The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[Alex]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

ETA: What the hell does it mean when Chris Matthews says "For an hour I forgot he was black"? I can't think of anything that makes that a good thing to say. If some conservative commentator said that I believe there would be hell to pay.

While one may disagree with his point, or with its significance, what he was trying to say seems perfectly obvious to me when I watch the video with that sentence in the context of what he was saying.

I don't know if you saw the context or just the eight word link on Drudge (I know you prefer to react and then let us provide he context) but what he was saying is that to him (Matthews) it is remarkable how after the history surrounding race in this country that the fact that Obama is black is essentially irrelevant to the conversation is amazing.

"For an hour I forgot he was black" = "The fact that he's black was completing unimportant to the tone, content, and nature of his speech tonight, and after all the tension over race who would have thought that was possible so quickly."

I imagine he's going to be forced to grovel but it strikes me as unwarranted. And if a conservative commentator said the same thing, I also wouldn't have a problem with it. But by same thing I mean same meaning, not same words, those same six words could obviously be used and have a very different meaning. "Since he gave such a long speech without once slipping into jive talk, for an hour I forgot he was black tonight" for example.