While often seeming to lack objectivity where his fellow liberals are concerned, MSNBC's Chris Matthews has his moments of clarity and one such moment followed Tuesday evening's vice presidential debate. 

During his post-debate analysis Matthews broke with his pack, declaring an "eloquent" Mike Pence the clear winner of the debate, beating out a "desperate" and interruptive Tim Kaine. 

"Kaine was a little bit, I don't know what the right word is, a little desperate there, jumping in all the time, always trying to get his points," Matthews noted.

"He didn't wait his turn."

To Matthews, however, Pence did everything right.

"I thought it was very illuminating," the Hardball host began.

"I thought that Mike Pence did all the things right that Donald Trump did wrong. His body language was excellent. He was very good on reaction. He looked like a grownup every time."

Matthews believes Pence had a difficult task ahead of him during the debate in terms of defending Donald Trump, but "whatever his [Pence's] words were," the MSNBC host said, "he came across as a grownup, strong."

"I thought he was very effective at being a conservative. What I really think he accomplished tonight is he made himself probably the front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2020. He hit all the bases on the conservative side. He was pro-life. He was rather eloquent on it at the end. You may not agree with him, but he was eloquent."

Matthews praise for Pence did not end there and he continued to congratulate the GOP vice presidential nominee on how effective he was speaking to the conservative base and about the issues that matter to them.

The liberal stalwart's impression of the Democratic vice presidential nominee, on the other hand, was not as flattering. He asked why a "desperate" Kaine kept "interrupting [Pence]." 

"On the other hand, I thought at times, and I like the guy, Kaine was a little bit, I don’t know what the right word is, a little desperate there, jumping in all the time, always trying to get his points. He didn't wait his turn. Obviously, if he had just waited his turn, the back and forth nature of this event he would have had his opportunity. 

I don't know why he kept interrupting. Because with two people debating, the other guy gets the chance to speak. He couldn’t the wait for that. I think that hurt him.

While Matthews thinks Kaine "hit all the points" of Democrats' "erogenous zones" (yes, we'd rather not think about Democrats' "erogenous zones," either), the clear winner was Pence. 

"I think the winner tonight will end up being —  in terms of the debate and what they were trying to accomplish -- Pence, because Pence was solid, he looked like he had his head screwed on," Matthews stated clearly. 

Watch the surprising segment above, courtesty of Newsbusters.