In Which Chris Matthews Plays Dumb About the Bush Family's Legacy Deployment Strategy

Hardball With Chris Matthews (MSBNC)

MATTHEWS: I think Colin Powell once said to me—and I hope this wasn‘t off the record—I don‘t think it was—that all those leaders want their kids to succeed them. It ain‘t complicated. You have got Bashar, Bashar Assad in Syria. You‘ve got the son of Mubarak, who wants to move in there, and his daddy does, too. You have got Abdullah, who is the son of King Hussein. You‘ve got Saif Gadhafi, who is the son of Moammar Gadhafi. Everybody, they call themselves Baathists or presidents or kings. But all they want is their kid to get their job. What are they saying right now in the face of democracy?
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MATTHEWS: Is it hard for the son of an American president who is a president himself to argue against primogeniture?
(LAUGHTER)
TOM FRIEDMAN: Yes. I don‘t think it‘s a problem.
You know, I‘ve had Egyptian friends say to me, we would like to have Mubarak‘s son as president, but we want him elected the same way George W. Bush‘s son got elected as the son of a president...
(CROSSTALK)
MATTHEWS: Oh, that‘s sophisticated. So, they know he was elected.
FRIEDMAN: Exactly.
MATTHEWS: They know it wasn‘t just a succession.

Well, I can't speak for the Egyptians, but some Americans aren't so sure about its not being just a succession.--Grace