Rachel Maddow!

I searched -- is there really no thread yet? She is rocking my world in this confusing time. Her show on MSNBC has some technical trouble (voices in the background, mics that don't quite work) but she makes up for it with wit and amazing guests and questions. Who else is feeling the love for Rachel Maddow?

http://www.rachelmaddow.com/images/pict-rmaddow-2.jpg

Wikipedia trivia: Maddow was the first openly gay American to win a Rhodes scholarship

I've been pushing for her to get her own show ever since she first turned up on MSNBC. I thought maybe it would happen when Tucker was stripped of his show, but had to wait.

She's the bestest.

Ha, I did all the wikipedia trivia on her last friday while I was stuck at work.

i snobby enuf to like boring old bill moyers pbs stylee over overt cable chat types no matter their slant but YES SHE'S FKN AWESOME!!

her set is kinda really weird looking but other than that her show rulez

She doesn't do her show from Manhattan, I think. It's on some other set outside the city.

Also, after the end of Morning Sedition and Sam Seder/Janeane Garofalo's show was dumped from Air America, she was the only thing there worth listening to.

Her weekend home is 12 minutes from my dad's house (according to mapquest). She hooked up with her girlfriend while working as a gardener.

Yesterday:
MADDOW: Between the Wall Street disaster and the presidential campaign, no one‘s much talking about the war in Iraq right now. But if you‘re willing to swim upstream a little bit and pay attention to what‘s going on there, we‘ve suddenly got a lot more clarity about Iraq right now than we‘ve had in a really, really long time.

The Iraqi prime minister did an interview on Iraqi state TV last week. It was translated by the U.S. Government‘s own public translation service “OpenSource.gov.” And according to the U.S. Government translation, Maliki said that, “The final date was really the end of 2010 and the end of 2011 was for withdrawing the remaining troops from all of Iraq, but they asked for a change in date due to political circumstances related to the domestic situation in the U.S. So it will not be said to the end of 2010, followed by one year for withdrawal but the end of 2011 as a final date.”

In essence, he said when he was negotiating with the Bush administration to pick a withdrawal date for our troops to come home. They initially settled on about 15 months from now, the end of 2010. But then, according to “OpenSource.gov,” their government translation, the Maliki government says - Prime Minister Maliki says the Bush administration came back and told the Iraqis they‘d actually like our troops to stay in Iraq an extra year, through 2011.

Why an extra year? Quote, “due to political circumstances related to the U.S. domestic situation.” To the prime minister, it says on tape according to our own government‘s translation, that the Bush administration wants to prolong the war in Iraq for an extra year because of our domestic politics.

If you feel like your hair is on fire right now, you‘re not alone. If you‘re an Iraq vet or the family member of an Iraq vet, if you‘re thinking about the prospect of yet another tour of duty in Iraq, not because of any condition on the ground, not because of any national security need, but just because it might be helpful for domestic political purposes here, you have the right to feel like your hair is extra double on fire.

We, here at THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW today contacted the White House to ask for an explanation, a comment or response. This is what an administration official told us, quote, “You‘ve heard us speak about different kinds of timelines or aspirational goals that may be acceptable. We do not have anything to announce on that. What we‘re focused on is a good agreement, not getting an agreement by a particular date. Stepping back, what we‘re really pleased about is the fact that we are having these discussions with a sovereign, democratically elected country. Any decisions on troops will be based on the conditions on the ground in Iraq. That has always been our position; it continues to be our position.”

That‘s the statement we got from the White House today. If you‘re keeping track at home, you‘re right. They are not directly denying what the Iraqi prime minister said, which is incredible. What he said is that the Bush administration is keeping the war going an extra year because they think it will be helpful somehow for domestic politics here in the United States.

Does John McCain agree that keeping the war going longer makes for good politics here at home? It seems like that has been his take on it in the past.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don‘t think Americans are concerned if we‘re there for 100 years or 1,000 years or 10,000 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: You know, I‘m an American people and I‘m sure concerned about that. The Republicans are convinced that keeping the war going is good for them politically. I think it‘s a political stinker. I think there‘s a reason why the tape you‘ve seen over and over and over again of John McCain promising to stay 100 years in Iraq. That‘s the tape that turns up in pro-Obama ads, not pro-McCain ads. It‘s because it‘s a political stinker.

