Dan Rather: 'Obama couldn't sell watermelons'

Ex-network anchor Dan Rather is back in the news again, this time after using President Obama and watermelons in the same sentence.

The odd comments came on the "Chris Matthews Show" last weekend, when Matthews desperately tried to talk over the former CBS newsman's free-wheeling opinions.

The video was posted by the Media Research Center:

Rather said, "Part of the undertow in the coming election is going to be President Obama's leadership. And the Republicans will make a case and a lot of independents will buy this argument. 'Listen he just hasn't been, look at the health care bill. It was his number one priority. It took him forever to get it through and he had to compromise it to death.' And a version of, 'Listen he's a nice person, he's very articulate' this is what's been used against him, 'but he couldn't sell watermelons if it, you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic.'"

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Rush Limbaugh brought up Rather's comments on his radio show today, saying it doesn't matter if the former anchor suggested it was something a Republican would say.

"There's cross-talk at the end on the state trooper line, and, yeah, some of you have written me notes. 'Don't you understand that Rather is saying this is what Republicans would say?' Of course he said Republicans are going to say this. It doesn't matter. Republicans have not said it. Dan Rather did."

Geoffrey Dickens, a senior news analyst at the Media Research Center, said Rather "stepped on one mine after another in the racial minefield that exists when talking about the nation's first black president."

The exchange developed after Matthews asked whether Obama's health care reform legislation will become law.

Rather said, "Yes, because what we have now is basically a Republican health care bill, if it gets through. It's, it's got a lot ... but I think the president finally putting his whole sack in on it, yes he wins but it's not a certain thing."

After comments from a few others on Matthews' show, Rather chimed in again with his watermelons comment.

Commented Dickens under the Media Research Center's "Bias Alert," "While Rather may not have been intentionally racist one has to wonder what the reaction would be if a conservative had used similar language on the show."

At the Mediaite blog, a forum participant said: "My favorite part is how Matthews tries to cut him off, knowing what a pile he'd just stepped in. Priceless!"

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At the Washington Examiner, Mark Hemingway opined: "I'm not exactly a fan of the PC police, but it looks like Gunga Dan should have been a tad more thoughtful here," he said. "For the record, I don't think that remark was racially charged so much as just another one of Rather's annoyingly affected Texas aphorisms run amok. Lucky for Dan he's not Republican or conservative or else people would really be sharpening their pitchforks about now."

Rather has been famous, or infamous as the case may be, for the "Ratherisms" he's produced over the years.

At the Political Humor website, there's a compilation of his statements during the 2004 election day coverage, including:

• "This race is hotter than a Times Square Rolex."
• "His lead is as thin as turnip soup."
• "This race is hotter than the Devil's anvil."
• "Ohio becomes like a sauna for the two candidates. All they can do is wait and sweat."
• "No question now that Kerry's rapidly reaching the point where he's got his back to the wall, his shirttails on fire and the bill collector's at the door."

Rather, who was with CBS 44 years, retired not long after the 2004 election at odds with the network purportedly over contract negotiations.

But CBS itself reported that his departure "was clouded" by his role in CBS' flawed story about President George W. Bush's National Guard service.

In a September 2004 "60 Minutes II" piece, Rather displayed documents that purported to show Bush received preferential treatment in the Texas Air National Guard.

CBS News and Rather defended the story even though the authenticity of the paperwork was questioned immediately.

Later, an independent panel found CBS News "failed to follow the basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of the piece."