Cable talker Chris Matthews is the graduation speaker at Washington University next month, which gives us an opportunity to link to a great — if not flattering — profile of the “Hardball” host in Sunday’s New York Times magazine.

Times scribe Mark Leibovich portrays Matthews as something of an anachronism; a VCR in a DVD world whose populism-lite approach may no longer gel with a maturing media audience.

Mathews also comes off as hyper-conscious about his place in the social and political hierarchy, fixated on everything from his kids’ colleges (Penn, Brown, NYU) to his role on the “first team” at NBC.

He also seems to be obsessed with himself — a “level of solipsism”, is how Leibovich describes it - watching his own show from the television in the hotel bar or wondering if he has an oversized head.

From the story:

It can be amusing if slightly painful to watch Matthews’s facial expressions and body language on the set of “Hardball” when others are talking; he will, at times, bounce in his seat like a Ritalin-deprived second-grader who is dying to give an answer but has been admonished too many times for interrupting.

Matthews, it seems, brings a similar sense of self-awareness to his commencement activities, which are ample.

Leibovich writes:

Matthews volunteered that he was in Cleveland a few years ago to speak at the Case Western Reserve University graduation. “But they didn’t give me an honorary degree,” Matthews said. “Can you believe that? I spoke at the graduation and didn’t get an honorary degree?” He gets a lot of honorary degrees, by the way - 19 if you’re counting, and guess who is counting?

Consider that notice, Wash. U: Matthews likes his honorary degrees.

Matthews: 19 honorary degrees, and counting