Today in Terrific Ideas

[Content Note: Misogyny.]

I meant to mention this in my Primary Wrap-Up yesterday, but it slipped my mind, what with all the other misogyny care of white male commentators.

Here's Chris Matthews, he of "She-Devil" segments, giving Hillary Clinton some hot advice:

And maybe this is just me talking, but I do think if you could ever find a way to put a ticket together that would actually end some of this mishegas, to use a Yiddish word, that's been going on in this country, it might be a Clinton-Kasich ticket. Something really surprising. Because I do think there's gonna be many, many, tens of millions of Republicans who will not vote for Donald Trump in a general election, looking for an alternative.

If Hillary Clinton were smart, she'd make herself the alternative by putting Kasich on the ticket.

If Hillary Clinton were smart. That is a thing that noted smart person Chris Matthews just said.

Because clearly, Hillary Clinton isn't smart. And the only way to prove she's smart is to choose as her running mate a Republican man. A man who just defunded Planned Parenthood in his state. Who, since taking office in 2011, has "quietly led his state to an almost unprecedented number of abortion clinic closures," forcing residents of Ohio to travel in droves to Michigan for abortions. Who doesn't believe maternity leave should be law. Who talks about women "leaving their kitchens" to support him. Who has a long history of saying problematic things to and about women.

Yes, if Clinton were smart, she'd put this fucking guy on her ticket and, as the saying goes, one heartbeat away from the presidency. If she were smart.

Now, I'm just a woman with a brain irreparably compromised by female hormones like Hillary Clinton, not a noted smart person like Chris Matthews, but it seems to me that if there are "many, many, tens of millions of Republicans" who won't vote for Trump, under any circumstances, then the person running against Trump doesn't actually need to provide them with a coddling alternative, but can just feel satisfied with the fact that these voters will stay home on Election Day and behold their roosting chickens.

After, you know, having rejected the alternative provided by Trump's formidable opponent with a solid platform.

And, obviously, math is hard, especially for women, but maybe Hillary Clinton has calculated that putting a rank misogynist on her ticket might actually cost her a few votes with liberal women. And liberal men who aren't fans of misogyny. Maybe she has concluded that alienating her base in an absurd bid to appeal to a base that notoriously hates her isn't actually a wise strategy.

I wonder if that's occurred to noted smart person Chris Matthews.

Perhaps he just hasn't time to think about it, what with all the brainpower he's dedicating to coming up with smart strategies for Hillary Clinton, who isn't smart enough to come up with these smart ideas on her own.