[Conor Friedersdorf]
Anyone who read the hit job on Chris Matthews in the New York Times Magazine, which I objected to here, should also read this corrective by Hendrick Hertzberg.
I don't share Hertzberg's politics, nor do I much care for cable news personalities, but this sounds right:
The profile that ran in the New York Times Magazine a few weeks ago captured some of Chris (the insecurity, the self-promotion), but some is not all. The insecurity without the huge appetite for life, the self-promotion without the empathic social conscience that lurks somewhere behind all that love of the political game—these give a distorted impression. Chris Matthews is a net plus for American politics and American society.
Evidence:
One of the things I love about Chris Matthews IS that his personality just hangs out there. He makes me mad as hell sometimes, especially when he tells female guests they're beautiful, or insincerely tells people they're his current favorite writer (he doesn't do insincerity well), or when he interrupts somebody who's opinion I want to listen to. But I love that he doesn't self-censor, I love that he really loves this country and he won't take bullshit from warmongers, I love that he tries for intellectual integrity, even as he sometimes betrays it. And I love his thinly disguised contempt for Olbermann.
hendrik
Thanks for catching the typo. Fixed!
no problem and your welcome - but no "c" either.