Andrea Mitchell Claims Chris Matthews Has Big Ratings

CHRIS THE KINGMAKER

Silly Andrea Mitchell: Matthews Plays Key Role







What's in the drinking water at MSNBC? Rachel Maddow's bizarre, Chris Matthews-like moment wasn't the far-left cable talk outlet's only televised election night oddity.

During Maddow's special 11pm hour, guest Andrea Mitchell interrupted her review of Obamist talking points to make a bizarre assessment of the supposed political clout of Matthews himself that went well beyond professional courtesy and into the realm of the bizarre.

It's a moment that provides real insight into the warped sense of reality shared by Beltway media elitists:

RACHEL MADDOW (in 'Sestak marks changing of Pennsylvania guard'): Do you sense that the White House is worried about its ability to deliver political help to endangered Democrats come November?

ANDREA MITCHELL: Well, they ought to be if they're not and in fact we look at the results in Massachusetts, the results here, the bottom line is that at five o'clock tonight, Chuck Todd, who you're going to talk to in a minute, was on the air on Hardball, which is widely watched here in Pennsylvania, it's widely watched, of course, across the country, but Chris Matthews has a very special role to play in Pennsylvania and what Chuck was reporting is that the White House really was washing its hands of Specter and was feeling that Sestak could be more competitive against Toomey.

Chuck can speak for himself as to what his information was from the White House, but we were hearing this for days that from the Obama team in the White House, not from the vice president but from the president's team of political advisers inside the White House, that they felt that Sestak was a more competitive candidate and that in fact they were telling people here, don't expect the president to come back in and do some Hail Mary pass for Arlen Specter, which most people here think might have been effective, might have turned up the vote here in Philadelphia, because he did not get a big enough margin in Philadelphia to overcome the deficit in the rest of the state.

Huh? A shout-out to a colleague is one thing, but Andrea obviously hasn't seen Hardball's numbers: they truly stink!

In fact, Matthews is often the lowest-rated host of anyone on MSNBC, CNN or Fox, with Monday's 5pm airing as an example. On that day, he averaged only 87,000 viewers in the key 25-54 demographic. Does it get any worse than that?

Tuesday's numbers were a bit better, boosted by election night coverage.


In Andrea's elite fantasy world, where only rarefied air will suffice, Chris Matthews is a major political power broker. In America, however, he's bitter, angry and mean, a toxic combination thoroughly rejected by cable audiences from coast to coast.