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Chris Matthews Calls Palin a ‘Dead Shot,’ But Unedited Video Suggests Otherwise

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by Tommy Christopher | 3:44 pm, December 7th, 2010

» 21 comments

MSNBC isn’t normally a network that you’d associate with being “in the tank” for former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, but a recent Hardball segment certainly makes it look that way. Leaving aside the relevance of hunting expertise to governing, Chris Matthews presents an edited clip of Palin downing a caribou on Sarah Palin’s Alaska, then holds forth on the image-making potential of the image, and finishes by praising Palin as a “dead shot.”

As a review of the full clip demonstrates, however, Palin’s true shooting prowess lies somewhere south of the Mendoza Line, which proves as much about her qualifications to be President as John Kerry‘s windsurfing proved about his: nada. (h/t Teresa Kopec)

While Hardball can certainly be forgiven for presenting an edited version of the caribou hunt (the show’s only 60 minutes long), there was nothing preventing Mathews, et al, from mentioning the fact that Palin missed five times, and had help reloading. They could also have pointed out that the successful shot was made with a different gun, a possible indication that the first gun was poorly-calibrated.

More than all of that, though, they could have pointed out that the United States currently doesn’t elect a Caribou-Killer in Chief, or in John Kerry’s case, a Windsurfer-in-Chief, and that this kind of focus on image-making, real or not, is what’s wrong with the political media.

Here’s the Hardball clip, along with the real, shot-by-shot video of the aforementioned caribou hunt: (from MSNBC and TLC)

fake, Hardball, hunting, John Kerry, Mendoza Line, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin's Alaska, Spalaska, TLC

Atticus Draco

My love for this woman grows everyday
Thanx Mediaite!
Harry Flashman

Sigh.

The scope was off on the other gun (“poorly calibrated” in liberal-don’t-know-shit-about-guns speak). Her dad had fallen carrying it earlier in the show. Scopes are touchy. After changing rifles it did, in fact, only take one shot.

Note to Tommy and the rest of those who don’t have a clue about this subject….. It’s not unusual to have a guide load your weapon in a hunt. Nor is it unusual for a man to load a lady’s rifle. It’s a man thing. You wouldn’t understand.

One more point. So…”.the United States currently doesn’t elect a Caribou-Killer in Chief”. No, Tommy. What we did was elect a soft handed beta-male, spineless, inexperienced, truth-challenged liberal-in-chief.

How’s that working out for ya?
BatBoy

It just wouldn’t be a day without Tommy getting a lick in on Sarah Palin.

Knowing how to “Shoot the s*it” is much different than knowing how to shoot a carribou.

I have a suggestion for you Tommy, why don’t you fly up to Alaska, get dropped off in the middle of “BFE,” find and take down a carribou. They write about it. Oh, and do it with one shot.

Until then, all you lefties do is sit on the sidelines and throw stones.

Like Draco said…Sarah grows bigger every day and the left, no matter what they sling at her, just bounces off.
Atticus Draco

BatBoy said:
Like Draco said…Sarah grows bigger every day and the left, no matter what they sling at her, just bounces off.

I think she’s kewl man
Sarah’s is one of the kewlest chicks EVER!

i watched the show,, i was proud of her!!!
Atticus Draco

Atticus Draco said:
BatBoy said:
Like Draco said…Sarah grows bigger every day and the left, no matter what they sling at her, just bounces off.

I think she’s kewl man
Sarah’s is one of the kewlest chicks EVER!

i watched the show,, i was proud of her!!!

When she quoted Ted Nugent ,, I LOST IT,, i aint lyin
GAWD SHE ROCKS!
gar

It just wouldn’t be a day without Tommy getting a lick in on Sarah Palin. Add in his racist columns and that’s the only way he would get any comments. Got to give him credit, keeps going to the well and we keep watering him.
valkyrie101

Atticus Draco said:
My love for this woman grows everydayThanx Mediaite!

That is precisely the idea, draco.
BlackWidow

Atticus Draco said:
My love for this woman grows everydayThanx Mediaite!

Yes, we know what you are in love with and it certainly ain’t her brain!! ;-(
valkyrie101

Harry Flashman said:
Sigh. The scope was off on the other gun (“poorly calibrated” in liberal-don’t-know-shit-about-guns speak). Her dad had fallen carrying it earlier in the show. Scopes are touchy. After changing rifles it did, in fact, only take one shot. Note to Tommy and the rest of those who don’t have a clue about this subject….. It’s not unusual to have a guide load your weapon in a hunt. Nor is it unusual for a man to load a lady’s rifle. It’s a man thing. You wouldn’t understand. One more point. So…”.the United States currently doesn’t elect a Caribou-Killer in Chief”. No, Tommy. What we did was elect a soft handed beta-male, spineless, inexperienced, truth-challenged liberal-in-chief. How’s that working out for ya?

