Chris Matthews, the famously manic host of the talk show Hardball, tends to overpower his interview subjects in a more intimate format, but he's truly in his element at a political convention
Battle of the Network Anchors
Ted Koppel and Jon Stewart face off on the convention floor.
By Dana Stevens
Updated Friday, July 30, 2004, at 6:30 PM PT
[Excerpt]
For my money, the network whose coverage gets the closest to what it must feel like to be on the convention floor—some mixture of giddiness, boredom, patriotic fervor, and sugar shock—is MSNBC (and I don't say that just because their boss pays my bills). Chris Matthews, the famously manic host of the talk show Hardball, tends to overpower his interview subjects in a more intimate format, but he's truly in his element at a political convention. The frantic pace, the pinballing clichés and counterclichés, the overwhelming influx of media stimuli, are the element in which he swims. During last night's pregame show, Matthews conducted a surprisingly in-depth 10-minute interview with Ben Affleck, whose frat-boy screen demeanor belies a sharp eye for current affairs. Matthews himself seemed stunned, even subdued, by the chops of his celebrity interlocutor, closing with the awestruck benediction: "You have a stunningly developed political mind, and I fear you."
As the night's big speeches got rolling, Matthews' internal censor went on an extended coffee break. Amidst the generalized hum of pundit praise after Barack Obama's keynote speech, Matthews admitted to feeling "a little chill in my … legs right now." (He actually paused a little before "legs," as if struggling to locate the sensation.) But Matthews is nothing if not polymorphously perverse; he's the first to acknowledge that the blond down on those chubby gams stands on end for the ladies as well. Discussing Teresa Heinz Kerry's controversial "Shove it" in the post-primetime wrap-up, he asked Richard Holbrooke, the Kerry adviser and former U.N. ambassador: "Do you think the American people have an appetite for a spicy woman of Latin background from Africa?" Ay caramba! Minutes later, he was confessing to no one in particular: "I don't mind saying I find her very attractive—a European film star in the vein of Jeanne Moreau, or Anouk Aimée. But not everyone loves foreign movies like I do." Matthews in convention-comedown mode is something every media junkie should witness at least once. At one point, again addressing Holbrooke, he began, "I'm just wondering if you, as a political analyst …" After a pause (insofar as Chris Matthews can ever be said to "pause") he came to a realization: "Well, I'm a political analyst, I suppose." That description (like everything else on Hardball) is subject to debate. But Matthews is certainly something that political coverage on TV could use more of: a loose cannon.
