I found this story through Crooks and Liars, and I'm just amazed at what an incompetent shrill Pat Buchanan is. Why MSNBC still has this guy on their political coverage amazes me.
First, the back story. This is from last night's MSNBC show Race to the White House, which was covering the Senator Hillary Clinton's win over Senator Barack Obama in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary. The panelists during this coverage were David Gregory, Eugene Robinson, Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan. Gregory brought up the question of Barack Obama "going the distance" in Pennsylvania, knowing that winning Pennsylvania was a long shot for the Obama campaign, and is a strong argument that Obama could bring to the super delegates. Maddow agrees with the statement, explaining that there are different motivations for voters in selecting candidates between the primary and general elections. Maddow explains that while Obama may not be winning in the big states, which are splitting the Democratic votes between both Obama and Clinton, Obama is winning in the money race, the pledged delegate race, and the enthusiasm race.
Pat Buchanan completely misses Maddow's argument. Buchanan believes that since Obama can not beat Clinton in Pennsylvania--even with Clinton's high negative poll numbers--then Obama can not beat Republican Senator John McCain in the general election. Maddow states that there is "no connection" between Obama's inability to beat Clinton, and whether or not Obama could beat McCain. Maddow claims that they are "two totally different kinds of races...."
Here is where Pat Buchanan totally goes off his rocker. From YouTube:
Look, let’s hold the Marxist dialectic.... I'm trying to figure out what Buchanan really meant by this asinine statement--aside from trying to put Rachel Maddow down since he not only couldn't understand Maddow's reasoning here, nor could he even counter Maddow's argument with his own reasoning. Instead, Buchanan reiterates his lame excuse that the super delegates are so worried that Obama can not beat McCain because Obama can't beat Hillary. What is even more amazing is the look of surprise on Maddow's face as Buchanan insults her with this crass statement. There is such an utter stupidity and contempt that Buchanan has with this insult to Maddow. What is worst, MSNBC allows Buchanan to get away with this crap because he is supposedly the "conservative commentator" for this panel. But the news is no longer about news--it is about political punditry. And if you can get a near-fascist wacko like Pat Buchanan on your network to spout some stupid, crazy insults as a means to generate ratings, you can bet that Pat Buchanan will continue on with this crap.
His argument was being defeated, so Buchanan had no recourse but to go back to his stock, all-purpose, now antique, ad hominem characterization: "You're a commie." But this isn't 1965, and the average viewer isn't going to be bull@#$*ed by that one anymore.
ReplyDeleteHello Chuck:
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you for your comment. To put this rather bluntly, Maddow ripped Buchanan's balls off and served it mixed with a bowl of hot, steaming beans. You're right that Buchanan had no recourse except by calling Maddow names that are just too complicated for Buchanan's shriveled brain. What is really sad is that MSNBC is allowing Buchanan to get away with this crap in their own race to the gutter of Faux News viewers and the advertising ratings. Instead of a decent analysis of the election that the American public could contemplate when they make their decisions in November, we get utter garbage coming from Pat Buchanan's mouth.
MSNBC lost me as a viewer.