a) the guest is a woman
b) he disagrees with the guest's opinion
Dada offered the following observation:
By the time we tuned to that channel, Chris Matthews was on. He was talking to Gen. Schwarzkopf and other Vietnam vets. But I had to do a program check to see if this was "Hardball" because he was letting all his guests (which, coincidentally, happened to be males) finish their sentences, finish their thoughts! Unlike his dominant overriding style with Amy Goodman we'd seen a night or two before. We don't watch that wank, but is that a trait of his? Lets the men (with whom he agrees) complete what they're saying and walk all over those with whom he disagrees? Is that how Matthew's Hardballs got it's name?
Or was it because it was a tribute to the 30th anniversary of our "noble" efforts in Vietnam that they reined him in and let his guests rue the fact we didn't win the war, largely in part because of the growing anti-war sentiments in this country. After all, we all know what would've happened if the North Vietnamese had won the war. All of Southeast Asia would be overrun with communism, Hawaii would probably be under a red flag. Oh wait, North Vietnam did win the war. Never mind.
