College graduates and blacks not "regular people" implies Chris Matthews

[Eric J in MN]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200804020001?f=h_top

CHRIS MATTHEWS: OK. Let me ask you about how he -- how's he connect with regular people? Does he? Or does he only appeal to people who come from the African-American community and from the people who have college or advanced degrees?

CLAIRE McCASKILL: You know, I think people forget about how well Barack Obama is thought of in southern Illinois. I know southern Illinois. They're our neighboring state. They're very much like the people in many parts of rural Missouri. These are working people, salt-of-the-earth people. And if these people of Pennsylvania will give him a chance and listen to him, I think they will be surprised how much they'll relate to him, both as a leader and as a person.

[Cali_Democrat]

1. consider me irregular then

;-)

[bunkerbuster1]

2. Tweety still has a job, why?

[book_worm]

3. he also ran well in rurual Iowa. But that's beyond the point. Matthews is always pitting one class

against another. Didn't he go to college?

[lumberjack_jeff]

4. 73% of americans do not have bachelors degrees.

Matthews question is on the money. Obama connects with "regular people" by getting his more smug supporters to shut their yaps.

[Cali_Democrat]

6. You need to shut your yap

[lumberjack_jeff]

15. Thank you for your input.

600 posts in one month? Prodigious. Welcome to DU. Hopefully you'll stick around to help pay the bills.

[SoonerPride]

7. President Obama will change that to 73% with Bachelor's degrees

Education should be freely available and not burden graduates with $100,000 in debt right out of the gate.

Vote for Obama and we'll fix the "regular people" and make them "special."

[BigDDem]

21. "we'll fix the "regular people"

"fix?"
Creepy.

[terrell9584]

36. If 73% of the population has Bachelor's degrees

Then you have just made the bachelor degree the new high school degree, meaning that Masters level becomes the new bachelors and so on and so on.

What we need are good paying jobs in this country that our people will be able to get without a degree. College is good, but not everyone can go and a Bachelor's degree should not be a requirement for being middle class..

The whole idea of the American dream was that a kid could graduate high school, get a job at the plant and on that one income alone have enough to support a family with a decent lifestyle, and even send said kids to college if they wanted to and that those kids would become wealthy with that degree.

It's a sad thing that we let that die.

And as for the whole "fix regular people" line, it's not worth addressing

[Eric J in MN]

9. And the 27% who do aren't "regular"? NT

NT

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. They would be exceptional...

... except those who, despite a college education, accept uncritically the idea of "optional universal" healthcare. They're irregular.

[SoonerPride]

13. Ironic that HRC wants to force eveyone to buy health insurance when she doesn't pay her bills

Maybe we should garnish her donations

[EffieBlack]

25. 81% of black Americans do not have bachelors degrees - shouldn't that mean blacks are more "regular"

than whites?

Why would Matthews exclude only college educated white people from his definition of "regular people" while excluding ALL black people from that category?

If he meant that college educated people aren't "regular" people, why did he differentiate black people, as well?

[boobooday]

28. Yeah, the "irregulars" seem to be a motley crew

And of course then there are the people, like Obama, who were born in one group and worked their way to the "irregular" category.

I did that, and I can relate. And "regular" people can relate to a country that provides that opportunity.

[LisaM]

40. Born in one group?

Didn't Obama's parents meet in college?

[lumberjack_jeff]

29. Yes. They are.

Working class values are american values.

[EffieBlack]

30. So, why would Matthews exclude them from his "regular people" list?

[lumberjack_jeff]

31. You'd have to ask him.

Possibly because Matthews thinks that Obama should take their votes for granted.

The boundaries around "regular folks" is arbitrary. My point is that a candidate who draws that boundary in a way that excludes people who lack a bachelor's degree does so at their peril.

[EffieBlack]

32. So you no longer believe his question was "right on the money?"

[lumberjack_jeff]

35. I concede the point to a degree.

"Right on the money" is a suboptimal choice of words. "Regular" may also be as well.

How Obama broadens his appeal beyond his core constituencies is a legitimate, and important, question for the campaign. Particularly in light of the appeals to exclusion among his supporters.

