Television savant Chris Matthews, who ridiculed Sarah Palin, the failed GOP vice presidential candidate, as severely lacking in brain power, may now be regretting those words.
Matthews, the host of MSNBC’s Hardball, recently appeared on the television quiz show Jeopardy and came in third place with just $2,300. The last-place finish wouldn’t be worth noting except that in repeatedly telling his audience that Palin is dead from the neck up, he also mentioned that she would fare poorly on Jeopardy!
Questions
The questions Matthews missed were not just easy; they were embarrassingly easy, particularly for someone who has spent his entire adult life in politics and journalism.
Nonetheless, the former press secretary for leftist House Speaker Tip O’Neill looked foolish, as Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters noted on Tuesday:
In response to the question “At ____, soldier! Four letters,” Matthews replied, “What is ‘At ease, soldier?’”
Alex Trebek, who hosts the program, accepted the incorrect answer. The correct answer is simply, “ease.”
A bit later, the answer to another question was, “Full name of the U2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960.”
Matthews responded, “Who is Gary Powers?”
Trebek prompted, “We need the full name.”
… Matthews actually just repeated the same thing saying, “Who is Gary Powers?”
Trebek said, “No,” and the audience burst out laughing. The full name of course was Francis Gary Powers.
And that’s when things really got ugly for the arrogant Matthews.
With the category “Law and Order,” the answer was, “A U.S.D.C is one of these, charged with the jurisdiction of a specific region.”
Matthews responded, “What is a U.S. attorney?”
And this guy has the nerve to ridicule anyone. Where do you find “attorney” in the acronym “U.S.D.C.?”
Obviously, the correct response was district court.
But Matthews’ blundering didn’t stop there, Sheppard observed. As time went on, the audience got the following from the man who thinks Rick Perry is “Bull Connor with a smile,” but told a black pastor he needed to “evolve” because he opposes President Obama’s declaration that Adam and Steve can marry:
“In 1986, the Supreme Court ruled that the ‘hostile environment’ type of this can be sex discrimination.”
Matthews responded, “What is a hostile workplace?” This brainiac thinks the same word can be in both the answer AND the question.
Of course, the correct response was sexual harassment.
And then the fun really began in the category “6-Letter World Capitals” with the answer, “St. Basil’s Cathedral is there.”
Readers are once again reminded the category was “6-Letter World Capitals.”
Almost astonishingly, the pompous and holier-than-thou Matthews responded, “What is Istanbul?”
Attacking Gov. Palin
Matthews’ cerebral power having been established, it’s worth reprising what he said about Sarah Palin’s sagacity. Sheppard provided the requisite quotes.
On Oct. 2, 2008. Matthews unbosomed this assessment of the former Alaska Governor’s intelligence:
Is this [vice presidential debate] about her brain power?… Do you think cute will beat brains?…Do you think she’d do better on the questions on Jeopardy! or the interview they do during a half-time?…My suspicion is that she has the same lack of intellectual curiosity that the President of the United States has right now and that is scary!
And he continued after Obama won the election. Matthews unleashed this vituperation on Jan. 12, 2010:
They find these empty vessels who know nothing about the world! Nothing about foreign policy! Who immediately begin to spout the neo-con line. I read her book — it’s full of that crap….It’s unbelievable how little this woman knows !… Don’t put her on Jeopardy!
Matthews still admired President Obama two years after the Chicago machine politician began building his $5-trillion debt. And so he trashed Palin again on Nov. 2, 2010:
Senator, do you think Sarah Palin is qualified to be President of the United States? … If she were on Jeopardy! right now and the topic was national government, American government generally defined, would she look like an imbecile, or would she look okay? Does she know anything?
And he ridiculed her brains again on Jan. 19, 2011:
I’d like to see her on just a couple of episodes of Celebrity Jeopardy! or It’s Academic Mac McGarry to just see if she knows anything.
That’s what many Americans were thinking about Matthews.
Hat tip: Noel Sheppard
Photo: Chris Matthews during a special edition of Hardball
