In college, a few friends and I went to see Chris Matthews speak at his alma mater, College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, where the audience looked at him with adoring eyes. During the Q&A session, almost all questions began with, “Chris, I absolutely love you and respect your opinion, which is why I’d like to know what you think about…” But a friend of mine was not so charmed, and approached the microphone with a different attitude: “Chris, you’ve spent a lot of time talking about all the bad things in the mainstream media” — and indeed, Matthews had said many such things during his talk — “but you have a nationally broadcast, primetime television show. Aren’t you the mainstream media?” At this, the audience hissed. Lemons, it seemed, were quickly passed around and sucked. And Matthews gave some lame answer about how he’s different than everyone else in the media, which of course didn’t address the question.

I’ve never been much of a Chris Matthews fan since then. In fact, I’ve barely tolerated the guy, and I delighted in this rather unforgiving profile the Times magazine ran last month. But I might have to reevaluate my position on him after seeing the above clip, in which he obliterates a conservative blowhard by forcing the guy to simply explain a historical reference. It’s must-see TV. And if, like me, you’re feeling vindicated and pumped up afterward, go on to read this Miami Herald column, and you’ll feel even better.

Update: Alex Koppelman at Salon makes a great point about this video: Yes, it’s satisfying to see the blowhard go down, but there’s a more effective way to handle someone like this. That is, you don’t have him on your show to begin with. You don’t give him a national platform to air his ignorance. And in this instance, that still makes Matthews more of a problem than a champion of intelligence. So, uh, Chris? Maybe we’ll call it a one-nighter.