In "Eight for '08" series, Chris Matthews Show followed McCain gush-fest by bashing Hillary Clinton

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200612050003

Summary: Two weeks after gushing over John McCain's likely presidential bid, the host and panelists on The Chris Matthews Show concluded that some of Hillary Rodham Clinton's greatest perceived strengths as a presidential candidate were really weaknesses.

On the December 3 broadcast of the NBC-syndicated Chris Matthews Show, guest host and NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell hosted a discussion on the potential presidential candidacy of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), continuing the show's "Eight for '08" series, in which the likely candidates from both parties are examined. In contrast to the commentators' discussion of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) on the November 19 installment -- which consisted of host Chris Matthews and his guest panel gushing over McCain, as Media Matters for America noted at the time -- this broadcast saw Mitchell and her panel conclude that some of Clinton's greatest perceived strengths were really weaknesses.

Hillary Clinton's establishment problem ...

Discussing Clinton, Mitchell noted, "one big plus is that she is an establishment favorite. Flip side of that? She's so familiar there's that 'been there, done that' factor. ... nobody's more establishment than Hillary." Time columnist Andrew Sullivan also asserted that Clinton is "still radioactive blue. And people don't want to go back to polarization." He later added, "{S}he's also a terrible politician, isn't she?" Time columnist Joe Klein agreed, "Yeah, she is."

New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller also said that "one of the biggest -- the developing theory now among Democratic activists -- is that it's going to be a lot harder for her to get the nomination than it would be for her to win the general election ... Democrats have notoriously been very tough on their front-runner establishment candidate since the '70's."

But on the December 4 edition of MSNBC News Live, Cook Political Report editor and publisher Charlie Cook told Mitchell, "I don't think among Democrats the people are going to be deciding who the nomination goes to. I don't think that's an open question anymore. I mean, generally speaking, she runs with favorable ratings among Democrats, between 70 and 80 percent -- I think the lowest number I've seen was a NBC/Wall Street Journal poll that had her running at 66 positive. She's got very, very good numbers among Democrats, and they don't seem to think it's a problem."

... vs. McCain's establishment credentials

[LittleClarkie]

1. That's not a bash. It's not favorable, but it's not a bash.

People often mix up criticism with bashing. They are indeed different.