Not that it comes as a surprise, but should Chris Matthews reveal his pro-Obama rooting interest as blatantly as he did today?
On this evening's Hardball, the man who gets a thrill from Barack expressed "concern" that Hillary might have a stronger-than-expected finish in the Pennsylvania Dem primary. Matthews was reading the tea leaves with two Keystone State pros: Dick Polman of the Philadelphia Inquirer and veteran journalist Larry Kane. After Kane reported that the Obama people are more optimistic than they're letting on, and believe it's going to be a "close finish," Matthews let his Obama slip show in this exchange with Polman.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Where are you on this? Can you go, Dick, and say it's about eight points [for Hillary] or you can't do that?
DICK POLMAN: Well, I'm thinking, after New Hampshire, who wants to predict anything? [enough already: NH was three months ago!] But I'm still thinking modest single digits. I think the longer, this is a long campaign here, seven or eight weeks, and I think that helps Obama. It helps him to get known here, like Iowa.
That's when Matthews expressed his pro-Obama angst.
MATTHEWS: I think these undecided votes are undecided Hillary votes. That's my concern and my belief. I think that's what's going on. I think it's going to be a wider spread for Hillary. Because I think these undecided people, I'm looking at all the polls and I can't see the numbers get above 41 for Obama. If I were his people I'd be worried, because people aren't willing to commit publicly, even to pollsters. If 41 is as high as he can get with the polling, he's not going to get much higher on election day.
"If I were his people"? Come on, Chris: you are his people!
