Chris Matthews: Portrait of a Truly Odd Man (JM)

In the New York Times Magazine this weekend Marc Leibovich has a nine page profile of Chris Matthews. Chris Matthews is a man who once referred to Barack Obama as Lawrence of Arabia, and that was a mild Matthews compliment. He is a fascinating man and this is one of the most fascinating psychological profiles of a media personality I have ever seen.

Matthews appears to be driving by a massive inferiority complex and an absolute love of politics. Which makes him more like most people I know than I would have imagined, but he is also something different. Sometimes it's deplorably different and sometimes laudably different, but always unique and interesting.

The best tidbit in this piece is that if NBC drops Matthews when his contact ends this year, he may run for Arlen Specter's seat in Pennsylvania. Could you even imagine those debates or that campaign. I actually think Chris Matthews for Senate would blow the craziness of Al Franken, Arnold Schwarzenegger and even Jesse Ventura straight out of the water.

Either way, do yourself a favor and read this profile. If Matthews were reviewing it he might say that is in many ways a portrait of a Shakespearian character, perhaps Falstaff, but with more wisdom and better looks. I might say it is a picture of man who is fascinating, you can't help but like a little and maybe can't help but feel a little sorry for.

Bad Signs for Camp Hillary (JM)

Well pretty bad news for Camp Hillary on multiple fronts. Exits in Georgia are real bad, with Barack scoring over 40 percent of white voters and make strong in roads in to the 40-60 demographic.

Also pretty damning are early exit polls, which give Barack a lot of strength in the northeast, including close leads in NJ, CT and MA. Obama also seems to have held NY to a ten point spread. Exit polls are notoriously inaccurate, but as evidence goes none of it is good for Hillary with the exception of a small lead in CA. Obama also has a slight exit poll lead in MO, which is also considered a bellwether state. But again, exit polls were very very wrong in NH, so who knows...

The final somewhat damning piece of evidence is the Intrade's political market, which had Hillary's winning the nomination at 51 percent at the beginning of the day is now at 40 percent. Often it is cited that these types of markets are very good at picking up trends. However, it was wrong at predicting both IA and NH, so note of caution.

Keep in mind these are just things to talk about until we get more information, but it does not look good. I would also point out the Chris Matthews just called Bob Menendez, Sir Edmund Burke for not agreeing to pledge his superdelegate vote for whomever the people of New Jersey voted. Ahh... at least there'd be some hilarity. Also! This just in sources, including Talking Points Memo and Drudge, show exit polls are not that bad for Mittmentum! Now that's what I call Hope!