Following President Obama's State of the Union address, Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball, commented that Obama "is post-racial by all appearances" and added, "You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour."http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/01/27/msnbcs_matthews_on_obama_i_forgot_he_was_black_tonight.html

Matthews continued" "You know, he's gone a long way to become a leader of this country and passed so much history in just a year or two. I mean its something we don't even think about. I was watching and I said wait a minute, he's an African America guy in front of a bunch of other white people, and there he is, the president of the United States and we've completely forgotten that tonight. Completely forgotten it. I think it was the scope of his discussion, it was so broad ranging, so in tune with so many problems and aspects and aspects of American life that you don't think that you don't think in terms of the old tribalism and the old ethnicity. It was astounding in that regard, a very subtle fact, its so hard to talk about, maybe I shouldn't even talk about it."http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/01/27/msnbcs_matthews_on_obama_i_forgot_he_was_black_tonight.html

Chris Matthews clarified his statement on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show shortly after he made the remark, on the evening of January 27, 2010. Matthews asked to address "what I mentioned earlier tonight." Maddow allowed him to continue. Matthews then went on to talk about "how far we've come in the past year" and praised Obama for "taking us beyond black and white in our politics" in just the last year.http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/01/28/matthews_clarifies_his_black_comment.html