And yet, there he is still fighting three wars at once, trying to fix an economic mess that preceeded his arrival, while fighting a dysfunctional congress. While a whole contingent of Americans, including their chief spokespeople, literally pray for America to go down.
BlackWidow

Harry Flashman said:
Sigh. The scope was off on the other gun (“poorly calibrated” in liberal-don’t-know-shit-about-guns speak). Her dad had fallen carrying it earlier in the show. Scopes are touchy. After changing rifles it did, in fact, only take one shot. Note to Tommy and the rest of those who don’t have a clue about this subject….. It’s not unusual to have a guide load your weapon in a hunt. Nor is it unusual for a man to load a lady’s rifle. It’s a man thing. You wouldn’t understand. One more point. So…”.the United States currently doesn’t elect a Caribou-Killer in Chief”. No, Tommy. What we did was elect a soft handed beta-male, spineless, inexperienced, truth-challenged liberal-in-chief. How’s that working out for ya?

You sound like you are upset about the tax break Obama just gave you. You are so ungrateful!
Just4thefax

Fact: Liberals on this site debate the same as liberals do the world over like the video on this site.
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/11/04/how-leftists-argue/
Liberals just don’t get it!
philipjames

I’m serious…. is Tommy Christopher a man or a woman? The name implies man, but the tone of every article about Sarah Palin indicates woman. Bitchiness, carping, obsessive, moronic crapping about every thing that Sarah Palin does.
Has Mediate hired this Tommy to be the full time Palin beater?
At least Tommy conceded that her Dad’s scope must have been out of whack for her to miss those shots and then knock the caribou down with one shot with Becker’s rifle.

But, here is the most important thing everyone should take from this scene…. Sarah Palin was involved in the editing of the show. She let the whole sequence of her missing those shots stay in the episode. That tells me that she is confident in herself image and it tells me that she doesn’t give a sh*t if the left and the Palin haters know that she missed a few times. I guarantee you that if that had been a male politician or national figure in her place, most of the misses would have been edited out…. an ego and image thing (fragile ego thing).
Atticus Draco

BlackWidow said:
Atticus Draco said:
My love for this woman grows everydayThanx Mediaite!

Yes, we know what you are in love with and it certainly ain’t her brain!! ;-(

She’s ALL that plus,, wholesome,, genuine,, GOOD LOOKIN’,, and CONSERVATIVE,,,
SHE’S MY WET DREAM!!!!
There aint enough word gaffs in the world for me to disparage that woman
SHE’S A QUEEN

THAT TODD IS A LUCKY MoFo!!!

“C’mon babe,, let’s go hutin’!”
Good gracious

Imagine taking the Obama’s on a hunting trip,,
LOL
KILLJOY!

YOU IMAGINE TAKING THE OBAMA’S ANYWHERE?!?
BORING!

Yeah,, the obama’s are actually the kind of people that read the new york times,, ON THEIR DAY OFF
LOADS OF FUN!
Greg

Just4thefax said:
Fact: Liberals on this site debate the same as liberals do the world over like the video on this site.
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/11/04/how-leftists-argue/
Liberals just don’t get it!

And arguing with a conservative… summarized by the “Argument Clinic”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y
Nachi

Gotta love sick, twisted, needy little people who slaughter animals in order to salve their personal & mass failures, bitternesses, hatreds. The GOPster mindset in its glory. Duh.
Chuck from Tacoma

“Yeah,,the obama’s are actually the kind of people that read the new york times,,ON THEIR DAYS OFF”
That is part of what makes the man such an uneffective POTUS. Take in miss-information, spew out miss-information.
Notice, the woman (Palin) did not flinch a whit when firing either rifle. I have not yet watched the episode, but will this evening. Do we get to watch her field dress Rudolf?
Darklady

They could have mentioned that she doesn’t currently have a hunting or a fishing license, as well — and hasn’t for years.
http://www.armwood.com armwood

I do not think that any has ever accused Chris Matthews of being very bright!
murf

Nachi said:
Gotta love sick, twisted, needy little people who slaughter animals in order to salve their personal & mass failures, bitternesses, hatreds. The GOPster mindset in its glory. Duh.

armwood said:
I do not think that any has ever accused Chris Matthews of being very bright!

Greg said:
And arguing with a conservative… summarized by the “Argument Clinic”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y

Hi TRRK
humpty dumpty

Shooting a caribou is pretty much like shooting a cow – they just stand there as the bullets whiz by.
Magus

MSNBC isn’t normally a network that you’d associate with being “in the tank” for former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin

I guess you’ve never had the displeasure of watching Chris Matthews show before. Since the moment McCain chose her as his running mate, Matthews has been desperate to present Palin as something other than a total incompetent.

Harry Flashman said:
Note to Tommy and the rest of those who don’t have a clue about this subject….. It’s not unusual to have a guide load your weapon in a hunt. Nor is it unusual for a man to load a lady’s rifle. It’s a man thing. You wouldn’t understand.

Bullshit. If Palin were tenth the hunter she claims to be, she’d insist on loading her own gun. She wouldn’t have daddy load it for her and even work the bolt for her, as if she were a little kid being taught to shoot for the first time. Not that her father showed any signs of being a skilled hunter either.

Harry Flashman said:
One more point. So…”.the United States currently doesn’t elect a Caribou-Killer in Chief”. No, Tommy. What we did was elect a soft handed beta-male, spineless, inexperienced, truth-challenged liberal-in-chief.

How’s that working out for ya?

What we elected was the best president in at least 50 years. And it’s working out quite well, thanks.