How DARE He Drink Orange Juice!

[kpete]

"Media Matters"; by Jamison Foser


There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke


Chris Matthews and David Shuster focused like a laser on the things that really matter:

MATTHEWS: He's (Sen. Barack Obama) not that good at that -- handshaking in a diner.


SHUSTER: No --

MATTHEWS: Barack doesn't seem to know how to do that right.


SHUSTER: -- he doesn't do that well. But then you see him in front of 15,000 people in some of these college towns, and that's why, Chris, we've seen Chelsea Clinton and Bill Clinton in Bloomington and South Bend and Terre Haute. I mean --

MATTHEWS: What's so hard about doing a diner? I don't get it. Why doesn't he go in there and say, "Did you see the papers today? What do you think about that team? How did we do last night?" Just some regular connection?

SHUSTER: Well, here's the other thing that we saw on the tape, Chris, is that, when Obama went in, he was offered coffee, and he said, "I'll have orange juice."

MATTHEWS: No.

SHUSTER: He did.

And it's just one of those sort of weird things. You know, when the owner of the diner says, "Here, have some coffee," you say, "Yes, thank you," and, "Oh, can I also please have some orange juice, in addition to this?" You don't just say, "No, I'll take orange juice," and then turn away and start shaking hands. That's what happens (unintelligible) --

MATTHEWS: You don't ask for a substitute on the menu.

SHUSTER: Exactly.

MATTHEWS: David, what a regular guy. You could do this. Anyway, thank you, David Shuster. I mean, go to the diners.

The mind-blowing inanity of this conversation can't properly be appreciated through the transcript. When Matthews said "No" in response to Shuster's revelation that Obama ordered orange juice in a diner, he sounded as though he had just been told that Obama had punched a nun in the face.

When CNN's Candy Crowley suggested after the 2004 election that John Kerry's attempt to order green tea in an Iowa restaurant showed a "disconnect" between the presidential candidate and "most of America," it seemed unlikely that we would see a sillier attempt to find meaning in a candidate's beverage choice. Not only was Crowley taking the elitist attitude that simple Iowans couldn't possibly be familiar with green tea, she was also wrong. The Kmart in Dubuque, Iowa, stocked Lipton's green tea.

But last night's exchange between Matthews and Shuster was far worse. Offered coffee, Barack Obama asked for orange juice instead. And Chris Matthews and David Shuster pounced, aghast that he would dare do such a thing as ask for orange juice. A preference for orange juice was supposed to demonstrate that Obama is out of touch with "regular" people. (For what it's worth, neither Matthews nor Shuster so much as hinted that a single, actual voter who was in that diner was put off by Obama's interest in orange juice. But Matthews and Shuster were upset enough for everyone.)

more at:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200804110009

[tekisui]

1. And they get paid for that shit?

[Eurobabe]

2. The media gets more irrelevant and ridiculous by the day.

What will they say when Gramps McInsane orders prune juice? :rofl:

[JBoy]

22. LOL! That was good.

[flor de jasmim]

3. Maybe he was supposed to say, "Make that a latte...."???

This is a little microcosm of what makes Obama different -- he doesn't go for the symbolic, but for the real. Taking coffee when you don't want it (and leaving it behind because you didn't want to drink it) may fulfill some symbolic expectation, but asking for (and presumably receiving) an orange juice that you drink (at least I imagine he did) would have ultimately been more pleasing to the diner owner, who provided something Obama actually wanted.

At least that's my reading of it.

[Life Long Dem]

4. Which will it be coffeegate or orangegate?

And this will be just as damaging as the bittergate. So now you know how little damage this will do. It's just all talk. Maybe bait to get Obama a bit riled up for a larger catch.

[tularetom]

5. Nothing is funnier than watching these millionaire pundits

pontificate on what does and doesn't appeal to "regular guys" and "real Americans". They wouldn't know a regular guy if he bit 'em in the ass.

[Bolo Boffin]

6. This was a great big billboard from Matthews and company:

"Please, John McCain, start talking about how elitist and out of touch Barack Obama is! We wanna, we wanna, we wanna! Give us the red meat, Mr. McCain!"

And so in the "bitter" storyline, what does John McCain say? "This shows his condescension and elitism."

The media has decided to do to Barack Obama what they did to Al Gore and John Kerry. The narrative has been established - Barack Obama is out of touch and elitist. He's looking down his nose at you, America. He dares to feel sorry for you... wait, that's Tom Robinson's "mistake" in To Kill A Mockingbird.

And it's the same damn thing it's always been.

[DearAbby]

29. Tom Robinson's "mistake" in To Kill A Mockingbird.

:wow: just wow. I had never thought of it in that context. How dare Obama (insert black man) feel sorry for poor white folks. jesus, isn't there anything they do, that doesn't smack of racism?


edit to correct morning dyslexia

[Window]

7. That's it. Matthews and Schuster are really DEAD to me now.

I stopped looking at 'Morning Joe,' and I can't stomach David Gregory's show, Hardball nor Dan Abrams, so MESS NBC is on life support, because I still like about one half of Keith's show. Pretty soon I'll be at DO NOT RESUSCITATE.

I am so glad I wasn't tuned in when they said this shit...I might have broken my TV.

