MATTHEWS: Look, I think that may be true. I think the Hillary appeal has always been somewhat about her mix of toughness and sympathy for her. Let’s not forget — and I’ll be brutal — the reason she’s a U.S. senator, the reason she’s a candidate for president, the reason she may be a front-runner is her husband messed around. That’s how she got to be senator from New York. We keep forgetting it.
She didn’t win there on her merit. She won because everybody felt, “My God, this woman stood up under humiliation,” right? That’s what happened. That’s how it happened. In 1998 she went to New York and campaigned for Chuck Schumer as almost like the grieving widow of absurdity, and she did it so well and courageously, but it was about the humiliation of Bill Clinton.
… Obama’s campaign [is] a kind of campaign that it would be hard for anyone to run against…. For one thing, you have the press, which has been uniquely hard on her. It’s been a very sexist media. Some just don’t like her. The others have gotten caught up in the Obama campaign. If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position…. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.
As far as the media is concerned, it’s not about anything personal. It’s about knowledge and skill. They know they can’t have another puppet, so they have settled for someone who can only recite the liberal wish list, instead making policy, and someone naive enough to think he can unite the country and reform campaign finance. The Clintons are the greatest policy experts of our time and were too successful last time on behalf of minorities and the middle class. So of course the media hate them. It’s just sad to see how many people have internalized the smear campaign. People who key into such comtempt have serious issues. Educated folk are revolted by it.