Chris Matthews is in top 10 list of TV's election-year influentials



Chris Matthews is in top 10 list of TV's election-year influentials

Who dominated this year's campaign coverage?

10:08 PM CDT on Saturday, October 23, 2004

By ED BARK / The Dallas Morning News

America, take heart. The last full week of the turbulent presidential campaign at last is upon us.

This also means that our TV screens will be bursting with pontificators, prognosticators, prevaricators, punch lines and overall punch-drunk love for the climactic final rounds between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry.

So where will you turn to make sense or nonsense of it all? Who turns you on among the myriad talking heads dispensing political news and views like an assembly line of Pez dispensers? Your friendly little mug shot on this page has watched it all unfold and unravel since the night of Howard Dean's Iowa caucus conniption fit.

Now it's time to name names, but first with a few caveats.

You'll notice that this top 10 list of TV's election-year influentials is all white, all male. That's because times haven't changed much when it comes to giving women and minorities some showcase seats at the table.

[Excerpt]

7) Chris Matthews: Few if any know the ins and outs of national politics better than this former Democratic Party operative. And no one would agree more heartily with that assessment than Mr. Matthews, whose Hardball program on MSNBC gives full reign to his full-blown verbosity and pomposity.

Mr. Matthews found himself in heaven at the Republican National Convention, where keynote speaker Zell Miller tried to snap his head off or at least best him in an old-school "duel." A volley of on-air promotions ensued, no doubt giving Mr. Matthews a bigger rush than Darrell Hammond's recurring impressions of him on Saturday Night Live . Still, there's no better haven than Hardball for hard-core political junkies. Now if only the loquacious host would shock the nation by telling a guest, "Wow, what a great point. Please keep talking while I respectfully listen for at least another 10 seconds." Alas, there's a better chance of Ralph Nader winning Mississippi.

When this story was posted in October 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:

Kerry reaches out to Returned Volunteers The Kerry campaign wants the RPCV vote. Read our interview with Dave Magnani, Massachusetts State Senator and Founder of "RPCVs for Kerry," and his answers to our questions about Kerry's plan to triple the size of the Peace Corps, should the next PC Director be an RPCV, and Safety and Security issues. Then read the "RPCVs for Kerry" statement of support and statements by Dr. Robert Pastor, Ambassador Parker Borg, and Paul Oostburg Sanz made at the "RPCVs for Kerry" Press Conference. RPCV Carl Pope says the key to winning this election is not swaying undecided voters, but persuading those already willing to vote for your candidate to actually go to the polls. Take our poll and tell us what you are doing to support your candidate. Finally read our wrap-up of the eight RPCVs in Senate and House races around the country and where the candidates are in their races.

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Director Gaddi Vasquez: The PCOL Interview PCOL sits down for an extended interview with Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez. Read the entire interview from start to finish and we promise you will learn something about the Peace Corps you didn't know before. Plus the debate continues over Safety and Security.

Schwarzenegger praises PC at Convention Governor Schwarzenegger praised the Peace Corps at the Republican National Convention: "We're the America that sends out Peace Corps volunteers to teach village children." Schwarzenegger has previously acknowledged his debt to his father-in-law, Peace Corps Founding Director Sargent Shriver, for teaching him "the joy of public service" and Arnold is encouraging volunteerism by creating California Service Corps and tapping his wife, Maria Shriver, to lead it. Leave your comments and who can come up with the best Current Events Funny?

Peace Corps: One of the Best Faces of America Teresa Heinz Kerry celebrates the Peace Corps Volunteer as one of the best faces America has ever projected in a speech to the Democratic Convention. The National Review disagreed and said that Heinz's celebration of the PCV was "truly offensive." What's your opinion and can you come up with a Political Funny?

Read the stories and leave your comments.