Must-see TV: Chris Hayes' excellent spot on last night's Rachel Maddow Show.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Hayes: Media, conservatives don’t get that U.S. has changed

By David Ferguson
Thursday, February 9, 2012 8:25 EST

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/09/hayes-media-conservatives-dont-get-that-u-s-has-changed/



On Wednesday night’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Rachel and Chris Hayes of MSNBC’s Up with Chris Hayes took on the recent outcry in Washington over, of all things, birth control. Conservatives claim that it’s unfair that a provision of the Affordable Health Care Act mandates insurance coverage for contraceptives, a measure that some Catholic institutions like hospitals and universities find objectionable.

During the discussion, Hayes pointed out that time and again, Republicans react with “hysteria” over parts of the bill that they portray as draconian interventions by the “jack-booted” state into the affairs of businesses and individuals. The truth, he said, is that most of the measures and provisions in the bill are more suggestions that states adopt programs which many of them have already implemented.

The two hosts agreed that administration went out of its way to make most of the Affordable Health Care Act’s guidelines “small-c conservative,” fitting them in with established precedent. In Washington, however, opponents of the law would rather see their candidates run on “culture war” issues that the electorate resolved long ago.

Watch the clip, embedded via MSNBC, below:

[Firebrand Gary]

1. Thank you, thank you, thank you

for posting this. Chris did an amazing job of discussing this issue with Maddow. I hope everyone on DU watches the clip, runs is up the board with recs.

Really, this is a video that should also be shared via email and on Facebook.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. It was so simple, and so spot-on.

He just NAILED it. It really is "must-see TV."

[bullwinkle428]

2. This, along with Rachel's segment the previous night, in which she layed a complete

smack-down of the "old boys club" mentality so pervasive in the MSM, was an utterly brilliant counter-argument to the "ZOMG...why do they want to alienate teh Catholics??!?!1!?" hysteria.

[immoderate]

3. Hayes has established himself quickly. Soon, SNL will go after him.

Chris is great.

--imm

[Surya Gayatri]

5. This guy's so smart it's almost scary...

encyclopedic facts and figures at his finger-tips (plus a great sense of humor).

His brain seems to get ahead of his tongue sometimes--he needs to slow
it down just a bit for the average TeeVee viewer.

His weekend shows are "must-see watching" as Rachel said.
SG

Edit: wrong fact