Chris Matthews: O'Reilly Has a Problem With Race

You'd think a guy who puts his foot in his mouth as often and deeply as Chris Matthews would have a little sympathy for Bill O'Reilly, but no.

Last night, during a discussion of Michelle Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention, the Hardball host rehashed O'Reilly's infamous comments about Sylvia's Restaurant and accused him of being the sort of conservative white man who would never vote for an African-American candidate.

"Let`s talk about ethnicity," said Matthews. "I figured there`s about one in five white guys who have a problem with race and openly in their own heart will admit. They'll just say it to themselves, I'm not voting for a black guy."

Matthews noted that Michelle Obama's speech was "the beginning of a selling process to say, we aren't who you think we are....It's like Bill O'Reilly going up to Sylvia's up in Harlem and saying, they use knives and forks." (This was a reference to a story O'Reilly told on his radio show that was meant to be complimentary of the black middle class but was widely interpreted as condescending toward blacks.)

"I would put him in that other fifth maybe," Matthews said, apparently meaning the 20 percent who wouldn't vote for a black candidate. Then, perhaps realizing that he'd gone too far, he quickly added, "I don't know which fifth. Sorry, Bill."

Ironically, Matthews experienced his own Sylvia's moment in the very same segment. Talking about Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama, he unleashed this bizarre torrent of faint praise suggesting that Mrs. Obama, who attended Princeton and Harvard Law, is to be commended for staying off welfare and out of jail:

They've done everything right. They have great kids. They worked their hearts off. They make it their profession. They work hard. They play by the rules. They don't live off welfare. They don't commit crime. They don't live on affirmative action. Everything's based upon self-reliance and achievement.

Yes, but does she curse when she orders iced tea?