Author News and Book Reports
Chris Matthews savors political 'hardball' and grins when he fights
One thing you know about MSNBC-TV Hardball pundit Chris Matthews is, you never know. First thing, Matthews throws conventional wisdom out the window as he did at the Miami Book Fair International 2007. Promoting his memoir, Life's A Campaign (Random House; October, 2007), Matthews reminisced on his early years with President Jimmy Carter, the White House, and the Peace Corps and the hardball lessons he learned about politics and the world outside the U.S., which released him from conventional wisdom. Weaving disparate historic changes from Nelson Mandela and South Africa, to Barack Obama's political emergence, and the fall of Berlin Wall together, Matthews offered a riff on the challenges of change and the struggle for freedom. Just when you thought Matthews was calling for a revolution, he told the story of Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill holding hands and praying as Reagan lay near-death, after an assassination attempt, to illustrate the need for overarching compassion among political adversaries in a functional democracy. Contrary to the conventional armchair wisdom of today, Matthews extolled the virtues of professional politicians like Reagan, O'Neill and Bill Clinton. Matthews moved seamlessly into a stream-of-consciousness on how to get a job in today's bare-knuckle world, recalling his first job as a gun-toting security guard standing watch over the Pentagon Papers after they were published in The New York Times, and then working for Ted Sorensen and the Kennedy family. Just as you thought Matthews might be going 'soft' with fond memories, he divulged the secret he learned about how to play 'hardball' and get good TV ratings--savor the heat of the moment and grin when you fight. Matthews wrapped his book pitch with commentary on the Clintons, Iraq, and the 2008 Presidential primaries before taking questions from the audience on the role of the media in the war in Iraq ; the divisive politics of Ann Coulter and the blogosphere; and the excesses of political partisanship. Matthews then joined the age-old battle of the sexes with commentary ranging from the differences between how men and women drive cars to the politics of Hillary Clinton vs. Rudy Giuliani before answering questions on Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and 'Plamegate'; the potential political fallout from 'Billary'; the popularity of crazy Iraq and JFK conspiracy theories; advice for a politcal science student; the situation in Pakistan (before Benazir Bhutto's assassination); the importance of getting out the youth vote; and the slippery politics of oil in America--grinning all the way.
