MSNBC’s Chris Matthews gladly played the GOP 2012 guessing game at Thursday’s Q&A Cafe at the Georgetown Ritz-Carlton, suggesting two popular Republicans might want to trim their waistlines before jumping into the presidential race. “Chris Christie is moon over New Jersey, he should not wear white shirts, I tell you that,” Matthews said. “I saw him the other day and I was amazed by it, he must be 300 plus, and that’s something he’s just gotta deal with because you’re not going to say, ‘I’m going to cut the budget,’ well, how about starting with supper?”
Matthews also said Republicans might look at a dark horse candidate like Jeb Bush, “because Haley Barbour weighs too much.” And that Mitt Romney or Mitch Daniels would be a better bet than Sarah Palin or Mike Huckabee.
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“There’s not going to be a great Republican candidate in 2012,” he said.
While Matthews, being interviewed by Carol Joynt, wasn’t sheepish about talking about political figures, when it came to television journalists, he tried not to get trapped.
“I think an infant could tell where you’re headed,” he told Joynt when she urged him to discuss others in the media including his colleagues at MSNBC.
“I am not a media critic,” Matthews said. Though he did blab a bit.
“Nobody can talk that much and not be telling the truth,” he said about “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough. “Howard Fineman is my go-to guy, he is my Spock,” Matthews said of the MSNBC contributor.
Matthews said he doesn’t turn on the TV in the morning but reads newspapers instead. He first reads yours truly, The Washington Examiner, and then Politico.
“And I take a look at the Post, which is not what it used to be, in fact each year it’s less of what it was the year before. … I will be a media critic about that,” he said. “It’s gotten so neocon I can hardly read it.” He also reads the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.
But before he does any reading he makes a skim latte for his wife Kathleen.
“I make that first and I walk up and present that to the queen, that’s my first act every morning,” he said.
