Chris Mathews Admits to Being a Fidel Fan Boy

“I want to remind everybody, so many people who remember or read about in history, he was a romantic figure when he came into power. And when he knocked off the corrupt dictator Batista we American, young high school kids and kids in those days rooted like mad for the guy. We thought here was this guy in fatigues with a beard coming in out of the country side, leading a revolution and swept aside this old corrupt regime. And he was going to be almost like a folk hero to most of us for many months....He would go on Meet the Press, he would go on the Jack Paar show —  which was a forerunner of the Tonight show, Jimmy Fallon show — and he would be a figure that you’d look up to and say ‘God this guy is great!’ And then, of course, he began executing people and joining the Soviet side.”
— Hardball host Chris Matthews during MSNBC live coverage of Castro’s death in the morning of November 26.