Why is Hardball comparing Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama?

[Sparkly]

Having a strong woman as a candidate is really creating some bizarre things in the media. Tonight, Hardball (Mike Barnacle sitting in) had a segment on why Hillary was doing so much better among women than Obama, since Obama's wife is so appealing?

Hello? There's a slight difference here: Michelle Obama isn't a candidate. Neither is Elizabeth Edwards, who they also brought up. These are fantastic women, but all they have in common with Hillary Clinton, campaign-wise, is their gender.

The right equation might be to compare their appeal with that of Bill Clinton.

I really hope they don't start getting into who wears nicer pantsuits or hairstyles. :eyes: And if Clinton does get the nom, it'd be quite interesting to me to see the media struggle with Bill Clinton as 'adoring spouse.' Will there be competing cookie recipes again?

[ElizabethDC]

1. Maybe they planned the segment thinking Tweety would be on tonight?

He seems to be obsessed with discussing Hillary - and rarely in a policy-oriented way.

[Sparkly]

2. Good point -- then again, I think he'd be happier comparing the men to each other --

-- the candidates vs. President Clinton -- and asking everybody who has more sex appeal. (Did you see him asking guests -- male and female alike -- to rate Fred Thompson's sex appeal? It's quite a fixation.)

[polichick]

3. I saw that...GROAN!

Seems Thompson's cigar smoking is a real turn-on for Chris!

[jeff30997]

5. "cigar smoking is a real turn-on for Chris!"

Hey,sometimes a cigar is a penis!:)

[polichick]

7. Exactly...

I wonder what his wife thinks of all his man-crushes?!

[jeff30997]

8. lol!

[Stinky The Clown]

9. The Matthews at home in Chevy Chase, MD

His wife, Kathleen, is a former teevee anchor with channel 7, WJLA, in DC. She is now a high mucky-muck communications VP with Marriott Hotels.

[polichick]

10. Thanks for the pic!

He speaks of her sometimes and I gather she's a strong smart woman ~ maybe she doesn't mind that her husband crushes on men. Who knows, maybe he brings some of 'em home and she crushes on them too! ;-)

[Mabus]

11. But Chris prefers the Mayflower to the Marriott

Ask for a "pink sheet room" and tell them Chris sent you. ;)

MATTHEWS SCANS THE LOBBY: To help you grasp the soul of your “press corps,” let’s return to the charity event we glancingly described in October 2005. (See THE DAILY HOWLER, 10/24/05. Scroll down to “Culture Corner.”) The emcee that night was Kathleen Matthews, then of Washington’s Channel 7. On the way out of the Mayflower Hotel, we saw her husband, TV talker Chris Matthews, chatting with DC journo Mark Plotkin. We don’t know Plotkin, but we know Chris a tad. So we decided to stop for a chat rather than walking on by.

“Tough crowd tonight,” we thoughtfully said. Chris then offered us a look at the odd soul of the Washington press corps. His eyes stared past ours, scanning the Mayflower’s block-long lobby in a classic thousand-yard stare. “I just saw the most incredible prostitute,” he weirdly said. (Instead of “prostitute,” he may have said “hooker.”)

To Plotkin’s credit—again, we don’t know him—he seemed to be just as surprised as we were by Chris’ oddball comment. But Chris wasn’t through with his weird discussion; his eyes continued to scan the long hall as he said something like, “Yeah, you have to ask for the ‘pink sheet’ rooms when you check in.” (Not an exact quote.) At no point did Plotkin seem to think that this was a recognizable topic. For ourselves, we’d have to say it was the strangest thing any man has ever said to us. No, it simply isn’t our experience that men make such weird comments to other men—much less, to men whom they barely know. Men like Matthews apparently think that this is standard male discussion. (We googled and Nexised “pink sheet” the next day. We found no usage which conformed to what Chris had said.)

We mention this oddness, fifteen months later, because we’ve finally come to feel that people simply must get the fullest picture of the people who run their “press corps.” We also mention it in the face of Matthews’ endless rude remarks about Hillary Clinton—rude, sneering, gender-based insults which continue to show one part of the soul of this millionaire cohort. We’ll review Matthews’ most recent such comments later in this post.

link: MEMO TO MATTHEWS! Hey you big dumb stupid f*ck-wad! HRC told her joke about you!

[Cameron27]

4. It was such an idiotic segment.

If they're going with spouses, then big dawg should have been in the mix with M. Obama and E. Edwards.

[BootinUp]

6. So you didn't fall for it?

You are at least in the top 5% of your class.