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It’s Chris Matthews!

April 4th, 2012 kaolse14

The moment I stepped foot on this campus, I wanted to meet Holy Cross’ second most famous (after Clarence Thomas) alum: Chris Matthews. Last week, I did just that.

Chris Matthews came to campus to promote his new book titled Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero. Of course, he talked about the life of Jack Kennedy, specifically his military and political careers. The speech then took an emotional turn when Matthews described the moment he learned that President Kennedy was assassinated.

I can go on and on about his talk. But there was a moment in the speech that continues to resonate in my mind. After discussing the GOP field and the political climate in Washington today, he began to talk about this country’s future generation of political leaders. He said that today’s political climate discourages the young generation from pursuing careers in public service, especially at the national level. As a result, this country will be forced to choose among so-called “second class” politicians. Matthews suggested that the young generation needs to have the courage to enter politics and enact change from within. Without courageous, motivated people that are eager to change Washington, “politics as usual” will continue. As a political science major that aspires to work in the government, I took this to heart.

To my dismay, the book sold out within minutes of the presentation. But that didn’t stop me from meeting him. I waited in line for an hour in order to shake his hand, thank him for his speech and have him sign a post-it note. I plan to buy his book soon and put the signed post-it note inside of it. But Matthews made up for the book by agreeing to take a picture with my friends and me! 🙂 On a side note, he’s really funny and really nice. The Chris Matthews you see on Hardball is different from the REAL Chris Matthews.

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