Chris Matthews Mildly Criticizes Obama for Opposing Keystone Pipeline

Chris Matthews Criticizes Obama, Albeit Mildly, for Opposing Keystone Pipeline (NewsBusters)

On the November 17 edition of Hardball, MSNBC anchor Chris Matthews and MSNBC contributors Howard Fineman and Eugene Robinson offered some criticism, albeit pretty mild, of President Obama's veto threat for a bill which would greenlight the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Of course, the criticism was couched more in a political perspective -- Obama stands alone even among Democrats on the issue -- rather than on policy merits -- Fineman insisted, for instance, that Keystone "doesn't make a whole let of sense" economically for the United States. 

"It seems to me that the country, overwhelmingly, per capita, is for this Keystone pipeline. They like energy, they like any job they can get. It's infrastructure to most people," Matthews observed, adding that President Obama is staking himself out as the "Lone Ranger" against Keystone with his veto threat of a bill likely to pass the Democrat-controlled Senate on Tuesday.