Chris Matthews on The Daily Show: "This Is The Worst Interview I've Ever Had In My Life!"

We're getting into a bit of a Chris Matthews habit, we admit it, but how are we supposed to resist when he insists on wearing his special pink tie? That's what he wore to last night's guest spot on "The Daily Show," where he chatted with John about his new book,"Life's A Campaign. Jon, as it turns out, is not a fan of the book's central conceit: That you should treat your life and the people in it as though you were running for office. Jon called it a "self-hurt book" but clarified to Matthews that "I'm not trashing your book, I'm trashing your philosophy of life." Well then, that clears that up! He also called it "a recipe for sadness." Viewing audience, rush out and buy it! Here's the full clip:

To his credit, Matthews remained cheerful and steadfast in his defense of his book, and its underlying message: That getting ahead takes more than just being a nice person and working hard (though that, one would hope, is part of it). Here's a snip from the book's Amazon page:

The big payoff in Life's a Campaign is what you'll learn about human nature:
• People would rather be listened to than listen.
  
• People don't mind being used; what they mind is being discarded.
  
• People are more loyal to the people they've helped than the people they've helped are loyal to them.
  
• Not everyone's going to like you.
  
• No matter what anybody says, nobody wants a level playing field.

Let Chris Matthews use you tomorrow night at the Hardball 10th Anniversary party in DC! It's at Decatur House.

Comments

[joja]

Chris Matthews is a pompous ass who is a legend in his own mind. The fact that Jon Stewart didn't fawn over him, totally astounded him, apparently -- that's why he thought the interview was from hell.

Too fuckin' bad, Chris. You need to get out more often and hang with real human beings instead of those plastic politicians and shallow gassbag types you love to put on your show.

Jon was dead on straight in characterizing Matthews' book for being a cynical piece of shit. Imagine, encouraging people to use and abuse others just to be "successful" and "win." Sounds like Dick Cheney's or Karl Rove's bible, and who would want to emmulate them other than another asshole?

As for those who have commented here about Matthews being anti-war, he's only a recent convert, then, because earlier this year he was falling all over himself in praising Bush for doing a tough job. Gimme a fuckin' break! The guy's an opportunistic sack of shit!

[SharonWantsToTalk]

Chris has been in Washington WAY too long. He needs to spend time out of the beltway with the rest of America to adjust his skewed perspective.

[StephenJK]

Yes, it's very sad. It's also very sad there is a large section of the population in the US of A who believes exactly as Chris Matthews does. It's just a big campaign game of backstabbing and stepping on heads. There are a lot of Americans who have ditched spirituality for popularity and money. Sad, but true.

[Sandy972]

Look, I realize a lot of people don't like Chris Matthews, but most of the time he fights for the liberal side on his shows. Jon had the right to question him but he did go a bit overboard. He could have said the things he did and stopped about half-way through and it would have been enough. He just went too far in berating him. Kind of like Oprah did with James Frey's book.

But I still love Jon and Chris as well.

[LarryMcD]

The liberal side???

He gushes like a school girl over Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham; calls "Big Lie" Luntz "a truly brilliant man;" gives Cheney's middle-finger puppet Ron Christie a regular and very friendly platform; and on and on and on.... and "most of the time he fights for the liberal side."

Only if you're judging what the "liberal" side is from Alan Keyes' point of view!

[jones]

But he has a balance between Libs and Righties. You can think what you want about him but he has Coulter and he has Jonathan Alter, and Bob Herbert and Matt Damon and Richardson and on and on. I like the show not so much for Matthews but who he has on as guests. I don't think it reflects a bias like Rush Limbaugh who is a pompous gasbag and talks and talks to rightwing attack animals who are his audience.

[Milwaukee]

I regularly TIVO the Daily Show and just watched the Mathews episode. Unfortunately Stewart's ego is beginning to match O'Reilly's. Stewart did not 'win'; He was rude and boring.

[ClubGitmo]

Chrissy did what all authors do, write about what they know. And who knows more about being phony and having no core values other than what will get febble ratings other than Tip O'Neill's one time butt boy ??

[critterme]

jon gives so many assholes a pass on his show that watching him be so snarky with chris was very disapointing, the rest of the early part of the show was so boring and so strained that he was over compensating to get something going.......stewart panders just as much from his very pc point of view. you all are very naive

[Dandrea]

I'm disgusted with Jon's and the passes he gives neocons that want war in the Middle East so I was very surprised by the well deserved ripping he gave Matthews.

[JCP]

Mathews can be an ass, but he took a drubbing quite well. Contrast that with the worst upbraiding I've seen on the Daily Show -- Jennifer Love Hewitt (on her Garfield the Movie tour), which just wasn't fun to watch. It made Jon look mean, actually. He is the BEST, though, isn't he?

[dvsinla]

i'm confused at the comments here. it was awesomely funny... yes. but matthews is not a war promoting republican conservative media hound... have you guys ever seen hardball? he's against the war, against hypocrisy, he attacks people who lie or exaggerate on his show. he's pretty fair. he's one of the guys the neo-cons point to... when they say nbc is liberal. the difference between the two was based on matthews love of the political game and stewarts hatred of it.