So why are the Republicans invested in our troops staying and staying and staying and staying, even to the point of believing war in Iraq is a political winner for them. Well, here. My colleague and pal Keith Olbermann ends his show every night here on MSNBC by stating the number of days that have elapsed since President Bush put on that flight suit and proclaimed mission accomplished in Iraq.

Last night‘s number was 1,972. That‘s how many days have elapsed the “mission accomplished” speech. You know, 1972 is also the year that Iraq kicked out the foreign oil companies. That‘s when they nationalized their oil industry. And thus, it is a weird numerological coincidence that yesterday was the day that for the first time since 1972, a western oil company opened an office in Iraq.

In a sobering reminder the danger of doing business in Baghdad, the company is not disclosing the exact location of its office. If you‘re looking for a mission to proclaim accomplished in Iraq, there you have it. Oil companies b back open for business. Unfortunately, it‘s starting to get more and more clear the more news we get out of Iraq that the accomplishment of this mission in Iraq. This is the kind of accomplishment that will keep our troops there longer, not one that lets them come home.

off-camera:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/eb/Rachel_Maddow_1.JPG/398px-Rachel_Maddow_1.JPG
I'm gay for her (sorry Scott)

She's kind of like the perfect human in that shot. I mean, I'm a straight male and I'm gay for her...

But yes, this Canadian observer says that she is the brightest, funnest, astutest addition to U.S. cable news shows in a long time. I'm absolutely made up she was given her own show -- fearlessly, unapologetically liberal (in America!) and yet never rude or obnoxious or (especially) mean spirited like her right wing equivalents.

(That was my inner lesbian claiming teh gayness, btw.)

horray!

j/k shes boring lock thread

cable news tryin a dress her n anderson cooper both like 90s banana republic - wahts up w/that ¯\(°_o)/¯ srsly

big fan of malkmus

i like her, i wish she didn't channel olbermann so much. she's way more charismatic and naturally likable than him, she needs to just let her own voice come out. but i expect it will as she goes along.

(i've never heard her radio show, is she any different on there or is the persona about the same?)

Her tv show is sort of the natural extension of her radio persona. As a panelist on other MSNBC shows, she was pretty much limited to soundbytes and retorts. Given the spotlight, she's excellent at following ideas to completion. And they're good ideas.

Pretty impressive:

Rachel Maddow, a woman who does not own a television set, has done something that is virtually unheard of: she has doubled the audience for a cable news channel’s 9 p.m. hour in a matter of days.

More important for her bosses at MSNBC is that “The Rachel Maddow Show,” her left-leaning news and commentary program, has averaged a higher rating among 25- to 54-year-olds than “Larry King Live” on CNN for 13 of the 25 nights she has been host. While the average total audience of her program remains slightly smaller than that of Mr. King’s, Ms. Maddow, 35, has made MSNBC competitive in that time slot for the first time in a decade. The channel at that hour has an average viewership of 1.7 million since she started on Sept. 8, compared with 800,000 before.

cable subscribers are not Real Americans.

the bit about her in the NYT Sunday Zine was great btw

Personal life

Maddow lives in Manhattan and Western Massachusetts with her partner, artist and accountant Susan Mikula.[14][15] The couple met in 1999, when Mikula hired Maddow, who was then working on her doctoral dissertation, for yard work at her home.[14]

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

That's why we call it the Happy Valley.

I almost married my maid/coke dealer. It was a match COKE in heaven!

who would have thought, that tiny slice of the public that doesn't like george bush might respond to a tv show pitched to them.

I think she's the one pundit with a PHD.

Always such a freth of bresh air after Olberman.

<3 her

Has a refreshing amount of monkey-related news on her radio show

I went to high school with her. I didn't recognize her the first time I saw her on MSNBC, she used to have a blond bob the last time I saw her.

hot

she was cute in the nyt fer sure, in that sarah lawrence way :/

she just sang "follow me now"

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

(http://wayneandwax.com/?p=137)

"My friend, Pat Robertson."

"Thank you, Pat."
"Thank you, Rachel."

I've only seen maybe 15 mins of the show. How "left" has she been, ie, does she ever knock the Dems when they are quislings? I heard that she regularly did on Air America.

sometimes the tone of this show is extremely grating. and she smirks more than W.

I just want her to keep grinning that lopsided grin at me forever. In fact, I would probably start juggling things and turning somersaults if that would keep her attention.

"My friend, Pat Robertson."

Don't you mean Buchannan?

A Brit here who's now watching her online regularly.

I'm a fan. Her NYT interview was great. And cute. Like she could be one of my pals.

Rachel looked changed after talking to Obama

He told her she was bruisin for a cruisin for a bruisin

just saw the show for the first tim - v impressed - love the aesthetic n overall cheerful clear vibe

dont have cable, so i only first heard about her in the NYT mag article a couple weeks ago, but watched her wednesday night, and she TOTALLY rules. hope shes around for a long time!

I just discovered that you can get her complete show EVERY DAY as a podcast -- it means I'm always one day behind but I don't care, The Rachel Maddow show is changing my life.

apparently shes doubled the ratings for her time slot in the month or so shes been on

She was rocking Adidas Sambas on the Colbert Report!

She is so freaking cuets. John and I would both marry her. You know, another wedding reception wherein Rachel marries both of us with the power of our Subgenius reverend best buddy who married both of us.

dude why does she look like hell today

she looks like she's sick as a dog and hasn't slept in a couple days, srsly wtf

it's kind of incredible how lou is skirting the "were you wrong?" question

i do believe they call that "avoiding"

lou dobbs is a pro you guys

lou is acquitting himself better here than he ever did on his own show imo

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201005/lou-dobbs-cnn-candidate-president

good read

He is a man who speaks surprisingly softly, until he doesn't anymore, and he becomes a fabulous booming tuba

dope sentence

haha

his descent into caricature seemed pretty willful! i'm surprised at his surprise over how he's perceived

"Eight days," he says to me. "I talked about it on TV for eight days. In nearly thirty years' worth of broadcasting. That makes me a birther? Give me a break.

http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~sparks/sfhorror/eyeroll.gifhttp://hubcap.clemson.edu/~sparks/sfhorror/eyeroll.gif tbh

no i think he believes that *calculus*, probably, but that also means like no one on earth has done more birther television than you stfu

knowing lou those 8 days were consecutive. And uh, didn't they end because the network explicitly told him to stop covering it?

i am so confused at how at the end of maddow she tossed to larry and then at the end of his show larry tossed to keith and keith just mentioned that he's gonna be followed by rachel IS IT SOME KIND OF INFINITE LOOP

AN INFINITE LOOP OF CHEERLEADING FOR THE WAROCRATS

has any ilxor braved the world of parker/spitzer yet?

max has been gawking at it

mention of max & gawker w/o link??

we talked about parkerspitzer on the cable news thread

omg on larry they just ran an ad chrstine o'donnell's ppl are running

it concludes

HIDE YOUR WILLS
HIDE YOUR LIGHTS
CAUSE HE IS TAXING EVERYTHING OUT HERE

larry and koons are both either ignorant of or deliberately avoiding the bedroom intruder ref/equivocation b/w taxation & rape

did anyone watch the Very Special Episode last night?

maddow Yes! Yes! Yes! Finally got an interview with Senate candidate Joe Miller. They. Said. It. Couldn't. Be. DONE! 9PM ET MSNBC.

I ate at a place that had ParkerSpitzer on. Their GOP interviewees were Richard Viguerie (still alive!) and George "Macaca" Allen.

Fuck all these whores with a chainsaw.

maddow talks to stewart -

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh111710.shtml#PART

This speech to Harvard students is very, very good. Much more serious and less showman-y than her TV show.

http://www.iop.harvard.edu/Multimedia-Center/All-Videos/2010-Theodore-H.-White-Lecture-by-Rachel-Maddow

does she do any Bam-bashing in it? litmus test

Not a bit.

A day spent watching FOX and MSNBC. Grisly.

