On Tuesday’s Hardball, MSNBC host Chris Matthews voiced agreement with New York Times columnist Orlando Patterson, a Harvard sociology professor, as he read a passage from Patterson’s latest column during which the Harvard professor declared that, in watching Hillary Clinton’s recent campaign ad questioning Barack Obama’s qualifications for handling a 3:00 a.m. emergency, he "couldn’t help but think of D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, the racist movie epic that helped revive the Klu Klux Klan with its portrayal of black men lurking in the bushes around white society." Declaring that the ad reminded him more of "a 911 call than 9/11" with "a mother protecting her kids from a prowler outside," Matthews declared such an ad "would be racist." (Transcript follows)

Matthews brought up the column during a discussion with Independent Women’s Forum leader Michelle Bernard and Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page, both of whom are black but neither of whom agreed with Matthews on Patterson’s column, while discussing Clinton supporter Geraldine Ferraro’s recent charge that Barack Obama’s race was a factor in his electoral popularity. Matthews: "I want to throw some more wood on the fire here, because I agree with this guy. Orlando Patterson is a sociology professor at Harvard."

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