Transcript: (via Media Matters for America)
From the March 31 edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe:
SCARBOROUGH: You know, Willie, the thing is, Americans want their president, if it’s a man, to be a real man. They — 1984, I remember Ronald Reagan goes to South Boston. He holds up that beer mug —
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: — in that South Boston pub, and everybody’s like, "He’s a real man," and I guess Barack Obama’s trying to do the same thing, too.
BRZEZINSKI: Stop it. Oh, come on.
SCARBOROUGH: Awful. Good Lord.
GEIST: He’s going to have to try a little harder than he did in Altoona, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night —
SCARBOROUGH: Oh my God —
BRZEZINSKI: Really?
SCARBOROUGH: Oh, this is awful.
GEIST: — at the Pleasant Valley Rec Center. He went bowling, and let’s just take a quick look at it here. I guess I’ll just give you the final numbers. Started out nicely, got the Velcro shoes.
BRZEZINSKI: Looking good, looking good.
GEIST: But then he started bowling. The score you’re really after in bowling is 300; that’s a perfect score.
BRZEZINSKI: Oh, OK.
SCARBOROUGH: That’s perfect score.
BRZEZINSKI: Good, good, good.
SCARBOROUGH: But, you know, if you get 200, you’re a good bowler.
GEIST: Sure. You know what?
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah. Two-fifty —
SCARBOROUGH: You get 150, you’re a man —
BRZEZINSKI: OK.
SCARBOROUGH: — or a good woman.
BRZEZINSKI: Stop it.
GEIST: Out of my president, I want a 150, at least. Barack Obama bowled — well, you can see his form here —
SCARBOROUGH: Hee!
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
GEIST: A 37.
BRZEZINSKI: Oh.
GEIST: That’s a three, next to a seven.
SCARBOROUGH: Baby, if you go to Altoona, Pennsylvania, on a Saturday night and you’re going to try to bowl —
SCARBOROUGH: Oh, that’s so dainty. Ugh.
GEIST: Get there, get there.
SCARBOROUGH: What a dainty —
GEIST and SCARBOROUGH: Oh!
BRZEZINSKI: A gutter ball, that’s like me bowling.
SCARBOROUGH: That is such a dainty release.
GEIST: If you’re the president, you want — you don’t want them to have to put those bumpers in the gutters.
SCARBOROUGH: Look, here we go, look at this. OK.
BRZEZINSKI: All right now.
[Scarborough squeals]
GEIST: Oh, it’s like a children’s birthday party.
BRZEZINSKI: OK, guys.
SCARBOROUGH: I’ve got a feeling he —
BRZEZINSKI: That was useless and stupid and [unintelligible].
SCARBOROUGH: — he didn’t go bowling in Cambridge that much. That’s a guy that’s been studying a lot of — reading a lot of books.
[…]
FORD: One thing I thought he did a great job of this week — he’s done a lot of great things but —
SCARBOROUGH: Not bowling.
FORD: No.
SCARBOROUGH: Have you ever bowled before, Harold?
FORD: I do, I have.
SCARBOROUGH: You ever bowl?
FORD: I’m embarrassed to say, but I do.
BRZEZINSKI: Harold, make your point.
FORD: My other point is just —
SCARBOROUGH: No, no, I’m curious. If you were running for president in Altoona, Pennsylvania —
FORD: They can walk him through —
SCARBOROUGH: He got a 37 —
FORD: — feed milk to him —
SCARBOROUGH: Harold, he got a 37 bowling in Altoona, Pennsylviania.
BRZEZINSKI: Oh, Harold.
GEIST: So sorry.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
FORD: He probably shouldn’t do that again, but I tell you, it showed a human side to him. I mean, it showed a very humble side to him.
SCARBOROUGH: Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
BRZEZINSKI: He is a politician.
SCARBOROUGH: A very human side? A prissy side.
BRZEZINSKI: Oh, stop it. Now, that’s just not nice.
SCARBOROUGH: Anyway, make your point.
FORD: He’s a heck of an athlete, by the way.
SCARBOROUGH: Is he really?
FORD: Actually, heck of an athlete.
SCARBOROUGH: It sure didn’t look it, the way that he was just —
BRZEZINSKI: Oh my God.
SCARBOROUGH: He was pushing it this way, right there.
BRZEZINSKI: You have to take it and run with it, Harold.
FORD: But he looked like — I mean, he looked like folks, he looked like an American. A Pennsylvanian — he looked like someone, day in and day out —
[crosstalk]
BRZEZINSKI: No, no, no.
SCARBOROUGH: He was bowling in his tie —
FORD: — except the bowling. The bowling hurt it.
BRZEZINSKI: Harold, take my advice.
FORD: The bowling — I mean, I thought it was 137. You sure it was 37?
SCARBOROUGH: It was 37. That is awful.
BRZEZINSKI: You have to — there is no way. There is no way out of this one.
