MSNBC's Hardball host Chris Matthews on Wednesday fawned over the latest cover of Vanity Fair, which features a profile piece on former Texas congressman Beto O'Rourke (D.).
In the piece, O'Rouke says he feels called to run for president in 2020.
Matthews displayed the cover of the magazine and claimed it was the "best kiss I've seen for a candidate in a long time."
"I always say the candidate wins who's got the sun in his face, who looks like sunny, optimistic, not the indoor bureaucrat sitting at some desk somewhere," Matthews said. "That's the image you want."
This isn't the first time Matthews has gushed about a Democratic presidential candidate. Back in 2008, Matthews said he "felt this thrill" going up his leg whenever then-presidential candidate Barack Obama gave speeches.
O'Rourke, who has been teasing a presidential run for several weeks, has been compared to Obama by his former aides. The former president has also compared O'Rourke to himself, calling him an "impressive young man."
When asked by Vanity Fair whether he was going to run for president, O'Rourke responded, "This is the fight of our lives."
"Man, I’m just born to be in it, and want to do everything I humanly can for this country at this moment," he added.
O'Rourke is expected to officially announce his candidacy on Thursday morning. "I'm really proud of what El Paso did and what El Paso represents. It's a big part of why I'm running," he told an El Paso TV station on Wednesday.
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