Chris Matthews says "No doubt, no doubt," when asked by Joe Scarborough if the accusation is that the youthful and quick RNC chair Reince Priebus and the GOP are "playing the race card." The facts are less compelling here than the melodramatic performance of Mr. Matthews. Why now, why this, why would the host of a news analysis show be more aggressive as a guest on a TV show that is not his than he would on his own show, five times a week? There is no certain answer. Lessons suggested for me from this unusual exchange is that Matthews may be feeling the competition from his young, more liberal, more social media savvy colleagues at MSNBC (new name?), and therefore he is moved to go a bridge too far on a routine Monday morning at an abridged convention. It is odd. Suddenly the OFA is taking a backseat to aggression by TV actors? Is this about negative campaigning? No. Is this about the facts of the welfare law of 1996? No. Is this about the GOP? Nope. This is about the veteran Chris Matthews. Why does he do this? It is a useful guidepost when hosting or guesting a show not to speak ad hominem. This will not help OFA, since it is a non-fact fact that the Democrats enjoy the dominant non-white vote and the Republicans enjoy the dominant white vote. This will not help the Romney campaign, since MSNBC is a visit through the looking glass. Perhaps it will help Chris Matthews for some days, as this invites frenzied attention by talkers row, FNC "strategists," and the usual counteroffensive genius on FB and Twitter. Put this down to the risks of TV star boredom when talking to each other one more time while tens of thousand of filing, writing, reporting journalists are gathered in a most uncomfortable climate change (from the humidity outside the hall to the AC blizzard inside the hall) without much to do while a storm named Isaac swims across the Gulf of Mexico to the west of Tampa. Time to interview another interviewer about how there is nothing to interview about for another 24 hours if lucky.