Senator Chris Matthews?

There have been a number of people who move from public office into the media. One example is Joe Scarborough, a former Congressman who now hosts a political-analysis show on MSNBC. Mike Huckabee also has his own show on Fox. But do people ever move in the opposite direction, going from the media into government service? The word on the street is that Chris Matthews of Hardball fame may be looking at a Senate run.

Pennsylvania was at the epicenter of the fight for the presidency in 2008 and, just one week after the Barack Obama’s victory, the Keystone State is once again caught up in the political buzz with a new poll that tests “Hardball” host Chris Matthews’ chances against Sen. Arlen Specter (R).

The poll — conducted by Public Policy Polling — showed Specter leading Matthews 40 percent to 27 percent in a hypothetical 2010 general election matchup. One-third of the sample said they didn’t know which candidate they would vote for and the PPP pollsters clearly did little to push them off of their indecision.

Matthews certainly has a lot of name recognition, but I don’t know how seriously he would be taken as a legislator. He would certainly have a hard time as coming across as “post partisan.” Do you think he might surprise us all and run as a Republican?