Chris Matthews: Racist “Paleface” Voters In New Hampshire Are What Did Obama In
“Paleface.” That’s not offensive at all.
MSNBC host Chris Matthews didn’t just uncork his line on Primary Night about how New Hampshire Democrats would have displayed their racism to pollsters if they heard an “Archie Bunker voice” on the other end of the line. He repeated it on Wednesday’s “Morning Joe” show on MSNBC. He was upset at anyone who thought the pollsters and pundits were wrong about the Obama victory, when white voters lied to pollsters: “Methinks Paleface speak with forked tongue.”
Matthews declared he thought this was over in 2006: “I thought white voters had stopped being what they want to be. And you know what it tells me? People aren’t proud of who they are.” Host Joe Scarborough, asking Matthews to address the alleged bigotry in New England, drew out Matthews, the former top aide to Boston-area Rep. Tip O’Neill, to denounce the whole Boston area: “There’s different kinds of prejudice, as you know, in the north than there is in the south, but it exists. It may not be ‘I think I’m better than you,’ but it might be ‘I don’t want to live next door to you.’”
If we were talking about a white candidate who, say, hadn’t done well in Harlem would Matthews be so quick to blame racism?
There are literally dozens of potential problems with the polling in New Hampshire that could explain Obama having won in the polls but not the actual primary, and not one of them have to do with the primary voters themselves being racist, be that racism conscious or unconscious.
I think this is a refrain we’re going to hear more and more from the media. If Obama isn’t the nominee, it’ll be because “America isn’t ready for a black candidate” because we’re all subconsciously racist. Or something like that.
It’ll be baloney, but that’ll be the angle the media takes regardless.
