Chris Matthews rant re: Oval Office speech (video/text)

June 16, 2010

Day 58

BP posts

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Countdown – Chris Matthews, Howie Fineman, Keith Olbermann

Discuss the Oval Office speech. None of them are happy. Chris Matthews continues on with barry’s non commander-in-chiefness, Dr Chu’s Nobel Prize and the escrow fund. Other same-themed rants by Matthews.

OLBERMANN:

Nothing. Nothing specific. Nothing specific at all.

I did not hear in here about what he is doing.

Partial video. Full transcript with full video here.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Escrow:

MATTHEWS: He didn`t mention what power he has as chief executive of the country to make them understand they need to put this escrow account in third party hands….I`m amazed he just says he has that power.

Nobel Prize:

Why does he continue to say that the secretary of energy has a Nobel Prize? I mean, it`s almost gotten ludicrous.

I know I`ve mocked him for doing it, saying I`d barf if he did it one more time, but it`s not important. This meritocracy is going too far.

This I`m the new guy here, the head the MMS. I`m not sure whether these degrees are going to help or these awards from overseas. I think it`s interesting. We have a blue ribbon panel now that`s going to look in to what went wrong.

Can`t we move a little quicker than that, than to name a commission?

That`s what they`ve done here. Another commission and another guy mentioned — they mentioned for having a Nobel Prize. I think there`s a lot of meritocracy, a lot of blue ribbon talk here. References — you know what they don`t refer to, his cabinet.

Now, this is cabinet government like I`ve never seen before.

I asked Admiral Allen the other day, “Who do you work for?” Because there`s been concern in the Gulf as to the lack of a clear-cut chain of command, like the president of the United States, Rahm Emanuel, cabinet does what they`re told. Now, I asked Allen, “Who do you work for?” Well, he says, “I work for Janet Napolitano over at homeland security and then she sort of reports to the president.”

Wait a minute, isn`t the president calling the shots here?

And here he was delineating everybody`s job like Admiral Allen and he`s got this Nobel Prize guy and then he`s got this blue-ribbon panel.

I don`t sense executive command.

And I thought that was the purpose of this speech tonight, command and control. I`m calling the shots. My name is Barack Obama. I`m the boss. I`m telling people what to do.

I didn`t get that clarity.

And I think that command and control, a phrase that`s made — worked its way around the White House is essential here.

He must be chief executive. He can no longer be Vatican observer or intellectual or a guy calling in experts or naming commissioners or citing people for their Nobel prizes.

I think he has to be the boss.

And he never mentioned here anything beyond BP, like, aren`t there other oil companies that could help clean up this mess? You know, we`ve had Hofmeister on, the former Shell executive, saying you`ve got to get all these tankers in there, all these people out there skimming.

I don`t sense this as a real national effort yet.

OLBERMANN:

There`s another problem with that, which is that BP is still keeping people away from volunteering or keeping them from protecting themselves because

they don`t want the shots of people wearing gas masks trying to clean up the goddamned dispersant that`s making people fall and knock over.