Chris Matthews has been called to save the civilized world but.....

[kentuck]

he doesn't know it. Although he has been leaning toward John Kerry, he can't seem to make up his mind. He keeps swerving from one side of the road to the other like a drunken driver. He cannot seem to make up his mind what he should do.

And Chris Matthews would make a world of difference if he became as outspoken for Kerry as, say for example, Hannity or Rush are for Bush. Although he would only be one person on one little cable network, it would send ripples thru the media establishment like an earthquake.

Chris Matthews has a chance to change the world, but his fear and anxiety prevent him from his calling. The "liberal" in him will not permit him to be a full-fledged partisan like Hannity or Limbaugh. If he did, he could change the world. :)

[dennis4868]

1. HAHAHA.....

change the world? Are you serious? He may change the minds of the 10 people that watch his show on an average night but that is about it my friend. Tell me you are not serious?

[kentuck]

2. Halfway serious...

:) But I think it could be a tremendous boost for Kerry and the Dems if we had a cult of personality equal to a Matthews on our side. It should not and could not be measured by his audience on any given night. I would bet his audience would grow.

[dennis4868]

3. he will....

never be on our side...one minute he start to makes sense and then the next day he is out of his minds talking about how great Bush looks ina flight suit....he cannot be counted on, believe me!

[DemocratSinceBirth]

5. He's Been A Critic Of The Iraq War From It's Conception

nt

[dennis4868]

7. he has even....

gone back and forth on the Iraq war....initially he was against it then he was for it and now I believe he thinks it was the wrong thing to do.....

[sandnsea]

10. No, he was never for it

I have never heard him say he was for this war, not one time. Just because he hopes it turns out well now that we're there, doesn't mean he ever thought it was the right thing to do.

[Guaranteed]

4. Man...don't put all your eggs in one basket.

And definitely not a fickle media-whoring basket.

[kentuck]

6. Who's talking about eggs?

It's not up to us to invest anything in Chris Matthews - it is up to him to decide which side he wants to fight on. In the slim chance that he might stumble upon this post....:)

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

8. Two comments...

"his fear and anxiety prevent him from his calling"...I'm not convinced on this one.

Matthews' biggest liability has always been his ability to listen. Obviously he listened to Michelle Malkin, because she's still crying about the experience. But he is a single-minded person. When he asked Malkin "are you saying John Kerry shot himself" and repeated it until she looked on the verge of tears, his "truth-seeking" powers were beyond question...he was NOT going to let her off the hook. On the other hand, when she refused to give him a "yes" or "no" answer, and she yelled at him "I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU," he didn't come back at her with "Well, if you're not saying that, what ARE you saying?" He gets heated, he gets emotional, he loses track of multiple angles.

Don't get me wrong...Malkin needed a dose of reality. She is too accustomed to doing her five minutes on Fox while Hannity lavishes praise over her every word and opinion. I still applaud Matthews for climbing all over her tripe a week ago.

If MSNBC waved a Hannity-sized liberal paycheck under his nose, he'd be 100% liberal tomorrow. He'd make you and I look like a couple of freepers.

A good point was brought up throughout DU in the last few days: Matthews' job requires balance. If he goes "too liberal," all it takes is one phone call from Karl Rove and the days of conservative guests on "Hardball" are no more.

If Matthews smells a "Kerry Win"...really strong scent, no doubt about it (even beyond the 39% Bush approval rating reported on DU tonight) he'll step "out of his comfort zone"...to use a pop psychology term...and go with the winner. Not because he wants to be a liberal...because he wants to be on the winning team.

He's not O'Reilly. He's not Hannity. He's not Limbaugh. He's not Coulter. He's not Malkin.

But...he IS Matthews.

:toast:

[arcane1]

9. if Tweety started openly claiming support for libruls...

he'd suffer the same fate as Donahue (their then highest-rated show): he'd be given the important task of doing shows on "has Madonna gone too far?"

[NightOwwl]

12. It's already started...

The repugs are calling for a boycotting of his show during the RNC.

**********

You might notice something missing from Hardball With Chris Matthews soon: Republicans. " Hardball may seem more like badminton during the Republican National Convention," threatens a GOP insider. What's up? The GOP thinks Matthews has gone over to Sen. John Kerry 's side and is too critical of the Bush campaign's editing of a Hardball interview with Kerry posted on the party's negative site, <snip>. As payback, they've stopped urging Republicans to appear on the show. Hardball executive producer Tammy Haddad dismisses charges Matthews is biased: "We beat everybody up." So far, nobody from the White House has told her of the show's being blackballed.

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040830/whispers/30whisplead.htm

[librechik]

11. we don't need that 2 faced idiot tweety. We have Jon Stewart.

credibility. that's a different animal.

[faithnotgreed]

13. i think we have to try. we need some balance and i think chris is a

place to start. aaron brown sometimes makes sense, lou dobbs makes a lot of sense because he does care about the economy and job losses, chris' #s have increased lately,,, keith is often awesome, paul krugman of the nyt etc

well we gotta play the (media) team we have. and i tell you what kentuck, i know youre half kidding, but i tell chris (and other shows and columnists that i email) that we need you very much. this is not a game. this is a crucial election and all im asking for is the truth. no matter what that brings, i want the verifiable truth.

and yes i make sure to use the word verifiable!

[Andromeda]

14. Chris Matthews is walking a fine line...

and if he gets his corporate masters angry at him he'll go the way of Phil Donahue. No liberal, or even moderately liberal host has survived very long on MSNBC so Matthews has to do a lot of tap dancing.

Look what happened to Geraldo Rivera. He became toast at CNBC because of his stand against Ken Starr and the impeachment managers.

Most of Matthews' regular guests are conservative: John Fund, Howard Fineman, Peggy Noonan, Andrea Mitchell and a few others whose names I can't think of at the moment.

He's more confrontational when he has liberals on with a few exceptions, for instance, Michele Malkin and he did pretty good with John (Smear Boat Liar for Bush) O'Neill.

Matthews wants to be in the "in crowd" and loves cutting down certain people like Bill and Hillary Clinton especially if he's with a group of like-minded guests. One time just recently he was talking about how tall John Kerry was and said it was the "Lurch factor." Even Howard Fineman looked at him in stunned silence.

I don't think we can count on Chris Matthews to be our savior.