Fred Thompson Speaks to the Woman in Chris Matthews

Here is some more dialogue from Mr. Man-Love, Chris Matthew of NBC's Hardball, about Fred Thompson (via Glenn Greenwald):

Does [Fred Thompson] have sex appeal? I'm looking at this guy and I'm trying to find out the new order of things, and what works for women and what doesn't. Does this guy have some sort of thing going for him that I should notice? . . . Gene, do you think there's a sex appeal for this guy, this sort of mature, older man, you know? He looks sort of seasoned and in charge of himself. What is this appeal? Because I keep star quality. You were throwing the word out, shining star, Ana Marie, before I checked you on it. . . . Can you smell the English leather on this guy, the Aqua Velva, the sort of mature man's shaving cream, or whatever, you know, after he shaved? Do you smell that sort of -- a little bit of cigar smoke? You know, whatever.

I'm surprised Matthews didn't start moaning an orgasmic "Oh! Oh! Oh!" in mid-sentence. I won't test the patience of readers by restating points from previous posts about the importance of exaggerated masculinity for the weenie-boys of the right-wing or the significance of male homoeroticism in media odes to Republican masculinity.

However, I do want to focus on Matthews' supposed interest in "what works for women and what doesn't."

I haven't seen any female writers swooning over the "manhood" of any of the Republican candidates, including Fred Thompson. Arianna Huffington isn't writing anything like "I won't vote for Fred Thompson but my what a manly man!" Maybe Helen Thomas has an "if only I was ten years younger," op-ed out there about Thompson but I haven't found it. Even Ann Coulter (who isn't impressed with Thompson) doesn't appear to be writing anything about Thompson or Romney "looking" presidential. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is the candidate who seems to be most attractive to women and Hillary doesn't seem to smell like cigar smoke at all.

Matthews is addressing "Ana Marie" in talking about Fred Thompson but he seems to be basing his understanding of what women want in a presidential candidate more on introspection than anything else. Ultimately, Thompson is speaking to the woman in Chris Matthews and she appears to like him a lot.