With the folks at MSNBC, it always seems to come back to race. Network host Ed Schultz failed to disappoint this morning when he appeared on Thomas Roberts's 11 a.m. Eastern
MSNBC Live and suggested that racism was partly to blame for President Obama's weak performance in the debate (video follows page break):
Look, I certainly am not going to bail out on the effort of the progressive movement in this country. This just makes it a little heavier lift than it is right now. It was just very frustrating to watch a guy lie to the American people and not be counter-punched because we're afraid he's going to be called an angry black man. When I see the president, I don't see a black man. I see a president who has inherited an untenable position and turned it around to a great positive to where we are right now. He has brought it down to 8 percent unemployment without any help from the Republicans.
The very next hour, on MSNBC's Now with Alex Wagner, panelist Michael Eric Dyson similarly suggested that fear of being seen as an "angry black man" held Obama back from forcefully debating and possibly winning last night's contest.
