What will be the tone of the Chris Matthews interview with Clarke tonight?

[kentuck]

I heard it mentioned on Imus this AM. They were a little peeved that Tim Russert was not more aggressive with Clark. They mentioned that Matthews may be a tougher interviewer than Russert...

Will Matthews give Clarke a chance to speak? Will he attack his character? Will he try to get the story or will he try to make a story? How will Clarke do up against the biggest mouth in talk cable?

[ClintonTyree]

1. Clarke...............

seems to be able to handle himself in any type of format. He'll take Tweety down a peg or two if he isn't allowed to refute Tweety's bullshit.
The man is rock solid. That's what happens when you have the truth on your side and the opposition has only lies and innuendo.
Clarke will wipe the floor with Tweety, and I think Tweety knows it. I doubt Tweety will be his normal acerbic self and that Clarke will emerge unscathed and more believed from this interview.
The GOP has tried every angle short of assassination and have come out holding the shitty end of the stick each time they attack this man. Tweety is aware of that and the fact that Clarke can hand him his lunch will make him more docile in my opinion. Even Tweety doesn't like being made to look the fool (well, more than usual anyway).

[SemperEadem]

30. Or as Hans Blix said to O'Lielly

"I'm being precise, you're being imprecise".... cut to shot of O'Lielly looking dumb, fumbling for a refute that will not appear.. in the meantime, you can hear the crickets chirping and toad croaking as we linger on the shot of O'Lielly for about 7 seconds of dead air..

A beautiful moment in television talking-head show history... I dont know of whom I'm a bigger fan--Blix or Clarke..

[smartass]

2. I think that Mathews had to kiss a lot of butt to get this interview

so he'll be pretty respectful of him. Plus he's smarter than Mathews.

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

3. Tweety

will do what he does best..ask a question then before Clarke can answer...interupt.

[Junkdrawer]

5. I'm afraid you're right...

Up until now, the attempts by the Media Whores have been to flood the guy with quotes from his critics. Clarke, however, is adept at getting his message out while answering his critics. If, however, the interviewer shouts Clarke down with "you're not answering my question" remarks, the usual Clarke strategy won't work.

However, if Clarke is prepared, he will take it a little, then counter attack with "Why are you not allowing me to answer? Are you interested in what I know about the events leading up to 9/11 or are you only interested in discrediting me?".

[SemperEadem]

32. I believe Clarke will transcend Tweety

the best way to make a person look unbalanced is to stand back and let them go. All Clarke has to do is to stick to the facts-- since Tweety et al know that the facts bury them time after time, all they have left is personal attack. Once you resort to personal attacks, that means you have no basis for argument, and all that's left for you is to try to impeach their character. Clarke's character is beyond reproach, so Tweety et al are going to have a tough time nailing Clarke down on anything personal. Clarke's not going to engage in personal attack and will call Tweety out on it and embarass him on cable tv. That would be the death knell for Tweety in this interview.

any criticisms the neocon media may have of Clarke, the fact of the matter is the White House approved his book.. IF the neocons have a problem with it, they need to talk to whoever it was in the Bush admin that greenlighted the book.

[H2O Man]

4. Matthews style of questioning

is well known. Clarke's style of answering tough questions is becoming very well known. This will be a great show as far as allowing Clarke a format to answer any and all of the crap that the bush administration is trying to throw on him. Watch the show with one thing in mind: "mainstream" America is seeing Clarke at his best, talking about bush at his worst. Enjoy the show.

[Kahuna]

6. I think Chris will be even with him.. Chris has telegraphed..

that he believes Clark.. Now of course with Matthews, even though he believes him that doesn't mean he won't whore for Jack Welch. x(

[rvgwinn]

7. Matthews/Clark

What time and station is this on?

[kskiska]

23. 7:00 PM EST

MSNBC, repeated at 11:00 P.M., I think.

[against all enemies]

8. Matthews

Call me crazy but I think Matthews will only help Clarke's case. CM knows Clarke is telling the truth and I think it matters to him. If it looks ike the truth has a chance to prevail, some journalists don't want to be seen as "missing the boat".

[newyawker99]

21. Hi istherehope!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[mmonk]

9. You never can tell with Matthews

One day he'll be tough on the admin., the next day, he'll be tough on it's critics.

[chelsea0011]

10. Typical Matthews style.....I'm the star and you're lucky to be here

[Dees]

11. Rude interruptions and yelling. Mathews is chronic...n/t

[democracy eh]

12. Matthews has been outed as a lightweight

he no longer has the calibre of a Russert, and has ceded the nutjob title to Miller

Clarke will do just fine. During the primary, everytime folks were worried about tweedy, but whomever, Clark, Dean, Kerry, did just fine. Matthews sees the writing on the wall, and would LOVE to be the talking monkey who comes off looking 'Smart' if Bush goes down and he rides the wave. You can tell he is surveying the landscape.

[maggrwaggr]

13. after seeing Clarke in action, Tweety should be scared shitless

Clarke is the best political fighter I've ever seen in these situations.

[troublemaker]

14. Matthews will fluff Clarke

He will love Clarke because Matthews 1) believes the Iraq war was a lie and a mistake, and 2) Matthews respects civil servants.