Still more interesting is this: While each adds a few extra individual original bits, all three shows on FOX essentially cover the same four stories, in different orders. (Those stories are the Wisconsin recall, birtherism, planned parenthood promotes gender-based abortion, and the obligatory anti-Obama story.) There is some variation in the Obama smack-downs, but all of the others hammer home the exact same arguments using the exact same verbiage; each is pretty much interchangeable with the other, and might well have been penned by a single source. (Which is not to say that it was.). On the other hand, MSNBC has only one story covered by all three programs: the obligatory anti-Romney segments, which do not have the uniformity in commentary that FOX has with its anti-Obama segments. (And the truth is that grouping Maddow’s commentary with Shultz’s or O’Donnell’s is a huge stretch. Shultz and O’Donnell’s Romney rants seem more akin to the FOX anti-Obama screeds, politics aside.) Past that there is very little overlap at MSNBC. Whereas FOX’s shows have the appearance of a concerted and strategized effort, the hosts of MSNBC are all over the map.

Similarly, there is a consistency in production quality in the FOX shows that MSNBC lacks. While I have to say that Maddow is intellectually superior to anything I saw on FOX, her two compatriots are just as vile as their cross-channel rivals without being nearly as entertaining or engaging. MSNBC was a tale of two sides of the spectrum, while all the FOX shows seemed to be one long, amorphous hack job.

There were other differences. One that I noted on my MSNBC post is the way each deals with dissenting voices. FOX likes having “opposing views” – or, to be more precise, FOX likes having the illusion of opposing views. The people they choose to “debate” the host are terrible; whether they are really poor debaters of are simply under contract to not point out the huge flaws in the host’s reasoning I can’t say. They are also picked, as I have noted, because they are young, attractive women who have that car-show model look, which helps feed the white, male misogynist stereotype of a FOX viewer that many liberals have. Having the jowly, elderly male host “win” and then chuckle over how “cute” the failed efforts of the pretty young lady were is really quite nauseating. MSNBC, on the other hand, goes a different and equally bad route – they only have guests on that tell the hosts how clever and awesome they are. The result is something that comes off as being tremendously sad to watch, and is the very definition of “the echo chamber” its hosts are so willing to call FOX.

Yep.

That Daily Howler blogger grumbles that even Maddow is not very good.

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/320953_10152382303105066_1908882337_n.jpg

Hahaha.

As much as watching her show stresses me out, I love that they obviously employ a bunch of giant nerds.

She has a long history with Bob Mould from her bartender days, I think. He wrote about it in his book. Jon Stewart pops up too, naturally.

classic when she mentioned her high school love for "Nazi Punks Fuck Off" - much to her parents chagrin at the time.

she should talk about obama's drones more.

Well, no reason to watch MSNBC anymore.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/19/after-msnbc-axes-ronan-farrow-and-joy-reid-s-shows-is-chris-hayes-next.html

sounds like they're keeping Maddow, and she's the only thing I watch on MSNBC so...

is she still good

i saw someone the other day say matter-of-factly 'of course she's terrible', like when did the worm turn

wearing her rictus smile on the street in DC the night bin Laden was offed? but i was never a fan

Chris Hayes >>> Maddow. Maddow is still so damn awkward: those pauses and nervous chuckles, like she's looking for cue cards or punch lines.

She's also not the reporter and analyst that Hayes is.

I liked Up with Chris. He didn't seem a good fit for a nighttime show. I'd rather hear him do a podcast again.

he was fine on Saturday mornings. Get rid of Kornacki and return him to reporting.

Ailes' mixed legacy: On the one hand, he abused numerous women. On the other, he offered me useful career advice. https://t.co/Q8qqUan9wA

— Jim Naureckas (@JNaureckas) May 20, 2017

ugh what an absolute fraud. give her time slot to Joy Reid.

faints

I wish she would stop using the word "granular."

she kicks ass and kicks ass some more

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/maddow-untangles-trumps-russia-web-all-the-way-back-to-the-unsexy-rnc-convention/

lol she's nuts or shameless

Glenn Beck 2009 + Maddow 2019 is the greatest crossover event in history pic.twitter.com/D1NElGBq3U

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) January 31, 2019

lol I posted this clip earlier today to the poll thread she won