What assholes.

[boston bean]

8. HA, I can't stand Matthews, Shuster and KeithO, at this point you are correct, they are

nothing but media hacks.


And I use to love and respect KeithO and Shuster, Matthews is a loser most of the time.

[roseBudd]

9. If Obama drank a cup of joe at every stop he'd be dehydrated

[AllentownJake]

10. What I don't get

Is they had Orange Juice...so someone is drinking it at the diner.

[chinchillo]

11. Chris Matthews own three Mercedes Benz

He doesn't care about candidate who are for the poor.

[BearSquirrel2]

13. We all forgot the true Matthews barometer ...

If Obama wants to get on Matthews good side, he'll go to a drug store and walk out with a case of old spice. Then he'd go to the leather store so he could dress like a cowboy. And then ... lots of beer ... domestic. That is, it would be from some small brewery out in the "territories".

Matthews problem is that he is about 100 years too late for writing political columns for leading civil war publications.

[BearSquirrel2]

12. May be but ...

That may be it will certainly get him lots of votes in Florida !!!! :thumbsup:

[Warren Stupidity]

14. They get paid well for being complete assholes.

Somedays I wake up and understand the French Revolution's Reign of Terror quite well. Not that I am bitter or anything.

[Berry Cool]

15. This is just so absurd, and I thought at least Shuster knew better.

Tweety likes to wet himself with excitement, thinking that he KNOWS that how a presidential candidate behaves in a diner is make-or-break in terms of establishing himself as a man of the people. Um, yeah, it might be really tin-eared for Obama to say or do certain things in a diner, but asking for orange juice instead of coffee, simply because he really wanted orange juice? Is that the best they've got? Really?? They have to whip that up into proof that he just hasn't got a clue???

It's like the bowling thing. "Ooh, Obama sucks at bowling, this is proof positive that he's out of touch with the average blue-collar voter." Um, no, maybe it just proves that he's UNCOORDINATED AS HELL. Sheesh.

I'd hate to see him in a softball tourney--I'm sure they'd give him extra demerits for "throwing like a girl."

And they'd tell you "Don't think this stuff doesn't matter. It ALL matters. Because IMAGE IS EVERYTHING. BECAUSE THE VOTERS CARE MORE ABOUT THIS THAN THEY DO ABOUT THE ISSUES."

Why spend time addressing what the man says, when all that matters is what kind of drink he orders in a diner, or how good he is at bowling?

[ErinBerin84]

17. I've kind of thought

David Shuster was toolish ever since his "This is hilarious...it's almost like the Price is Right!" comment in the documentary Control Room.

[ginnyinWI]

18. I blame Tweety more than Schuster.

Schuster is somewhat of a chameleon--changes colors depending on which pundit he's with. He can be very good with Keith.

Tweety is Washington Beltway Insider all the way. Whenever you want to know the Beltway reaction, tune in to his show. The phrase "out of touch" totally applies to this guy.

When he talks, I can't help but picture him in a housedress and cap, hanging washing out on the line in the backyard, and talking over the fence to his neighbor about the latest gossip. Because that's what he does--gossips for a living.

[ErinBerin84]

19. yikes

Oh my god...I'm going to picture Chris Matthews in a housedress whenever I see him from now on!
I often picture Pat Buchanan as the grumpy old man who turns his water hose on kids who try to cut through his lawn.

[ginnyinWI]

25. Buchanan--he certainly is an old crank

I have some relatives that he reminds me of. Conservative and constantly unhappy.

[K Gardner]

16. I thought this was a joke post. Dear lord. TURN THE TV OFF !!

[alphafemale]

20. Wait a minute.... This actually happened?

:rofl:

[Frank Booth]

21. Why does Matthews act like he knows what a "regular guy" is?

Matthews is one of the strangest people on television. He's over 60 years old, but he acts like he's about 13. He can't sit still in his seat and he's always spitting all over himself. This is the guy who tells us what "regular" is?

[caledesi]

23. Not this time! - no distractions - just REAL issues! NT

[TexasObserver]

24. Matthews ... he's the guy who groped Ellen, right?!

One of the biggest geeks in America thinks Obama isn't cool enough.

He's a tool.

[aquarius dawning]

26. Obama should reject OJ because everyone knows that OJ kills.

[jillan]

27. I *think* they were referring to manners.

Personally, I don't know what proper etiquette is on the campaign trail...
since I've never campaigned for anything other than girl scout leader :P

[ErinBerin84]

30. yeah, I kind of understood where they were going...

But still...I think the more appropriate response would be "No thank you. Could I please have some orange juice instead?", rather than "Yes, thank you. Oh, can I also have orange juice in addition, blah blah blah." Why take the coffee if you're not going to drink it? I'd be pissed off if I were the waitress, and everyone took coffee, even though they didn't drink it. That being said, I also could never imagine Chris Matthews or David Shuster in a diner. If I ever do, I'm going to stalk them and go all etiquette police on their asses.

[quakerboy]

28. Stop the Media misogyny against Clinton

Its just wrong...


Oh. Oops. Wrong thread. Anyone have some OJ? No? Too expensive for the little people, I guess. Well, have a nice day everyone.