me."

He shrugs; it’s that distancing eye of the author.

“It’s like I’m just the excuse.”

From NYT: Barack Obama: Calm in the Swirl of History
June 4, 2008
By MICHAEL POWELL

[cags]

1. Ye shall know them by their fruits...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

4. Amen

profound observation by Obama.

[cags]

10. and I do mean all the fruits... even the rotten ones

[Arugula Latte]

2. Obama is all about empowering other people

whereas Veruca is all about empowering herself and her posse of nutty, delusional "advisors."

[ellacott]

3. A full Mathews

That's funny. :)

[blm]

16. 'a full Matthews" is a keeper. Like "Friedman unit" but not the same use of unit as Matthews' unit.

heh

[HCE SuiGeneris]

5. Thanks for painting that picture. This brightens the day considerably!

:kick:

[Tinksrival]

6. Wow!

I love it! He's not just an excuse but a catalyst.

[crickets]

12. Powerful pictures. Thanks for posting those. -nt

[ChrisMatthews]

7. HA!!

[ellacott]

9. ..

:)

[myrna minx]

28. Welcome to DU, newsman Chris Matthews.

;-)

[cyndensco]

8. I sense that he really likes to meet and greet.

[krkaufman]

11. Yeah, he really waded into the crowds last night ...

... to the point that the MSNBC pundits commented on it.

[FrenchieCat]

13. Aye!

[Thrill]

18. Is that picture last night?

[Labors of Hercules]

27. WOW! What an impact that picture has!

It shows something else that I thought was amazing when Obama was working the line here in Chapel Hill, NC as well... the secret service folks are SO good at handling people without force. It was almost like watching a well-choreographed dance to see them in operation. :wow:

[crankychatter]

14. I have to tell you 'THE FULL MATTHEWS" deserves a Wiki page of it's own - nt

I'm totally jealous

[mamalone]

15. wow... just wow....

thanks for sharing.....

[Veruca Salt]

17. The words are powerful...

and the pictures in this thread are beautiful. Thank you for a lovely post! :applause:

[KittyWampus]

19. the Full Matthews? LOL! New addition to the DU Lexicon

[scarletwoman]

20. Thank you for posting that article, and thank you for coining the "Full Mattews".

Two wows in one post -- great job! :thumbsup:

Rec'd,
sw

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

21. A "Full Matthews" -- that's a keeper!

:rofl:

[bhikkhu]

22. That's a fantastic article, and Obama's observation is profound

“I see little old white ladies and big burly black guys and Latino girls and all their hands are entwining. They’re feeding on each other as much as on me."

He shrugs; it’s that distancing eye of the author.

“It’s like I’m just the excuse.”

That's a wonderful thing to say - the power lies in us, not him - and its hard to imagine another person who could have said it as well.

[truedelphi]

24. My husband and I have both remarked that

in the beginning, and maybe until about a month ago, any time he was near a crowd that was going nuts over him, he looked mildly astonished - Like how the heck is this even happening?

[Chimichurri]

23. How profound. The more I hear him speak, the more I like him.

[eridani]

25. Reminded me of the lines from The Color Purple

http://kimbelina134.blogspot.com/2007/02/any-god-i-ever-felt-in-church-i-brought.html

"Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did, too. They come to church to share God, not find God...

People at those rallies want to be with each other as much as to hear Obama, maybe more. If you are white and you've mostly been at antiwar rallies for the last 5 years, you've found some social solidarity with a far more diverse group of people than you are used to being with in large public gatherings. I imagine that for black people and other racial minorities it must feel pretty good to be around that many white people who aren't looking at you like they were store detectives.

[krkaufman]

26. "who aren't looking at you like they were store detectives"

chuckle. That recovered well.

[KittyWampus]

29. kick

[fadedrose]

30. Beautiful quote

[Bluerthanblue]

31. this attitude- this humility evidenced

in his 'take' on the way people flock to him... speaks to what makes this person so ideally suited to lead us out of our 'bush' ordeal.

Thank you for posting this-

peace~