[ContraEgoiste]

The difference goes much more deeper than that, and by his own admission Mathews has revealed himself to be a NeoCon. Have you ever read "The Prince" or heard of Machiavelli philosophy? It doesn't get more Neocon, rule by elites might makes right hierarchical society than Machiavelli, and Mathews claims to have outdone Machiavelli with his book which he claims to be his philosophy of life.

Mathews shills for the right. Only to maintain a semblance of credibility, he will speak the truth when it is so obvious that doing otherwise will damage his façade as a impartial journalist, the only thing that his career is based on. And even when having no choice but to state the obvious, if it is something that negatively affects the administration, he adds something to either trivialize the issue or confuse the fence sitters. Yet he will take trivial matters from the left, such as “Hillary’s cackle” etc, and give undue attention.

And what is sad, and he clearly states in this interview is that; It is better to appear to be something than to be. That the image and not the substance is whats important. That lying is ok if it gets you there. That using people is ok. All of this is, the ends justify the means, tenet of the Cons. People here have called him a phony, and hot damn, he just claimed that that is how people should live their life.

And Jon is 110% correct. That is sad.

[a]

Ok matthews was joking. have you ever seen his show ? He is definitely not a shill on the right. Listen to his interviews with robert baer. Listen to how he talks about this war. Listen to how when he called in to don imus about the war-they had to bleep some choice words as matthews expressed his anger about the war. You don't express the passion against this war that he has shown just to maintain credibility. Do you watch his show nearly everyday like I do? I would respectively suggest that if you do, you might change how you view his views on the war. However, I do agree with you about hillary. I don't like hillary and would rather have obama win the nomination. (I don't know about who's more electable- i just know i would rather have obama based on his initial iraq decision). That being said, as much as i love matthew's talking against the war, I dislike how he talks about stupid things about hillary like her looks and cackle-It is stupid and annoying.

[dtrobert]

Kinda funny hearing someone characterize Matthews and "against hypocrisy"... Here's someone who all of sudden, around the middle of 2006, went from a out and out Bushie, salivating in public at the thought of sitting in Bush's lap, to an anti-Bush "hero" of a few people.

Matthews is a pure brown-noser, a political animal of the worse kind, who sees politics as a sport: a game with no consequences. This is the kind of outlook only someone who has been shielded from reality his entire life could have.

Once in a while, Matthews actually asks a real question. Once in a while. The rest of the time, he's really no difference than Novak, a beltway gossip columnist.

Jon Stewart views (correctly) Matthews as being no different than the idiots on Crossfire; and he treated him the same way. Stewart has many times made it clear that he reserves his bile for media figures, especially who show a special kind of pretense. Matthews fits the bill quite precisely.

Bravo Jon for deflating one who sorely needed it...

[DasBoot]

Agreed. Matthews is the living embodiment of his own philosophy of opportunism: no values, just sucking up to whoever is in power at the moment.

I will never forget Matthews and G. Gordon Liddy salivating over how big Bush's balls looked in the flight suit on the aircraft carrier.

Stewart did not attack Matthews at all. He just, calmly, pointed out the insanity of the book's premise.

[Clyde3]

This is old news: Garling Gauge wrote about this right after the show.

http://garlinggauge.com/2007/10/03/chris-matthews-on-daily-show-worst-interview-ive-ever-had/

[rflctammt]

So great to see Jon Stewart once again stand his ground in the face of arrogance. The tip-off for me was the way Matthews made such a showing of shouldering his height against Jon's as he came on - what a weenie. And every point Jon made was so right on, done with humor and grace, but no back-sliding. God, I hope life is more than a campaign for most of us, because as we have clearly seen, campaigns do not bring out the best in anyone! God bless you, Jon! Take a lesson, Chris - and by the way, you are one of the poorest "listeners" I have ever seen!

[viperphantom]

ha, i cant imagine having the audacity to say your book is better than The Prince...im a big fan of chris, but just missed the ball here.

[IREALLYHATEBUSH]

What a hyena laugh....

[luvtruth]

Thank you, Jon Stewart!! Thank you for exposing this sanctimonious promoter of war crimes. Thank you for comparing Matthews' philosophy to "The Prince" and fascism. You nailed him and it was brilliant!

[neomonkey]

Video didn't work for me at all. Anybody else see it?

[Mike.Newman]

My favorite part of the interview was when Matthews said that the bible had already been written when Stewart comments about a book about being "good."

My wife and I don't read the bible and are better, more genuine people than the bible thumpers we know.

Using the bible as our crutch had NOTHING to do with that!

[muggles5]

certainly humble lol

[WretchedEtcher]

Bravo Jon Stewart!
Thank you for not pandering up to this shallow man.

[darestocare]

Thank YOU for seeing through Matthews. He's high on Hillary's cackle lately and he really cackled his way through this interview. Phony! Irritating man!

[whomung]

IMO... The Best Line:

Mathews: This Book Scares You.

Stewart: No

Mathews: SOMETHING In This Book Scares You.

Stewart: Yes.... Fascism

[jones]

yeah that last line got my attention too.

[Nuzzy]

While that was very amusing, I howled with laughter when I heard Stewart call it a "self-hurt book."

[nunzia]

Couldn't happen to a more deserving, predatory, adoloscent, shallow, opportunistic and overpaid guy. Right on, Jon -- and thanks.