And so we come to the final act of HopeandChange, wherein Democrats can do little but hope that voters won’t punish them at the polls in the midterms for overspending and ignoring the damage they did to the economy over the last two years — and guess who wants to lead the Wish Upon a Star Strategy?  None other than our friend Chris Matthews on MSNBC, giving us a demonstration of the network’s journalistic detachment from partisan politics in this clip noted by The Corner’s Thomas Shakely.  That’s not really the news here; despite the complaints of bias about Fox News, everyone knows that MSNBC’s prime-time lineup is dedicated to Democratic Party spin.  What’s amusing in this instance is the forlorn hope that Matthews creates in order to complete his little syllogism (emphasis mine):

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Let’s take a look at this. Suppose the Democrats win in Pennsylvania – with Sestak. And I hope they do. Suppose they win in Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire. Will that suggest to you, it seems to me from your work here, that that could be a surprisingly pretty good year for the Democrats, given all that’s happened?

Yes, I suppose if Democrats win lots of races, it will be a good year for them, but that’s a mighty big if. Sestak trails by almost double digits in Pennsylvania, and Barack Obama’s approval rating is upside down in the state he won handily two years ago. Republicans lead in Ohio and Missouri, and will probably be favored in New Hampshire once the field is settled, since Democrats will be running current Congressman Paul Hodes — and Congressional incumbents are hardly the most popular people in the country at the moment.

Will Matthews concede that losing those four states will be a referendum on “all that has happened” over the last two (or four) years of Democratic control, too?