Softball with Chris Matthews is making a "College Tour". Yesterday, Matthews spoke with (you can't really call it an interview) John McCain at Villanova. Matthews had been bragging all day about how tough he would be on McCain (Matthews has made similar claims about his toughness as an interviewer in the past). The actual event did nothing to highlight Matthews's interviewing ability, while it did reveal McCain's inability to handle even the softest of questions, and produced an enormous gaffe that should focus attention on McCain's readiness to be president.
The highlight, or lowlight, depending on your perspective, came at the end of the event, when Matthews asked McCain what his presidency would be like–"When you think about what your presidency would be like...paint a portrait...a big, iconic notion of a McCain presidency" (not Matthews's exact words, but very close–no transcript available yet). McCain called it "a very tough question" and stalled for time by thanking the audience before making a rambling response. Ultimately, he changed the question around, pretending he had been asked how he would like to be remembered, and saying absolutely nothing about what his presidency would be like.
McCain's non-response did make me think of something iconic–a 1979 interview in which Ted Kennedy couldn't coherently answer the simple question "why do you want to be president"? Roger Mudd, who asked the question, remembers that Kennedy got "beat up in the press" for his "sort of hapless response."
If the press is going to seize on this very telling exchange, it will take someone other than Matthews to tell the story. Matthews is a self-professed McCain fan and the Softball site is hiding McCain's error by deceptively suggesting the key question was more generally about what McCain's "legacy" would be like. If you watch the clip, you'll see the question very specifically asked McCain what his presidency would be like, and McCain had no specific response.
Originally posted at the Seminal (apologies for the title)
http://www.theseminal.com/...