What people were saying when Bush declared "mission accomplished"

As we near the three-year anniversary of President Bush declaring "mission accomplished" on-board the USS Abraham Lincoln, here is an excerpt from a discussion on Hardball that very day:

MATTHEWS: Ann Coulter, you're the first to speak tonight on the buzz. The president's performance tonight, redolent of the best of Reagan -- what do you think?

COULTER: It's stunning. It's amazing. I think it's huge. I mean,he's landing on a boat at 150 miles per hour. It's tremendous. It'shard to imagine any Democrat being able to do that. And it doesn'tmatter if Democrats try to ridicule it. It's stunning, and it speaksfor itself.

MATTHEWS: Pat Caddell, the president's performance tonight on television, his arrival on ship?

CADDELL: Well, first of all, Chris, the -- I think that -- you know,I was -- when I first heard about it, I was kind of annoyed. It soundedlike the kind of PR stunt that Bill Clinton would pull. But and then I saw it. And you know, there's a real -- there's a real affection between him and the troops.

And then later that day on the show "Countdown":

MATTHEWS: We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical,who's not a complicated guy like [former President Bill] Clinton oreven like [former Democratic presidential candidates Michael] Dukakisor [Walter] Mondale, all those guys, [George] McGovern. They want a guywho's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president.It's simple. We're not like the Brits. We don't want an indoor primeminister type, or the Danes or the Dutch or the Italians, or a [RussianFederation President Vladimir] Putin. Can you imagine Putin gettingelected here? We want a guy as president.

The news watchdog group "Media Matters" has an entire section devoted to the media's spinning of "mission accomplished" in May of 2003.