I’m posting this for two reasons.  One, everyone’s talking about it anyway.  Two, the sheer nonsense from Chris Matthews in this segment killed those brain cells I used to have that would have otherwise kept me from posting it.  Be warned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yiet_fyN_ng&feature=player_embedded

I think Matthews is actually right.  Here’s the Romney campaign playing the race card earlier this month:

What?  Joe Biden’s campaigning for Obama?  Could have fooled me.

Like Matthews, I don’t really get the joke from Romney’s Michigan speech, but it’s very clear that it was meant as a joke.  That’s as far as I go with Matthews.  If debate over federal programs like welfare are suddenly evidence of latent racism, then we should end the program altogether so as to keep it from being a topic of national debate.  Absurd?  So is Matthews’ blanket assertion that discussing Obama’s executive order that weakened the bipartisan welfare reform signed by Bill Clinton into law amounts to a racist attack on Obama.  What’s next?  Will discussing the failure of Obama’s stimulus bill be racist?  Discussing an unemployment rate of 8.3%, a U-6 number back over 15%, and the lowest civilian participation rate in 30 years?

Matthews obviously doesn’t want any discussion of Obama’s record, and wants to scare Republicans away from it by toxifying those issues as raaaaaaaaaaacist.  The aromas of desperation and fear are strong in this clip.