Everyone should view Matthews for what he is--the most reliable bellwether in the business. Matthews is the true middle and when he moves on issues I take it to be as reliable as any national poll.

CM was a Peace corps volunteer, a Capitol policeman, a Carter staffer, a Tip O'Neil speech writer, a Reagan apologist, etc. He became disillusioned with BUSH I then became disillusioned with Clinton. Now he's becoming disillusioned with BUSH II. Whats' cool is that he doesn't follow the polls, he anticipates them. He has core beliefs -- not the same as mine, but in line with "most people."

He loves the Bush 9/11 mystique but was the foremost talking head opponent of the Iraq war. (Among talking heads that are supposed to be impartial--I'm not including overtly ideological talking heads)

All in all, he generally takes positions a few months before the people.

[tjwash]

15. Tweety has zero credibility...

...after that sad piss-poor rim job he gave to B* during that interview in the WH.

[Catherine Vincent]

16. Will Matthews give him a chance to talk, is the real question.

[proud patriot]

17. Well the show is called Hardball

:shrug:

[troublemaker]

PS re: Dean

Some of the Matthews hatred here may be due to his having been as responsible as anyone for the media destruction of Dean, but he did so because he's a closet moderate progressive. He wants a centrist Democratic party because at heart he's a Democrat and he wants to vote for a Democrat in 2004.

Much of the anti-Dean furor in the press was actually naked liberal bias. Democratic leaners throughout the media saw Dean as McGovern II and did what they thought was the best course to oust Bush.

Agree or disagree with their conclusions or tactics, but media anti-Deanism was anti-Bushism at heart.

[Bushknew]

18. I donÕt know, but like Al Sharpton, Clarke É

knows how to make his point with the fewest words possible.

Some Dems really know their stuff but they are too verbose and canÕt
express the essence of their argument in less than 4 sentences.

Do not say a little in many words, but a great deal in a few. Pythagoras

[IrateCitizen]

19. The better question is, will anybody see it???

Last I checked, "Hardball" was the perennial cellar-dwellar of all of the cable news exercises in "mind-numbing".

Seriously, I wonder why so many DUers waste their time watching this crap when the majority of America doesn't. :shrug:

[i_c_a_White_Ghost]

25. I believe tonight his ratings

...Will shoot thru the roof!...

I can't get his book anywhere...sold out! :mad:

[gemlake]

20. No interviewer can hurt Clarke

Clarke has an unbeatable position: he's telling the truth.

[newyawker99]

22. Hi boreDem!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Beloved Citizen]

24. Clarke is taking on all comers

He'll handle Matthews as easily as he's handled everything else.

Could you imagine Shrub being subjected to this level of questioning? He'd break down and sob.

[grasswire]

26. sometimes I wonder....

...if Chrissy's mood has to do with whether or not he got sex on the weekend. It's that mercurial.

However.

He does respect and defer to certain people -- the ones he deems authentic. Mario Cuomo, most recently. There was no badgering of Cuomo.

What he will do tonight is try to get Clarke to "make news" -- to say something that will be repeated on other shows.

And I think it's time for Clarke to goad the story by making a little more news today. Just another wee tightening of the screws.

[eleny]

27. If CM is smart he'll give what Russert didn't

They'll talk more about Iraq. That's what Russert promised Clarke but he didn't deliver. What did someone post here at DU? 3 minutes because the DUer timed it?

I guess I'm in a predicting mood. So, I'll predict that CM doesn't act like a screwball with Clarke. CM can smell a weak interviewee. Clarke is none of that. CM also wants to be on the right side of an issue - or at least the popular side. CM is going to ask questions respectfully and at least put on his serious journalist act because Clarke can make CM look very good or very bad. And it's not necessarily up to Tweezer. IMO, Clarke made Russert appear lamely scripted.

[Raenelle]

28. Matthews is contemptuous of Dems, worshipful of Bush, BUT

he also is able to see the gigantic f**k-up that the Iraq war is/was. Since this is mostly about Iraq, I think he'll give Clarke some respect, though I think he will also use up a lot of time challenging Clarke about why he wasn't as tough on Clinton.

[SemperEadem]

29. Well, that's because Russert is a puppet of the neocons

you can't expect him to be able to go toe to toe with Clarke...

The Dems should be taking lessons from Clarke---he didn't allow Russert to put words in his mouth, he didn't let his blood pressure raise, he answered calmly, succintly and stayed to the point.

Russert was trying so badly to stick to character assasination issues and Clarke would not let him go there... he kept the conversation on the topic---that being his book, which cleared the white house, is showing that Bush lied to the American public. These "after the point" arguement by Frist and others about declassified documents---it's kinda hard for one of Clarke's ranking to write a book and not have it go past the white house for clearance.

All of the refuqlicans look stupid talking about the classification or declassification of his documents, seeing the white house approved it. In fact, everyone in Bush's admin look stupid trying to throw offal onto Clarke when the documentation is so cut and dry---and approved for print by Bush. How dumb does one have to be?

[CatWoman]

31. Clarke better take an umbrella with him

to shield himself of all of Tweety's spitting.

[eleny]

33. Now CatWoman - you know it isn't spit!

It's genuine Repubcum!

[eleny]

34. Erm... or is that - Republicum?