…if I don’t get him first.

Maybe an apt lyric from U2’s God, Part II when you think of Chris Matthews.  Mr. Matthews was on a Jeopardy’s “Power Players 2012” episode that aired last night along with CNN’s Lizzie O’Leary and former press secretary Robert Gibbs (who won…barely).  If anyone watched it, it was an embarrassment – simple answers missed (some examples forthcoming below), answers hedged and graciously and charitably given to the contestants, and a little karma coming around for Mr. Matthews.

You see, Chris Matthews is wont to bash Sarah Palin’s intelligence.  Just before the October 2008 Vice Presidential debate, he said, “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!”  Then in january of 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!” And then again in November of 2010: “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.” (h/t Newsbusters). 

Mr. Matthews had a hard time:

Trebek:  “Full name of the U2 pilot shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960.”
Matthews: “Who is Gary Powers?”
Trebek: “We need the full name.”
Matthews: “Who is Gary Powers?”
Trebek: “No”

Lizzie O’Leary rang in with the correct name, Francis Gary Powers.

a bit later in the category, “Law and Order” –

Trebek:  “A U.S.D.C is one of these, charged with the jurisdiction of a specific region.”
Matthews: “What is a U.S. attorney?”

Uh huh, D.C stands for attorney.  Good job, genius.

Then, in the same category –

Trebek: “In 1986, the Supreme Court ruled that the ‘hostile environment’ type of this can be sex discrimination.”
Matthews: “What is a hostile workplace?” 

Seriously?  Even my 5th grader knows that you can’t use the substance of the question as the answer.

A bit later in the category, “6-Letter World Capitals” –

Trebek: “St. Basil’s Cathedral is there.”
Matthews: “What is Istanbul?”

Apparently, he can’t count the number of letters in the word Istanbul.  And none – NONE – of the three, two media anchors who cover world events and one former United States Presidential Press Secretary knew that St. Basil’s is the cathedral in Red Square, Moscow.  Hey Chris, that’s M-O-S-C-O-W.  Six letters, buddy.

Maybe one should compare this episode with some of the great SNL Jeopardy skits.

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.