Via TV Newser, a sneak peek at what “Barack’s” biggest fan will offer tonight on Hardball to atone for the latest Olby/Matthews embarrassment:

I was taken aback by that peculiar stagecraft, the walking from somewhere in the back of this narrow hall, this winding staircase looming there, the odd anti-bellum look [sic] of the scene. Was this some mimicking of a president walking along the state floor to the East Room?

Evidently, narrow halls and winding staircases are distinctly ante-bellum. If I were a cynic, I might read this as yet another example of Matthews’s race-baiting, trying to connect Jindal to some sort of Confederate ethos opposite America’s first black president. Good thing I’m not a cynic, huh?

Judge for yourself. Here, again, is the “oh god” crack, and below it a reference he made to the GOP having “outsourced” the rebuttal to Jindal. A racist jibe at Jindal’s Indian heritage? Nah. I’m sure it’s innocent. But rest assured, had it come from someone else, the very first guy to find sinister intent in it would have been Chris Matthews.