2008 Elections

Friday, Apr 11, 2008 13:00 PDT

War Room

From bowling to orange juice

Chris Matthews' shifts his attention from one piece of trivia to another. Video

By Steve Benen

Look, I know it must be tough for the media personalities right now. It's been a slow week on the campaign trail, and we're still about two weeks away from the Pennsylvania primary. As Dayo Olopade noted the other day, the gap has created "a 'news' vacuum that has essentially forced the national media into a sort of 1950s, pre-technological childhood, playing Sputnik with an old refrigerator carton."

This week, on "Hardball," the old refrigerator carton became a trip to a diner.

Just about 24 hours ago, John Cole noted: "I watch Hardball daily because I am a masochist, and I just learned from Chris Matthews that Obama 'doesn't do diners good' and doesn't make that 'regular connection.' Additionally, Matthews was mortified that Obama, when offered a coffee, declined and asked for an orange juice. Kill me now. A couple more Hardball episodes and I may have to collapse the media and a**holes categories into one all-encompassing category."

I thought maybe John was exaggerating. I'll never doubt him again.

Remember a few years ago, when Jon Stewart told the "Crossfire" hosts that they were "hurting America"? "Crossfire" is gone, but the sentiment has broad applicability.