I have to say first that this is one of Matthews less annoying interviews, because I guess if the President likes Paul Ryan even a little, then its ok for him to as well. But this interview was interesting to me on a few counts. First I have alot of respect for much of what Paul Ryan has done in the last year with Obama in office, however he does have a track record of that of a big spender. Don’t get me wrong, he’s no John McCain. But he did vote yes to the prescription drug bill in 2003, TARP, the auto bailouts, and taxing the CEO bonuses just last year. This presents somewhat of a problem for me in taking him seriously, but I must admit the he is very hard not to take serious right now. He seems right on the money with his ideas on how to take care of the health care problem and his analysis of the tricks and gimmicks in the ObamaCare plan. I do think his record could give him problems in a potential presidential run, but he’s not doing that anytime soon. Plus, go read his explanations on why he voted on most of what I listed above.
Secondly, what’s this obsession Chris Matthews has with Paul Ryan’s constituency all having PhD’s? What, because they understand the fiscal mess we are in means they are all graduated from Harvard with PhD’s? I really think it reflects his elitist attitude and it certainly shows itself when he makes these type of comments. I mean, if he feels this way about Paul Ryan’s district, then he must feel that there are some districts that are dumber than dirt. Care to name them Chris?
Lastly, the funniest line of the interview comes at 5:20 when Matthews said “Let me put a liberal hat on for a minute!” I literally LOL’d when I heard that. In fact, it’s really more of a socialist hat that is permanently attached to his skull. He then proceeds to say that he believes that not only are we, under Obama, trying to match Europe when it comes to being socially democratic, he then says it is a good idea. Wasn’t he just slamming Newt the other day for calling Obama a socialist? Either way, Ryan puts up a great defense of why we shouldn’t be more like Europe: