During Hardball today, Chris Matthews was doing his "talk to the crowd" shtick outside the VP debate in Danville, Kentucky, when he was rudely interrupted by a Romney supporter shouting "communist" over a conversation Matthews was having with someone else about the state of health care in America.

Nobody would bat an eye if U.S. Vice President Joe Biden went missing for more than a week. We'd all assume he was on an epic ayahuasca trip and he'd be back when he got it out of his system. But when Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping goes missing, people freak out. He's presumed to be the next leader of China, slated to take over as chief of the Communist Party in just a few weeks. But he hasn't been seen in public or heard from since September 1st. *ominous music*