Matthews claimed Gore is an "elitist from the Northeast"

On the February 11 edition of NBC-syndicated The Chris Matthews Show, host Chris Matthews claimed that, if the Democratic Party "do[esn't] bring in some elitist from the Northeast [as the party's 2008 presidential nominee], which you had ... the last two times," Democrats "may well carry the country." Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee for president in 2000, is not from the Northeast. Gore was a senator from Tennessee when he successfully ran as the vice presidential nominee in 1992.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Tennessee, Gore's home state, is part of the census region identified as "South."

From the February 11 edition of the NBC-syndicated The Chris Matthews Show:

MATTHEWS: How about -- how about a simple theory that all the Democrats have to do is do no harm? In other words, don't present a candidate with a terrible personality --

KLEIN: Yes.

KAY: Yes. Yes.

MATTHEWS: -- who's a stiff --

KAY: Right.

MATTHEWS: -- and they can pick up states like Ohio, where working people are looking for a Democrat to vote for. They can pick up Iowa. Just don't bring in some elitist from the Northeast, which you had in the Democratic Party the last two times, and you may well carry the country.

O'DONNELL: Well, and one of the ways to judge is, look at how the Democrats won back the majority in the Senate, for instance, for the six seats that they won.

MATTHEWS: The guy with the crew cut from Montana -- the tractor.

O'DONNELL: Right -- Claire McCaskill from Missouri who campaigned in rural areas.

MATTHEWS: Regular people.

O'DONNELL: Regular people who appealed -- the authenticity issue.

KAY: And that's the authenticity issue that you were quite right about.

MATTHEWS: Bob Casey. You think this -- that Hillary does transcend the elitist candidacies of the last two times?

KLEIN: Only if this is an election about who you are and about what you believe and what experience you have. Hillary Clinton's only shot is if they don't think of her as someone from New York.

—R.C.