It is noon on a hot and sunny Saturday in what Chris Matthews calls "Tampa, the epicenter of the political universe," and the small and stuffy room on the ground floor of the Tampa Tribune in downtown Tampa is overflowing with the 350 people who have come to see the host of MSNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews" show.
Matthews, 66, has a new book, "Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero,' (Simon & Schuster, 479pp, $27.50) and he is here to talk about the book, sign copies for eager fans, and schmooze with the crowd about what he does best, explaining the ins and outs of political life from the viewpoint and experience of an old hand journalist and Washington Insider.
He enters the the lobby and sashays into the crowd, now flowing out the door and down the sidewalk of the cavernous outdoor atrium of the Tribune/WFLA news center building, and works the crowd like one of the the politicians he once was, and now defines and dissects on his daily and weekend shows.
"He's so tall!" a woman exclaims as he passes, "I thought he would be more "pixieish!"
He is that. Tall and pixieish, and affable and concerned about the comfort of the people in the room, which is stifling and stuffy.
He works his way to the stage at the front of the room, gladhanding here, punching a shoulder there, he rolls up his sleeves, then beckons the overflow of people to join him on the stage, and into the aisles, reaches out and shakes another hand, the hand of the man who is frantically trying to motion to him that there is no more room on the stage, and says, laughing, "Who are you? The book nazi?"
The overflow of the crowd - as diverse a group of people one could possibly find, even in Florida -settles on the stage and in the aisles and in every space one could squeeze into, many sitting crosslegged on the floor, and settle in to listen to the Irish fellow from Washington, by way of Philadelphia, whom they clearly adore.
Steve Otto, the long-time columnist for the Tampa Tribune gives a short and dazzling introduction and then stuns the crowd with the news that Mitt Romney - the other reason Matthews has traveled here - has only just agreed to participate in the Republican Presidential debate just two days away on Monday, January 23, sponsored by The Tampa Bay Times and broadcast live on NBC at 9PM and expected to draw ten million viewers to watch whomever is left on the roster of candidates vying for the Republican nomination for President at the Republican National Convention to be held in Tampa, starting on August 23.
Matthews steps to the podium, and quickly reveals his other big talent, he is a born story teller.
Pure and simple. And his gift of the Irish gab, holds the crowd in his thrall for more than an hour with yarns of his life; vignettes of many of the politicians he has worked for and has covered (he was the Chief of Staff for the legendary politician, Tip O'Neill, and worked for Jimmy Carter among others, before he turned his formidable talents to journalism, and yes, once he ran for Congress, and lost, and the world is probably a better place for it.
And it's probably his experience working for those politicians which has enabled him to define and dissect them as he does.
That and a two-year stint as a peace corp member in Swaziland, as well as a short stint as a Capitol policeman when he first arrived in Washington.
Matthews is a hard driver on the air, and his passion and forcefulness and glib tongue have roiled many a guest, and produced some great television moments for his many viewers and fans.
And he is, he admits, a product of his coming of age years in the 60's.
"With all of the evils and strengths of that era."
And he is absolute about what he believes are the three things most important about being a politician.
Motive. "you've got to want to do it, and you've got to show that."
Passion. "People have to believe you, and you have to believe in something passionately yourself .
Spontaneity. "You have to be quick on your feet, and not dry up when the lights go down."
Something like Matthews, himself.
He doesn't discuss too much the obvious environment he is in, and what he terms, "The epicenter of the political universe," and the other reason he is here, for the debate, most likely saving the big guns for the big event.
But he is absolutely lyrical about John F. Kennedy, his book, and why he wrote it.
"I remembered seeing an ad, and it was an ad for the sale of golf clubs that had once belonged to Kennedy, and it got me thinking, stuck in my craw, actually, about what he was really like."
He holds the crowd spellbound, retelling the tales that so many people who knew Kennedy so well, told him in their long conversations and interviews, the stuff of the book, and containing revelations about the man which make him what Matthews calls, the elusive hero of our time.
Matthews weaves the myth and the realities of JFK together into a portrait of a fallen president who, to this day, remains, what Matthews terms, the Elusive Hero.
He recounts details of two of the highlights of Kennedy's life, which, Matthews says in person and in his book, reveal the true heroic aspects of the President who will forever be remembered as the man who created "Camelot." in the White House.
The incredible rescue of several of his fellow sailors when their PT 109 was sheared apart by a Japanese destroyer during WWII.
The steely nerves which it took for Kennedy to confront the Russians when they had installed missiles in Cuba and aimed at New York City.
The myth and the man, all woven into one spellbinding read of a time and a man, who, Matthews, says, even his wife, Jackie Kennedy, once said, was, still so long after his death, elusive in even her own mind.
Matthews takes some questions at the end of his talk, including one query about the gridlock in Washington, and the seemingly inevitable failure of Presidents to grasp the measure of the inside the beltway folk who really run the place.
"Cowboys and Indians," he replies with an impish grin, "These guys have got to learn, when they come to the White House, you're never going to get everything you want, and it's never going to be 50-50, ya gotta know that playing the game, sometimes you're going to lose and sometimes you will win, and that's it, politics is a win or lose situation, and you can't have it both ways."
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