Seriously, with friends like these, you can get away with a lot of stuff:
Chris Matthews: But first the McCain story. We‘re joined by NBC‘s David Gregory and Andrea Mitchell. Anyone who covers politics is saddened by this story.
***MIKE BARNICLE, NBC ANALYST: Well, God—God, I hate this story, Chris. I hate it for what it does….
MATTHEWS: I hate it, too.
BARNICLE: I hate for the process—what it does to the process of politics. I hate it for what it does to the process of journalism.
There were at least two other occasions last night in which Matthews professed that the story about McCain was “depressing,” but I can’t find them. They were as he was cutting to commercial break, so maybe it was chopped. Or maybe I am misremembering.
At any rate, people have talked at length about how Hillary has to play under the “Clinton rules,” and that Obama has not. We will see what impact the McCain rules also have this election cycle.