Senator Matthews?

But has he the judgement?

In Boston for the Democrat National Convention of 2004, former Springfield City Councilor Mitch Ogulewicz and I ran into MSNBC journalist Chris Matthews. He graciously agreed to pose for a picture with Mitch.



Later we saw Matthews in Quincy Market smoking a cigar and trying to disguise himself with a too small baseball cap.

 



But disguising himself is not what he'll want to do if this article in the Boston Herald turns out to be true:

HARRISBURG, Pa. - A Pennsylvania Democratic party leader says MSNBC pundit Chris Matthews may be considering a run for U.S. Senate in 2010.

The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reports Matthews met with state party leaders this past week in Washington to discuss a possible bid to unseat Republican Sen. Arlen Specter.

Party official Mary Isenhour says she left the meeting feeling that Matthews still hadn’t made up his mind.

The 62-year-old Matthews hosts MSNBC’s "Hardball" and provides political commentary on NBC’s "Today." He ran unsuccessfully for a Pennsylvania congressional seat in 1974.

I hadn't realized Matthews is 62, he looks considerably younger than that. I don't question Matthews intelligence and experience, but I do wonder about his judgement. During the presidential campaign Matthews seemed to completely forget his objectivity and his proper journalistic role. According to the Wikipedia.org:

He frequently commented favorably about Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. On February 12, 2008, on MSNBC, he said: "The feeling most people get when they hear an Obama speech...I felt this thrill running up my leg." He also said, "Obama comes around, and this is the new testament." On November 6, 2008, after the election, he stated on the MSNBC television program "Morning Joe," that "I want to do everything I can to make this thing work...this new Presidency work." When asked whether that was his job as a journalist, he stated "Yeah, that's my job." In response to his description of journalists' duties, Time Magazine managing editor Richard Stengel stated that the United States Constitution required journalists to "hold [the President of the United State's] feet to the fire."

Although a Pennsylvania native, Matthews has close ties to Massachusetts. He graduated from Holy Cross College in Worcester and vacations frequently in Nantucket.

Whether Chris Matthews would make a good Senator depends on the success or failure of Barack Obama. Obviously Matthews would run as an Obama supporter, so if Obama does a good job then one would want someone like Matthews in the Senate to back him up. But if Obama turns out to be a dud, then even the tiresome incumbent Arlen Spector, who should have retired years ago, might still be worth re-electing. In other words, it all depends on where things stand two years from now.

Flashing back to the year 2000, I recently unearthed this EXTRA flyer printed by the Springfield Newspapers during that cliffhanger election.

Of course in the end Bush won the election in the Electoral College, while losing the national popular vote by a half-million votes. I originally thought that the Democrats had a point in questioning Bush's legitimacy because of that discrepancy, until in the aftermath of the 2004 election I heard Democrats complaining that John Kerry would have won in the Electoral College had he won in Ohio, despite losing the national popular vote by three million. If Bush was illegitimate losing by 500,000 votes, how legit would Kerry be losing by three million? Sorry Dems, but you can't have it both ways.

Included was this listing of local races.

 



This is an advertisement for an appearance by me on The Tony Gill Show from 2002. (click to enlarge)



It was so cold this morning that everyone woke up with a layer of ice on their windshields.

 



In Amherst this afternoon it even snowed for a little while, although not much of it accumulated.