January 27, 2004
Lorne Michaels' New Hampshire
When Howard Dean appeared on "Hardball with Chris Matthews" last night alongside his wife, Judith Steinberg Dean, it seemed as though Matthews might very well have had Saturday Night Live's Darrell Hammond serving as guest-host, judging by the frenetic tenor of the segment's questions. There's no way that questions this shallow could otherwise be accepted as having been asked on a so-called legitimate news program (For what it's worth, neither Bill O'Reilly nor Larry King host legitimate news shows, at least by the time-tested standards of lobbying softballs to sympathetic guests. This is, after all, "Hardball"). While it may be argued that when one interviews a presidential candidate alongside a potential future First Ladya la Diane Sawyer's similar session with Mr. and Mrs. Dean the other night on ABCthe questions should be more lighthearted and whimsical, this hasn't been the practice (again, check out the transcripts of the Deans' appearance on "PrimeTime Live"). Some highlights of the appearance, in the "so absurd, this borders on Hammond-esque hilarity" category: CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST, MSNBCS HARDBALL: Are you a maverick? Her response is rendered irrelevant, because you can already picture Matthews' piercing visage seeking out her answer. After her demurring response, Matthews keeps up the absurdly base line of questions. You'd almost think he were interviewing George and Laura Bush with lines like these: MATTHEWS: Do you ever say to him, Why are you so gutsy? Why dont you just go with the crowd on some of these things? Governor Dean does get in one gentle swipe at the First-Lady-as-delicate-wallflower image, however: MATTHEWS: The President runs the West Wing, which is the business of government, and the First Spouse runs the state dinners, travel with foreign dignitaries... a lot of business, the First Lady has a big staff. Are you open to playing that role? Are you happy about it? Here's hoping this "invisible wife" motif works as a nice, centrist compromise between the past models of Hillary "vast, right-wing conspiracy" Clinton and Laura "I have no right brain, nor left brain" Bush.
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