The easily excitable, awkwardly blonde Chris Matthews admitted today, on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” what those of us from the McCain and Clinton campaigns understood quite well: He’s “partial” to Obama.

While Matthews’ comments today may be the first “on the record” admission of his budding bromance, he was often caught swooning over the young Illinois senator during the campaign.

In the context of discussing the news Obama’s general awesomeness, Matthews delivered what is perhaps the most notorious media commentary – regularly cited by the McCain campaign as evidence of a media “love affair” – of the cycle when he opined, “I felt this thrill going up my leg” while listening to Obama (clip above thanks to our friends at NewsBusters). And more recently, Matthews appeared on a Tuesday edition of “Morning Joe” to discuss the forthcoming Obama transition. In the course of his discussion with Joe “Did I just say f*ck on live TV?” Scarborough, Matthews said it’s not his responsibility as a journalist to question the motives of Rahm Emanuel – and by proxy Obama. Adding, “I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new Presidency work.”

Objectivity in journalism is so passé. Matthews was never an “analyst” – he was always a liberal commentator, and in some instances even a campaign surrogate (see: Any interview with Senator Clinton).

His preference for Obama certainly made my job much harder the last 6 months, but it stands to make the next four years “thrill”-filled.