Issue date: August 13, 2000
If ever there was a political junkie it's Chris
Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball With Chris
Matthews. Even as a teenager, he found political conventions
so interesting that he hung around the 1964 convention in Atlantic
City, N.J. By 1972, he worked the Democratic convention as a volunteer.
Matthews, 54, has been on both sides of the fence; he worked for
leading Democrats Tip O'Neill and former President Jimmy Carter
as well as for media organizations the San Francisco Examiner
and NBC. We asked for his thoughts on the race.
Do you think this
race will be dull? Is "Gush and Bore" accurate?
No, I think there's extreme drama in the choice between these two people. One
is very much a person who believes in less government in the economics area,
and the other one believes in more. And if you go through every issue -- and I'm
not talking about abortion rights, I'm talking about economic issues -- there's
a real difference between the two of them. One is much more free enterprise
oriented, one is much more state-oriented, federal government-oriented. And
that's just true on every issue. I think there's a big choice between these
two guys. I also think the election is going to be wickedly close. I can
imagine a situation where the popular vote may be different than the
electoral vote. That close.
How do you see it happening?
Gore could carry Michigan, Pennsylvania, maybe even hold Ohio and win
the election 'cause he's got the bicoastal strength. But then you could see
Bush doing very well in the white South and very well in the West, in the
Rockies and just rolling up the score out there. I can't see Gore getting many
votes in the South. And I could see the big industrial states being very
close. Now, where Gore is going to build up his big numbers is in New York
and California, huge numbers, huge pluralities in those states. Because I'm
not sure Bush is contesting New York. He's not contesting Massachusetts. But
he's going to try to hold Pennsylvania. I think it's going to be very hard to
carry Pennsylvania if you don't contest New York. It's just very strange. And
he's going to lose New Jersey, too. So I think it's going to be bicoastal
against the heartland.
You've worked both inside and
outside the political system. What makes a good president?
A willingness to be seen as wrong, to be viewed as wrong, to be
understood as wrong, but to stick to what you believe. That's a rarity. I
see it in Winston Churchill in Britain in the '30s. He saw the Nazi
threat and his party refused to see it and no one else wanted to recognize
it. I see it when a leader recognizes that he has to lead. Kennedy did it on
Civil Rights in '63. It's the willingness to be unpopular -- to be
seen as wrong. Otherwise you're just a crowd pleaser.
I'm seeing some of it from Bush this time. Not enough yet, but some of it.
Gore is being troubling. Gore seems to have a hard time staking out a
position, sticking to it. As a citizen, I don't even know who I'm gonna vote
for. I could vote for Nader. Who knows? I haven't made up my mind. I won't
vote for Buchanan in a million years. But Nader's starting to look
interesting; I think Nader's a fascinating topic this year.
Do you have a big rant this go-round?
My one phrase on Gore is "Gore is Less." I think Bush's
problem is that we don't know if he has a bench intellectually. We know he
has a first team, he has an answer to the questions you put to him.
Whereas Gore has thought through everything so many times, but he's such a
political calculator that I just don't know. I do agree with Gore on the
environment, but he hasn't emphasized the environment, which is pretty sad.
It's his one strong issue and he won't use it. He should be the green
candidate.
-- By Evelyn Poitevent
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