Blame (Reporters For Not Knowing Enough About) Canada

There were more than a few chuckles during Tuesday’s GOP debate when Chris Matthews quizzed Fred Thompson on who the Prime Minister of Canada was — a ridiculously easy question and one which, as it turned out, even Thompson knew the answer to. … Should a seasoned internet-trolling-C-SPAN-addicted- Drudge-scanning-five-newspaper-per-day-reading news junkie of a political reporter not know this stuff like breathing?

Apparently not, according to Washington Post national political correspondent Dan Balz on last night’s “Hardball,” where Chris Matthews made reference to his Thompson question and asked his guests — Balz, NBC White House correspondend David Gregory and Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson — for their thoughts on the political relevance of knowing about the country’s fine and frigid neighbors to the North.