STEWART AND MATTHEWS: NO SEX

A lot of people have talked about the Chris Matthews appearance on Jon Stewart's show (go to those links to watch it) -- but I think a key point has been missed.

Atrios's gloss was:

Bill Clinton Got Laid In College
Just in case you were still wondering what motivates our elite babblers.

By which he means, I think, that pundits attack Clinton because they resent him for his sex life. I certainly think that's Christopher Hitchens's problem with Clinton -- but I think Chris Matthews has a different problem.

Matthews's book title is Life's a Campaign. He told Jon Stewart (to Stewart's horror) that he means this literally -- that if you model your life on the way successful politicians campaign, you'll go far in life:

...the way politicians get to the top is the real thing. They know what they're doing. I mean, you don't have to believe a word they say, but watch how far they got. How did Clinton get there? How did Hillary get there? How do all these guys get there? They have methods to get to the top, and you can learn from those methods.

And then his one specific example was not a politician being a politician, but Bill Clinton being successful with women in college:

Bill Clinton, when he was in college, would get women, girls, in bed, by listening -- by listening to them. He was a great listener, and when friends of his couldn't get the girls of their dream he'd say, "No, you gotta listen to these women." I thought, growing up, you drank beer and you bragged. But he says, "Listen, because it's flattering."

Now, think for a moment about Chris Matthews and his relationship to politicians.

George Bush. ("Here's a president who's really nonverbal.... He looks great in a military uniform.") Fred Thompson. ("Can you smell the English leather on this guy, the Aqua Velva, the sort of mature man's shaving cream, or whatever, you know, after he shaved? Do you smell that sort of -- a little bit of cigar smoke?") Mitt Romney. ("He looks like a million bucks. Everything is perfect. Everything about him is perfect.") Rudy Giuliani. ("A little gritty, a little big city. It works for me.")

When Chris Matthews tells that Clinton story, he's the woman young Bill Clinton's trying to seduce. He sees every interaction as a seduction, with himself on the receiving end.

That's why he called the Stewart interview "the interview from hell" -- because Jon Stewart didn't like him. Because Jon Stewart wasn't trying to seduce him.