"Working class" in this country, is typical. Bachelor's degrees are atypical.

[EffieBlack]

39. I agree . . . I just have a real problem with Matthews dividing voters

based upon race in instances when race has absolutely nothing to do with anything. There is no reason for him to differentiate between "African-American" voters and "regular people" - unless he believes that African Americans AREN'T "regular people."

[pschoeb]

37. College Degrees include Associates Degrees, which I think would make 59%

of the US poulation over 25 has an Associates Degree or higher. So pretty "regular" if you ask me.

[lumberjack_jeff]

38. "you think?"

I can't find that stat. Can you please provide a link?

[ShaWee]

5. What if they're african-american AND a student. They must be monsters then huh?

[quantass]

8. Yes, we are :-) Grrrrr

[SoonerPride]

10. No, Tweety would say they were on the football team.

Or maybe the basketball team.

[ItNerd4life]

17. I fell in love with a monster then.

To bad she didn't feel the same way with me. Oh, she was the most beautiful monster I ever layed eyes on too.

[uponit7771]

24. ...they'll call us Muslims

[ItNerd4life]

12. Unbelievable! Blacks aren't regular people?

I can't believe he's not being fired for this type of statement.

[Irishonly]

20. If we made a list

of statements Tweety should be fired for, the list may extend from LA to New York City. I gave up trying to figure out why he is hardly ever disciplined.

[butterfly77]

14. This is what really irritates me about him

when he starts talking about the beltway and goes on to talk about the people surrounding the middle of the country as though we are nothing and our opinion doesn't matter and that the people in the middle are the mainstream people. He looks at things as though they were 30 or 4O years ago and sections them off into little categories. He and scarborough do this all the time and think that this is how the country really is pertaining to who they socialize with and what someone in one group or the other tells them.

They always portray all blacks as the same as they do Hispanics and other groups. THis country is more diverse than it was in the time period he portrays and their are a lot of people from each group who has some of the characteristics combined by race,religion,sex and regions. There are more mixed race families. Tweety doesn't know what he is talking about he should be replaced with Donahue...While I am at it they should replace Dan Abrams he is not the one to be picking and choosing the shows and their hosts...

[uponit7771]

26. Obama was talking to the mindsets of Wright and Mathews, they think it's 1965 racially

[NJObamaWoman]

16. IMHO More White Run Media.

This needs to be said and said often. MSM sucks and its catered around middle class whites. I am black with 2 B.A's and a Masters.

[uponit7771]

27. I don't even think it's the middle class they care about, most decisions are made by rich white male

...upper middle class folk when talking about the media as a whole.

[EFerrari]

18. His mouth just grew another shoe size.

:crazy:

[LisaM]

19. With graduation rates in the cities at under 50%, you may well ask this

In fact, I know a fair number of people without college degrees (for purposes of this discussion, I'm going to separate it from the race comment, which I think was uncalled for). I am in a small writers' group of six people. Three of use have degrees. We have one person with a law degree as well. I am the second most educated, with a BA and some post-gradudate credits (maybe about a year's worth, though I never officially entered graduate school, I took a number of graduate level classes). Next up, we have my SO with a BA, then his sister, with just several years of community college, another guy with about the same amount, and finally, one person with just a little amount of community college.

[BigDDem]

22. "regular people" = bad

"typical white person" = good

Sounds about right.

[uponit7771]

23. Yeap, saw that one too...the OR kinda sat in my craw...

[blogslut]

33. Chris Matthews is THE ONLY regular person in America

That is all. </snark>

[Bucky]

42. Because he eats his high-fibre hardballs every day?

That would certainly make me regular.

or maybe vomit.

[Catherine Vincent]

34. There will be a lot of white talk show people that will say some stupid

shit if Obama wins the nomination. Get ready.

[Bucky]

41. Does a double negative mean black college graduates turn back into normal?

What if a black college graduate gets a master's degree? Does that make them un-normal again, or do they quite altering status once they get that bachelor's? And since when did Chris Matthews become the yardstick for normalcy?