[…]
SCARBOROUGH: So Harold, so Harold, though —
FORD: He’s my buddy. I can’t believe you make me laugh at –.
SCARBOROUGH: But you say he’s a good athlete?
BRZEZINSKI: He’s a dancer.
[crosstalk]
FORD: He’s a heck of a basketball player.
SCARBOROUGH: Is he really?
FORD: Heck of a basketball player.
SCARBOROUGH: OK.
FORD: As a matter of fact, I spent a little time with his brother-in-law over the weekend who can also play.
BRZEZINSKI: I’d think you’d have a hard time against him —
SCARBOROUGH: How tall is he?
FORD: How tall is Barack?
SCARBOROUGH: Yeah.
FORD: Barack’s probably 6’2".
SCARBOROUGH: Really?
FORD: 6’2", 6’3", yeah. He’s a big guy.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah.
SCARBOROUGH: Well then, I better be quiet because —
FORD: Yeah, probably.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah, I think you should.
SCARBOROUGH: I mean, I’m bigger than he is.
BRZEZINSKI: I still think you should be quiet.
FORD: You should reach out to a bowl-off.
SCARBOROUGH: I’ll challenge him to a bowl-off. But basketball — he looks like he’s in pretty good shape. I would just have to post low.
GEIST: Right.
FORD: And I’d throw him a pass on you, too. I’ve seen you. I think he could probably take you down the sideline on a post route.
BRZEZINSKI: O
h no. Please don’t, don’t don’t don’t go there. You didn’t just do this.
[crosstalk]
SCARBOROUGH: Wait, wait. I’m sorry? You talking football now?
BRZEZINSKI: Guys —
FORD: I mean, that’s one sport y’all can still play at Florida —
[crosstalk]
SCARBOROUGH: I’ve got 5 yards.
BRZEZINSKI: Harold?
SCARBOROUGH: I’ve got 5 yards, bump and run. He’s not going down the field.
FORD: Oh, Joe.
SCARBOROUGH: You know what my nickname was in college?
BRZEZINSKI: Oh, Lord, help me.
SCARBOROUGH: The "Round Mound of Rebound." On the basketball court, you just go low and lean.
BRZEZINSKI: Yeah, well, 15 million Big Macs later, I don’t think that name applies, honey.
[…]
SCARBOROUGH: Let’s bring in right now David Axelrod, he’s chief strategist for the Obama campaign. David, we have to ask a question, what did you know, when did you know it —
BRZEZINSKI: And what were you thinking?
SCARBOROUGH: What were you thinking? Why did you allow your candidate to bowl a 37 in Altoona, Pennsylvania? America waits for your answer, sir.
AXELROD: Well, if you’re going to bowl a 37, Altoona’s a good a place as any, Joe. No, listen. I think it was tremendously insightful of the candidate not to try and show up any of the other bowlers there.
SCARBOROUGH: I’ll tell you what —
AXELROD: I mean, that’s the kind of political sophistication that you want —
GEIST: There you go.
AXELROD: What’s worse, I mean, listen, what made that worse was that right after that, Hillary Clinton revealed that she had bowled a 300 with the prime minister of Uzbekistan. So —
SCARBOROUGH: Oh, here we go.
[crosstalk]
BRZEZINSKI: Oh, that’s harsh [unintelligible]. David —
SCARBOROUGH: I’ll tell you what, that is some spin, my man.
BRZEZINSKI: No, you didn’t.
SCARBOROUGH: First of all, you say he got the 37. That’s why he gets the big bucks. He says —
AXELROD: So he didn’t bowl 10 frames, Joe. He didn’t bowl 10 frames, and as he’s proven, he’s a strong finisher.
SCARBOROUGH: Oh, OK.
AXELROD: So —
BRZEZINSKI: No. David?
AXELROD: Let’s put the whole thing in perspective.
From the 10 a.m. ET hour of the March 31 edition of MSNBC Live:
HALL: Well, Barack Obama — his friends say he’s a whiz on the basketball court and he can hold his own on the dance floor — and he’s got a gift, of course, for speaking. But one thing Barack Obama cannot do, and I think it’s official — he can’t bowl. Mr. Obama scored a 37 when he hit the lanes this weekend. And yes, he bowled all 10 frames. That’s impossible. Well, voters in Pennsylvania will give him some pointers for his effort.
I do sometimes catch his show in the mornings. But I think the guy is a fucking dick, quite frankly. Someone who picked on kids in school, a spoiled rich kid who thought he was something big. I would love to see nothing more than some beat the living fucking shit out of Joe right on the air, on his own show.
I honestly do not know how Mika Brzezinski puts up with it. I wouldn’t, I’d bitch and have his ass fired. He’s said so much offensive stuff to her, as a woman, it is unbelievable.
He’s the kind of Republican, that I cannot stand. The kind with the "I am better than you", Attitude.
Others: No More Mister Nice Blog, The Reaction, The New Republic, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES and Gateway Pundit