Chris Matthews Unhinged

I just watched Chris Matthews interview with Congressional representative Michelle Bachmann a few minutes ago (tivo'd). Actually, I'm less bothered with her craziness since I just kind of accept the fact that there are some crazy people out there in the world. What I found most interesting though is Chris's complete inability to conduct the interview with any modicum of competence. I know a lot of people dislike Chris, but I actually like him. He was just completely unprepared for what this lady had to say and frankly became unhinged.

Interestingly enough, Bachmann's crazy tirade was followed by Stephanie Cutter, a senior advisor of Obama's campaign. And what was her answer to Michelle's accusation that Obama was un-American? First, "Well what do you want me to say Chris?" Huh? Are you kidding me!? This was then followed by "I'm moving to Canada!"

Unbelievable!

In all fairness though I need to finish watching it. I was so taken with the first 16 minutes of the show that I had to write this before finishing it. Maybe everyone will redeem themselves as the show moves on.

Update: Ok, step back and take a deep breath. After the commercial, I've just watched Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation. She provided a superb and impassioned retort to the rantings of Rep Bachmann and was obviously speaking from the heart. She was then followed by Pat Buchanan. Pat said he agreed with everything she said except investigating the congress. And just for a little more political theater (because the show was so uneventful up til this point), Katrina's phone goes of loudly several times at which point she says, "Forgive me, I don't mean to do a Guiliani!"

So let's talk about Pat. He's about as radical as they come, but has moderated himself in recent years such that he's now only just a right-wing nut. Trust me, this is a huge improvement. But not this day. This day we saw the old Pat Buchanan. That endearing separatist, neo-fascist that we had become so accustomed to in years past. For the record, I have to credit Pat to introducing me to a new term today... afro-racism. Who knew such a term existed although I find it somewhat ironic that he's using the term.

At the end of the segment, Chris said "Pat you gotta be careful. Your instincts are coming back." Obviously he felt the same way about Pat's performance as I did.