Chris Matthews: Obama Plans to be 'Next Mandela'
By Mark Finkelstein | November 9, 2015 | 8:42 PM EST
Gag me with a vuvuzela . . . You say, Obama and Mandela. I say, Obama taking flirty selfies at Mandela's memorial service with the Danish PM, much to Michelle's displeasure.
But not Chris Matthews. On this evening's Hardball, Matthews said that Obama's post-presidential goal is to be "the next Mandela." You've got to be [insert unprintable modifier] kidding me!
The next Mandela? What does that even mean? Mandela was the courageous man who spent decades in jail and led his oppressed people toward equality and democracy. Obama is a coddled faculty-lounge liberal whose greatest deprivation was running short of Choom Gang ganja. Exactly what can he lead anyone to? I do buy into one thing Matthews said: that after he gets out of the White House, Obama is "not going to be Mr. Democrat." No doubt. It'll be all about Barack.
REPORTER: Climate change. The president last week decided to oppose, to reject, the Keystone pipeline.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Apparently, he decided to do that two or three years ago.
REPORTER: I think that's very possible, but they finally announced it last week, and it's coming up ahead of him going to Paris in a few for an international climate change conference. And I asked the White House today, what else do you have to go to go to that conference with thatyou can sort of encourage the rest of the world to reduce global warming? And Josh Earnest said, we may have a little bit left up our sleeves. So watch for that.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: So you think they held this to be close to the big meeting over at Paris?
REPORTER: I think they wanted it done before Paris. Because that's something that could have been a vulnerability for the president.
MATTHEWS: I think it's part of his four, five legacy pieces he's going to be campaigning on the rest of his life.
REPORTER: Definitely.
MATTHEWS: That and Cuba and health care, a lot of a part of who he wants to be around the world: the next Mandela.
REPORTER: And so will his successor if it's a Democrat.
MATTHEWS: Anyway, I think he's going to live in New York as a launching pad for a world figure. That's my theory of Obama. He's not going to hang around. He's not going to be Mr. Democrat.
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