Two MSNBCs in One!

And no, that’s not necessarily referring to the size of their viewership*:

In a segment of “PoliticsNation” last year, host Touré informed MSNBC’s small audience that the term “lazy” is one of those racist code words conservatives use to attack President Obama*. He and Al Sharpton were discussing a portion of Fox News President Roger Ailes’ biography, in which he suggests Obama is lazy. ”[Roger Ailes is] one of the most powerful voices in the country, and he’s attacking President Obama,” Sharpton complained. Touré then explained why it’s not OK to use the term in reference to black people: “This sort of ‘lazy’ term is something we heard flung at us as black people going back to slavery,” he said, “which, of course, you know, we perceive them as being guilty of not wanting to work. Of course they didn’t want to work. They were slaves.”

—“Eight More Things You Didn’t Know Are Racist,” the Daily Caller, August 8th, 2014.

Chris Matthews criticized President Obama for being “intellectually lazy” and “listening to the same voices all the time” on Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s Hardball. Matthews singled out close Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett and even First Lady Michelle Obama.

“Let’s get tough here,” Matthews said. “Is this the problem of a second term that presidents get lazy, intellectually lazy, and cut off from the country and they start picking deputies for jobs instead of looking for the best people?”

“The lazy thing to do is somebody leaves, you promote their deputy. This is, I think, part of the endemic problem of second terms,” Matthews observed.

“Presidents should go out and look for people,” Matthews said about the lack of fresh blood in the White House. “Or else they get atrophied into that little world of people like Valerie [Jarrett] and Mrs. Obama and you’re just listening to the same voices all the time.”

Yesterday, Matthews criticized Obama for claiming it was “unlikely” that a case of Ebola would occur in the United States.

“The president said it was unlikely two weeks ago. Well, it’s not the unlikely, it has happened. It’s here,” Matthews said.

—“Chris Matthews: Obama Getting ‘Intellectually Lazy,’ ‘Atrophied’ By People Like Valerie Jarrett, Michelle Obama,” RealClear Politics, today.

* Though when the network’s best demographics in two weeks is a marathon of Lockup reruns,  it might as well.

** Yes, I’m as shocked as you are over the sort of person who would say there’s a laziness in Obama.